CNN unveils how the Muslim Brotherhood played the Obama agencies against Trump

by John Hajjar

Candidate Trump meets with Egyptian President Sisi in 2016

A hit piece published by CNN against President Trump has unwittingly exposed how the Muslim Brotherhood was able to manipulate the Obama administration, its intelligence agencies and, via those agencies, the US justice system. CNN reveals that a deep, secret and expensive investigation was running parallel to the Mueller Probe in an effort to determine whether someone in Egypt had wired $10 million to cover campaign expenses towards the end of the 2016 Trump campaign.

This separate and parallel investigation unsurprisingly ended in yet another epic failure as Obama bureaucrats could find no corroboration for the outlandish claim. Indeed, it is mindboggling how anyone in Washington, DC, let alone those in respectable agencies such as the CIA, FBI and the DOJ could even consider this canard. And this investigation which sought to implicate Donald Trump in a $10 million financial scheme devoured more than $30 million.

People in the Middle East are laughing at this assertion: “What? Egypt has money to send in secret to support Trump?” If CNN or their secret sources had claimed Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait or even Algeria had given money to the Trump campaign, that might have been plausible, but poor Egypt? The idea is laughable.

It didn’t take long before many political analysts in the Middle East and the US figured out that this almost comical claim was concocted by none other than the infamous Muslim Brotherhood, known for its manipulation of media, justice systems and intelligence agencies worldwide.

The Ikhwan has been engaging in a life or death struggle with the government of Egypt under President Abdelfattah Sisi since June 2013, when the Obama-backed Muslim Brotherhood government was removed from power by a revolution launched by 30 million protesters on June 30. The revolt was backed by the Egyptian Army which brought General Sisi to power, via a presidential election.  

The Egyptian Ikhwan was supported by the Obama-Biden-Clinton-Kerry quartet. The Brotherhood wanted revenge against Sisi, and the Obama orbit wanted to stop Trump during the 2016 campaign—and after he formed his administration in 2017, to remove him from office. The Obama-Biden administration was furious at Sisi for aiding the revolution against the Brotherhood and never recognized his government, calling it a “coup.” The fusion between the Obama bureaucrats and the Muslim Brotherhood’s joint efforts to remove Trump were at the origin of the now coined “Egypt-gate,” which was stealthily-launched parallel investigation under the Mueller probe and using its money.

The special Egypt probe aimed at demonstrating that Sisi was helping Trump win the election! Sources believe the Muslim Brotherhood, with a high probability of Qatar’s involvement, coordinated this canard with the Obama team in charge of partnership with the Ikhwan. The “file” was based, according to the New York Times, on “tips” from Egypt and somehow obtained a court order to spy on targets and summon “witnesses”. The court order would be similar to the one that obtained a FISA warrant to spy on Trump advisor Carter Page.

The scenario constructed by the prosecutors and their agents was that “some people” in the Trump campaign were tasked to create ties between Sisi and Trump and “bring financial support” from Egypt to the New York tycoon! This was based on the fact that then-candidate Trump loaned his campaign $10 million. According to CNN, there was a mysterious transfer of $10 million from an “Egyptian bank” to an “account in New York,” but no tie was ever established to the Trump campaign. In fact, there was no evidence that such a transaction even took place.

It seems that having failed to establish a link between the Trump campaign and Russia, they tried to concoct the same scenario with a different foreign government – with the help of the Muslim Brotherhood. Iran intelligence may not be that far from this scandal, too.

Could the finest of the finest elites in intelligence have been played by the crooks of the Muslim Brotherhood? Was it because the CIA under John Brennan was an ally to this Islamist network?  It is clear the Muslim Brotherhood feared a President Trump would put them on the US terror list, as he promised during the campaign. Both the Obama orbit and the Ikhwan had a vital interest in crumbling Trump, toppling Sisi, and taking out key foreign policy persons in the campaign who were advising a 180 degree turn in policy concerning both Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Indications now are that the covert parallel investigation outlasted the Mueller probe, spending public money and hiding the investigation from the eyes of public opinion.

Though sources claim the “Egypt track” spied on General Flynn’s potential role with Egypt, he was primarily targeted on the Russia side. Steve Bannon, according to CNN, was questioned on Egypt and the Sisi-Trump relationship. George Papadopoulos was also asked about Egypt, as he had some contacts with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. Both Bannon and Papadopoulos, according to sources, were in touch with the Egyptian embassy in DC, to prepare the meeting between Trump and Sisi, as was the Clinton team.

However, according to the New York Times and CNN, the dark probe targeted other actors in the Trump campaign, including Dr. Walid Phares and Tera Dahl. Phares was the first named foreign policy advisor for candidate Trump and a well-known top expert and author in Washington, DC, who had also served as a senior national security advisor to Romney in 2011-2012, in addition to his service as an advisor to many members of the US Congress and the European Parliament.Tera Dahl, who was a congressional staffer, joined the Trump campaign in the foreign policy team and was later appointed as a senior staff at the National Security Council.

Targeting Walid Phares was a move to sideline one of the most strategic minds in the field of national security, counterterrorism and geopolitics in the US, smearing him and paralyzing his work as a way to intercept his expertise in order to block him from joining the Trump administration, which in my view, has deprived the US government one of the best assets against the radicals overseas. Phares has been targeted by the Iranian and Ikhwan lobbies for two decades, and dozens of hit pieces have attacked him over the last decade, from Mother Jones to the Washington Post.

Lee Smith wrote that the Obama orbit targeted Gen. Mike Flynn and took him out of government in order to protect the Iran deal. It is likely Phares was targeted by this secret parallel investigation for the same reason, yet Phares was also a problem for the political opposition in terms of media presence and policy argument.

Even though Phares never spoke of such episodes, the New York Times and CNN report that he was interviewed by the Mueller team and testified to the Senate and House intelligence committees on the Russia probe. Was he also questioned by the Egypt probe about his knowledge of the so-called transfer—even though he had no contact with the financial arm of the campaign?  Former intelligence sources say the Obama-Ikhwan goal was most likely to collect information from him on regional players, such as Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel, while at the same time damage his standing in order to block him from being appointed or confirmed to a government position in 2017. That seems a credible theory. And they were successful. Phares was not asked to join the administration.

The dark probe on Egypt seems to be a counterintelligence operation between parts of the US government, loyal to Barack Hussein Obama, and foreign interests, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood and the regimes behind them. And even though this particular file has now been closed, what other unknown and nefarious strategies might be lurking beneath the surface?

We will know soon.

John Hajjar is a co-chair of the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy.