Reacting to a bombshell report from the Washington Post that Department of Justice investigators were looking into an attempt by the government of Egypt to funnel $10 million in cash into Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the panel members on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" were flabbergasted by former attorney general Bill Barr running interference for his former boss.
During an appearance on MSNBC on Friday morning, the Post's Carol Leonnig highlighted major portions of her reporting with colleague Aaron Davis and stunned the MSNBC regulars with a mention of National Bank of Egypt employees "busy placing bundles of $100 bills into two large bags."
According to the Post's reporting, "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."
That cash was reportedly targeted to go to the newly elected Trump who was already under scrutiny for Russian interference in the election.
What caught the MSNBC hosts' attention was Barr derailing an investigation into the bribe attempt.
"Let's run one more time through that," MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicale asked the WaPo reporter. "Bill Barr is appointed attorney general, and then he learns about this investigation going on. The U.S. attorney that you just mentioned has been running the investigation. Bill Barr apparently, according to your reporting, thinks some of the agents on the case were [Robert] Mueller guys and had been on the Mueller investigation. So he shuts down the investigation at that point, just shuts it down?"
"Barr does not shut down the case," Leonnig replied. "Great question, by the way. He doesn't shut it down. He does two things; he inserts himself and says, you better look hard at this intelligence. Look hard at whether or not there is a predicate, a legal justification to get these additional Trump records. The investigators, of course, are gobsmacked by this. This is jaw-dropping intelligence."
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