House Oversight Democrats Ask Trump: Thoughts on That $10 Million and Egypt?

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a letter sent to former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, asking for information about a mysterious $10 million infusion into his campaign in 2016 that could have run wildly afoul of campaign finance laws. The letter follows up on a Washington Post investigation that revealed a shady timeline involving a “loan” Trump gave to his campaign and later forgave, 200 pounds of $100 bills in bags collected from a Cairo bank, and a September closed-door meeting with Egyptian president Abdel Fatah El-Sisi. Normal stuff, undoubtedly.

“Surely you would agree that the American people deserve to know whether a former president—and a current candidate for president—took an illegal campaign contribution from a brutal foreign dictator,” wrote Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland, along with Robert Garcia of California, the ranking member for the subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. They are requesting information on any financial contributions from El-Sisi or the Egyptian government, and/or any corroborating evidence that the $10 million Trump “loaned” and then forgave didn’t have any such international financial backers.

The $10 million has already been subject to a Justice Department investigation — one that was unceremoniously quashed while Trump was in office, thanks to the beneficence of his attorney general Bill Barr. Raskin and Garcia’s letter will likely not get much further, as Democrats are in the minority and thus lack any subpoena power or other enforcement authority; but, with the media largely ignoring what would amount to an enormous scandal if true, the questions are certainly worth asking. And it doesn’t hurt to have some fun with it while they’re at it:

“We are certain you can see how significant troubling questions still haunt our country about the origins of your $10 million campaign contribution, the source of any repayment, and the credible allegations that it was all funded with cash provided by President El-Sisi through his grim intelligence services. These questions are especially alarming given that the allegations appearing in the Washington Post are silhouetted against several proven patterns of corrupt practices exhibited by both the Egyptian government and by you, of course, as a convicted felon, fraudster and corrupt politician.”