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Hmmm …

A new report out this morning in the WaPo reveals extensive new details about a since-closed federal investigation into whether Egypt funneled $10 million to Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign for president.

The criminal investigation was predicated on “classified U.S. intelligence indicating that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi sought to give Trump $10 million to boost his 2016 presidential campaign.”

But it wasn’t until almost two years later, in early 2019, that investigators learned of a withdrawal of nearly $10 million in U.S. cash from a Cairo branch of the state-run National Bank of Egypt five days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration:

The Post investigation reveals that investigators identified a cash withdrawal in Cairo of $9,998,000 — nearly identical to the amount described in the intelligence, as well as to the amount Trump had given his campaign weeks earlier. A key theory investigators pursued, based on intelligence and on international money transfers, was that Trump was willing to provide the funds to his campaign in October 2016 because he expected to be repaid by Sisi, according to people familiar with the probe.

The deeply sourced WaPo report is mostly focused on how Trump political appointees at DOJ allegedly blocked further investigative steps on Trump’s end of the alleged transaction and brought the probe to an end without any charges being filed. A Trump spokesperson denied to the WaPo that Trump ever received money from Egypt.

The investigation took a circuitous path from DOJ proper to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team then back to DOJ again, where it ultimately died in the DC U.S. attorney’s office, according to the WaPo. The investigation spawned a long-running legal battle over a federal grand jury subpoena to the Egyptian bank that was mostly fought behind closed doors. The occasional inklings of what was going on secretly in federal court had mostly been interpreted – wrongly it turns out – as related to Russia, not Egypt. CNN was the first to reveal some of the details of the investigation, back in 2020. The WaPo report is apparently the first to reveal the $9,998,000 withdrawal from the Egyptian bank:

Five days before Donald Trump became president in January 2017, a manager at a bank branch in Cairo received an unusual letter from an organization linked to the Egyptian intelligence service. It asked the bank to “kindly withdraw” nearly $10 million from the organization’s account — all in cash.

Inside the state-run National Bank of Egypt, employees were soon busy placing bundles of $100 bills into two large bags, according to records from the bank. Four men arrived and carried away the bags, which U.S. officials later described in sealed court filings as weighing a combined 200 pounds and containing what was then a sizable share of Egypt’s reserve of U.S. currency.

For his part, former DC U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin told the WaPo he stood by his decision to close the case for lack of sufficient evidence. The WaPo report ends with the observation that the statute of limitations for illegal campaign contributions expired more than two years ago.

Russia-U.S. Swap Brings WSJ Reporter Home

Freed Russian detainees WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, and Alsu Kurmasheva landed on U.S. soil late last night:

Key reads:

• WSJ: Inside the Secret Negotiations to Free Evan Gershkovich
• NYT: Behind the Prisoner Swap: Spies, a Killer, Secret Messages and Unseen Diplomacy
• Politico: ‘That had to be bittersweet’ — how Biden managed a historic prisoner swap as his campaign was disintegrating

Among the most poignant revelations that emerged after the detainees’ release:

1. Moments after deciding to abandon his re-election bid but before announcing his decision publicly, President Biden was on the phone with Slovenia’s prime minister to iron out a snafu in the complicated multilateral negotiations for the detainees’ release.
2. Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan choked up at the White House podium as he described calling the detainees’ families with the news of their release:

3. Always a reporter, from the WSJ account of Gershkovich’s final acts while in prison:

The Russian Federation had a few final items of protocol to tick through with the man who had become its most famous prisoner. One, he would be allowed to leave with the papers he’d penned in detention, the letters he’d scrawled out and the makings of a book he’d labored over. But first, they had another piece of writing they required from him, an official request for presidential clemency. The text, moreover, should be addressed to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. 

The pro forma printout included a long blank space the prisoner could fill out if desired, or simply, as expected, leave blank. In the formal high Russian he had honed over 16 months imprisonment, the Journal’s Russia correspondent filled the page. The last line submitted a proposal of his own: After his release, would Putin be willing to sit down for an interview?

Eric Holder: I Told You So

The former attorney general offers a reminder that back in 2009 Congress blocked Obama administration efforts to try the 9/11 plotters held at Guantanamo in federal court: “If my decision to try KSM and his confederates in the tested and effective federal court system had been followed they would be nothing more than a memory today.” 

‘Jubilant’

TPM’s Josh Kovensky talks to Claremont Institute President Ryan Williams about the organization’s history with JD Vance and why it’s “jubilant” about his selection as Trump’s vice presidential nominees.

Trump Prosecution Watch

Two new developments related to the conviction of Donald Trump in the New York hush money case:

• A state appeals court upheld the modified gag order against Donald Trump and allowed it to remain in effect for now.
• Trump filed a new brief this week as part of his effort to use the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity to get his conviction thrown out. The new filing, which completes the briefing schedule set by Judge Juan Merchan, takes Trump’s argument even farther than before.

DC Bar Panel Recommends Suspension For Jeff Clark

The long, slow disciplinary process for former Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark passed another milestone, with a DC bar disciplinary panel ruling that Clark’s law license should be suspended for two year but he should not be disbarred as investigators had sought. This is still not the final word on the fate of Clark’s DC bar license, which will ultimately be decided by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

2024 Ephemera

• Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign raised $310 million in July, outpacing the $138.7 million pulled in by the Trump campaign.
• The formal vetting process for Kamala Harris’ potential running mates is complete, with an announcement expected by Tuesday.
• A recount confirms that Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) lost the June GOP primary for re-election to Trump-backed state Sen. John McGuire (R-VA).

5th Circuit Chips Away At Voting Rights Act

The uber-conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its own precedent and ruled that minority groups cannot join together under the Voting Rights Act to claim dilution of their vote in redistricting cases.

🔥🔥🔥

Politico: Max Boot Called Trump a Foreign Asset. Now His Wife Is Indicted for Just That.

Have A Good Weekend!

With the news that a Johnny Cash statute will be unveiled next month at the Capitol, one of Arkansas’ two contributions to the National Statuary Hall Collection, I send you into the weekend with a little taste of the Man in Black:

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