High -ranking Democratic members of Senate Judiciary Committee have asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether members of Donald Trump's administration derailed a probe into an alleged transfer of $10 million to the former president when he first ran for office.
Using a "bombshell" report from the Washington Post in early August as a springboard, the Senate Democrats asked the DOJ's inspector general to open a new probe that could answer why Trump DOJ shut down an investigation despite DOJ agents' request for permission to dig deeper.
At issue, the Washington Post is reporting on Tuesday, are reports that "five days before Trump took office, an amount nearly identical to the $10 million described in the intelligence about Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi was withdrawn at a bank in Cairo, in U.S. $100 bills, from an account linked to the Egyptian General Intelligence Service."
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Noting that Trump-appointed Attorney General William Barr had a hand in ending the probe by asking FBI higher-ups to impose “adult supervision” on investigators wanting to look at Trump's bank records, Democrats are suggesting it warrants a new investigation.
In their letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Democratic Senators Sens. Richard Blumenthal (CT), Mazie Hirono (HI), Alex Padilla (CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) pointed to a “a pattern of conduct that includes improper political interference, ignoring standards for recusal, and abrogating Attorney General guidelines, among other improper considerations.”
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