The Washington Post reports:

Democratic leaders on the House Oversight Committee released a letter Tuesday asking former president Donald Trump if he ever illegally received money from the government of Egypt, and whether money from Cairo played a role in a $10 million infusion into his 2016 run for president.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, and Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), the top Democrat on its subcommittee for national security, the border and foreign affairs, wrote to Trump that they were making the request as a result of a Washington Post article published last month. The article revealed details of a secret Justice Department investigation during Trump’s presidency into whether he took an illegal campaign contribution from Egypt.

As members of the House minority, Raskin and Garcia do not have the power to subpoena documents or witnesses, and Trump is under no obligation to respond to their inquiries. But the Democrats said the public deserves answers now that 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,” the letter signed by the two Democrats reads. “Accordingly, we request that you immediately provide the Committee with information and documents necessary to assure the Committee and the American public that you never, directly or indirectly, politically or personally, received any fund from the Egyptian president or government.”

Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump campaign declined to answer detailed questions from The Post for the story last month but said the Justice Department investigation found no wrongdoing and was closed.

The Post article reported that the investigation began early in 2017 in response to U.S. intelligence indicating that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi had sought to send Trump $10 million. In May of that year, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who had been appointed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, agreed to take the lead on the Egypt investigation.

In early 2019, as Mueller was preparing to deliver his report on Russian interference and close his office, his team obtained records from Egyptian banking officials. The records revealed a cash withdrawal of nearly $10 million — an amount almost identical to what the intelligence indicated — from an account tied to the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, The Post reported. The withdrawal occurred in January 2017, five days before Trump took office. [Continue reading…]