Donald Trump has twice been accused of accepting Middle East payments, an attorney has said.
New York lawyer Colleen Kerwick was reacting to an investigation by The Washington Post on August 2 into an alleged $10 million cash payment from the Egyptian president to Donald Trump.
Newsweek approached the Trump campaign for comment on Monday.
The Washington Post article suggested that Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, thwarted an investigation into the alleged payment and transferred the prosecutor involved in the case.
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Kerwick said that this is not the first time that Barr has been accused of blocking an investigation into payments to Trump from a Middle Eastern government.
“Barr also allegedly intervened to have Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the SDNY, resign in 2020 when Berman was investigating cases that had potential political implications, including those involving Turkish interests.”
“Businessman Wadie Habboush and family made a $1,000,000.00 donation to Trump and facilitated a meeting with Erdogan. Erdogan-tied businessman granted access to Trump through a donor,” she said.
Newsweek sought email comment from Barr and Habboush on Monday. Habboush has long denied any wrongdoing.
Kerwick was reacting to an investigation by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
However, Kerwick said that such allegations have also been leveled at Democrats.
“On the other side of the political divide, there was an alleged $5 million bribe to the Bidens via Hunter Biden, who took a position on Burisma’s board of directors in 2014.”
“In return for this cash and a high-paying position for his son, President Biden would allegedly persuade Ukrainian authorities to remove former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin who—it was claimed—had been investigating Burisma for corruption and other crimes.”
Newsweek sought email comment from Burisma, Hunter Biden, and President Joe Biden on Monday.
The August 2 Washington Post article claimed that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi withdrew $10 million from a Cairo bank account to help fund Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
It also suggests that Barr put an end to an investigation into the alleged payment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C.
Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, told Newsweek that it would be very difficult to prove a case against Barr as the attorney general has wide discretion on which cases to pursue.
“The problem is that absent smoking gun proof, it is near to impossible to identify an improper motive even if subordinates uniformly disagree with a decision,” Gillers said.
“Furthermore, when on rare occasions courts do intrude, it will be to dismiss a case. They will not order a prosecutor to bring a case he chooses not to bring.”
