How could a $10M Egyptian cash withdrawal upend Trump's campaign?

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"Russia, Russia, Russia." Such has been former President Donald Trump's dismissive assessment of the various, often intersecting scandals that defined a large portion of his first term in office. But while investigations into Moscow's alleged efforts to penetrate the innermost corridors of American political power have produced compelling — albeit not legally conclusive — narratives in support of Trump's Russian susceptibility, claims of an entirely different national influence operation have surfaced in the closing weeks of the 2024 presidential election, adding another layer of international intrigue to Trump's political ascendency.

At the heart of these separate allegations are a series of suspicious transactions at Cairo's state-run National Bank of Egypt. There, just days before Trump took the oath of office in 2017, some $10 million USD was withdrawn from an account associated with Egypt's national security apparatus — an amount which corresponded to a separate donation made by Trump into his own campaign in the waning days of the 2016 race. The move, which corresponded with a CIA inquiry into claims that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has sought ways to bolster and align himself with Trump's candidacy, accelerated an ongoing Justice Department investigation into this vector of potential foreign influence peddling.

While the broad contours of the Trump-Egypt allegations have been public for several years, the scope and scale of the DOJ's investigation — and then-Attorney General Bill Barr's role in ultimately shuttering the pursuit — had largely remained hidden until a Washington Post exposé reignited interest in the episode this past summer. In early October, Senate Democrats pushed the Justice Department to examine whether the Trump administration "interfered with and, ultimately, blocked" the earlier investigation — all as Trump himself stands on the cusp of possibly returning to the White House in January.

What did the commentators say?

While much of the country spent the bulk of the Trump administration focusing on alleged Russian influence, investigators pursuing these largely underreported allegations claimed the trail of Egyptian money represented the "most concrete lead" they had for foreign meddling, The New York Times said. This is the "most serious allegation of a bribe in White House history," Washington Post reporter Carol Leonning said on X.

The allegations may be "rock bottom" in America's long history of potentially criminal political bribery, said Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch. "Do not let the matter of Trump, Egypt and the $10 million disappear," and push the Democratic-controlled Senate to "open a full-blown investigation, with efforts to subpoena Barr and other Justice Department higher-ups to explain in public why the case was dropped." Meanwhile, the allegations can "still be pursued as a civil case."

"Every American should be concerned about how this case ended," one of the Post's sources said, under condition of anonymity. "The Justice Department is supposed to follow evidence wherever it leads — it does so all the time to determine if a crime occurred or not."

Citing Sen. Robert Menendez's (D-N.J.) recent conviction for "taking bribes of cash and gold bars while acting as a middleman between New Jersey businessmen and foreign governments, including Egypt" Trump's case — if proven true — "shows a much higher level of corruption from the country," The New Republic said. At the same time, can "anything be done about it?" It's unclear given the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity.

What next?

Several lawmakers have begun speaking out about the need for further information: The allegations present a "creepy tale" featuring both "strange machinations to round up the $10,000,000" as well as "strange machinations to shut down the investigation," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said on X. "This has a very bad smell." Senate Republicans "need to hold a hearing on this explosive allegation," said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) while Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) cited the Trump family's "history of corrupt and unconstitutional foreign payments" as reason to "hold them accountable immediately."

While the statute of limitations for federal illegal campaign contribution charges is nearly three years expired, it is "hard to imagine with reporting like this that the story ends there," MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner said.

A spokesperson for the former president denied any wrongdoing on behalf of Trump, and said to The Washington Post that their story is merely "textbook Fake News."