If Trump did this and got away with it, it is almost guaranteed he will try it again so I hope the appropriate authorities are keeping an eye out for this.
What would it matter if the authorities are keeping an eye out for it? What penalty would he suffer?
Exactly. He has immunity after all. SCOTUS gave him a ‘Got of jail for free card’.
Doesn’t even need the immunity since it’s just a gratuity.
- He has immunity while the President, for things that are clearly part of his Presidential duties.
- He is not currently the President and campaigning, as a citizen, has zero overlap with Presidential duties.
Payments would need to be after-the-fact. But, to be sure, the court could make any sort of ridiculous decision in his favor, still.
Which it sounds like this could have been; Trump put $10 million into his campaign fund in late October or early November of 2016; the Egyptian government withdrew that same amount from their U.S. bank account in January of 2017. Gratuity, indeed.
I apologized to my 11-yr-old nephew about this latent corruption - he asked if I was going to cop it to a misdemeanor.
We need to take a step back. Your understanding is wildly too far from the target.
In a bribe, I give you some money to perform a service that, as a functionary, you perform on my behalf instead of on the behalf of your employer.
The key elements are:
- A service was performed.
- Money was paid (or arranged to be paid) for that service.
- You have particular powers in your role.
- You use those powers to make the payee happy rather than to make your role-giver happy.
Your statement would imply that Egypt bribed Trump into giving himself his own money. That’s nonsensical.
The charge is that Egypt bribed Trump to use his future power of office to improve relations between the US and Egypt, give weapons to Egypt, etc.
If Trump improved relations with Egypt, purely out of his belief in the best course of action to take for the best interests of his electorate and then, later, Egypt gave him a knighthood and $1m, then that would be (under the SC ruling) a gratuity. He didn’t do it for them and he had no expectation of a payout, they’re just unintentional victors and free to shower him with favors as they want or not.
If Trump accepted money and then later, in loyalty to his deal with Egypt and without consideration of his electorate, improved relations with Egypt, then that’s a bribe (and, in this case, a campaign violation).
Knowing that a bribe was coming and moving his own money in anticipation of that is not relevant to any of that.
A bribe could come in before or after a service has been performed (but prosecutors would need to demonstrate that a deal had been struck, prior to the service). A gratuity can never come in before a service.
Thanks!
Sure it can. Every tip a valet? Before they actually park your car? Just got to add a lot of zeros in Trumps case.
Call it a gratuity, or a bribe. Makes no difference.
From the WaPo article:
Over the course of his presidency, Trump shifted U.S. policy in ways that benefited the Egyptian leader, a man he once called “my favorite dictator.” In 2018, Trump’s State Department released $195 million in military aid that the United States had been withholding over human rights abuses — a move that had been opposed by his first secretary of state — followed by the release of $1.2 billion more in such assistance.
and
In the years since the Egypt case was closed, the Sisi regime’s ambitions to influence senior U.S. government officials have been laid bare by the bribery conviction of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
and
In the final weeks of the 2020 presidential race, after the investigation had been closed, CNN revealed that the mysterious courthouse hearing involved an Egyptian bank. The network also reported that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III had led the case, which centered on an informant’s tip that money had flowed through the bank to help fund Trump’s campaign.
and
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.
I hope they are on the lookout for cash coming from North Korea at this point.
As common with big stories, Microsoft MSN picked it up:
$10M cash withdrawal drove secret probe into whether Trump took money from Egypt
I’m going to ask a stupid question or two.
- How do you physically move 10 million dollars, in 100 dollar bills from one country to another. Private plane is my guess.
- How do you then deposit it? Was this some off shore account? Did Trump give two duffle bags of 100 dollar bills to his ‘campaign’?
Since Trump is involved, I pretty sure something shady or highly illegal is going on. But how do you move 10 million in literal cash?
Asking for a friend.
Michael Cohen would probably know. I think the article states it was a couple of stuffed deffle bags, each weighing a couple hundred pounds. Woulda required at least a couple of stout dudes. But yeah, how to launder all that cash.
The events are kind of suspicious, but there’s nothing linking the Egyptian money to Trump, and at this point insufficient reason to pursue a pointless investigation that would allow Trump and his cult more reason to bellow about persecution.
Asking Trump about it and grilling him further on his love of dictators would be reasonable (and might generate some interesting demented responses).
Check if any senior Trump cronies or Cabinet folks visited Egypt around that time.
Certainly if the money is moved via diplomatic courier, there’s no issue. And my guess is that there are countries where one can deposit large amounts without having to file paperwork.
Right.
Right again. that’s why I mentioned overseas accounts.
I know money is heavy. But I just got a calculation (also upthread by someone else). 220 pounds.
And of course this is all speculation. Trump is guilty of may other crimes.
Pfft, chump change, Kushner sold secrets to MBS for $2 billion.
Also, Trump took bribes daily via his properties.
But yeah, should be a massive scandal both for Trump and Barr.