Democrats in the House Oversight Committee have given former President Donald Trump a hard deadline to answer whether he illegally received $10 million from the Egyptian government during his successful 2016 run.
Concretely, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the Committee, and Rep. Robert García gave the GOP presidential nominee until September 17 to answer a series of related questions and supporting documentation.
Considering they are part of the minority, they are not able to subpoena documents or witnesses, but they said the people are entitled to know the truth as Trump is running for president again.
"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," reads a passage of the letter.
The letter follows a report by The Washington Post from last month, which uncovered a secret Justice Department investigation during Trump's presidency. It began in early 2017 after U.S. intelligence indicated that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi sought to send Trump $10 million.
The investigation, spearheaded by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, obtained records showing a cash withdrawal of nearly $10 million from an account tied to an Egyptian general five days before Trump took office. D.C. prosecutors who then took over the case proposed subpoenaing Trump's bank records to check whether money from Cairo ended up in an account, but agents were blocked by top Justice Department officials from doing so, the outlet explained. The probe ended in 2019 when Trump's then-Attorney General William Barr expressed doubts about whether there was enough evidence to continue the investigation.
The Trump campaign has rejected the allegations, calling the developments "textbook Fake News." Spokesman Steven Cheung added that the Justice Department investigation "found no wrongdoing and was closed."
However, the article explains that even though the $10 million were reported as contributions, Trump privately signed papers to structure the funding as a loan, which he later forgave after taking office.
The Democrats' letter argue that throughout his presidency, "Trump drastically shifted U.S. policy to favor the Egyptian president, whom he once called his "favorite dictator." "In 2018, Trump released $195 million in military aid that was previously withheld because of human rights abuses committed by the Egyptian government, and he later released $1.2 billion more in military assistance," they added.
With that context in consideration, the Democrats asked Trump three specific questions about whether he received money from the Egyptian president or government and if any money from them was used in his presidential campaign. They also make a series of requests regarding to the $10 million loan, asking for the sources of those funds, the date when it was repaid or forgiven and sources used to repay it as well as the names of "individuals or entities involved in funding, arranging or transferring payments related to the original contribution or loan and any repayment or forgiveness thereof."
"As then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared in August 2023, at the start of the
impeachment investigation that totally and thoroughly exonerated President Biden of any
wrongdoing, 'I think this President would want to clear [his] name rather rapidly.' We are sure you too would be eager to rebut these claims of outrageous corruption," the Democrats conclude, taunting Trump to present the requested information.
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