According to an August 2 report in The Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Justice previously investigated whether Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi had illegally donated $10 million to then-candidate Trump prior to his 2016 election. The probe was eventually shut down by Trump’s political appointees, who “rejected efforts to search for additional evidence investigators believed might provide answers.” The criminal investigation had begun after intelligence indicated that Sisi “sought to give Trump $10 million to boost his 2016 presidential campaign,” and ramped up when federal investigators learned of a $10 million withdrawal from a Cairo bank that occurred just days prior to Trump’s inauguration. Ultimately, according to The Post, the case was shut down by then-acting U.S. attorney Michael Sherwin (who had been appointed to the position by Trump Attorney General William Barr). 

Despite the seriousness of the allegations, ABC, NBC, and CBS all seemingly failed to cover the reporting on their evening, morning, and Sunday broadcast news shows.

Among five of the top U.S. newspapers, the probe into potential bribery was referenced in just 3 online articles and 3 print articles, for a total of 4 unique articles (2 print articles were also published online).

Of the 5 papers we reviewed, it appears only The Washington Post and The New York Times published articles referencing the potential bribe. The Post published 2 print articles and 2 online articles that mentioned the probe (3 unique articles in total), including the original reporting that brought the investigation to light, while The Times published 1 print article and 1 online article (1 unique article in total).

The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal seemingly did not publish any articles referencing the probe into whether or not Trump illegally accepted money from Egypt.

This lack of coverage from broadcast and print outlets is just the latest example of national news outlets failing to cover Trump's suspicious ties to foreign countries.

Media Matters searched print and online articles in the Factiva database for The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for any of the terms “Trump,” “Former President,” “Barr,” “Mueller,” or “Phares” within roughly the same paragraph as any of the terms “probe,” “Cairo,” “10,” or “ten” or any variation of the terms “Egypt,” “Sisi,” “million,” or “investigate” from August 2, 2024, when the investigation into the alleged $10 million from Egypt to the 2016 Trump campaign was first reported by The Washington Post, through August 12, 2024.

We included articles, which we defined as instances when the Justice Department probe into the allegations that the 2016 Trump campaign accepted $10 million from Egypt was mentioned in the text in any section of the paper.

We also searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week, CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation, and NBC’s Today, Nightly News, and Meet the Press for any of the terms “Trump,” “Former President,” “Barr,” “Mueller,” or “Phares” within close proximity to any of the terms “probe,” “Cairo,” “10,” or “ten” or any variation of the terms “Egypt,” “Sisi,” “million,” or “investigate” from August 2, 2024 through 12:00 PM E.T on  August 12, 2024.

We included segments, which we defined as instances when the Justice Department probe into allegations that the 2016 Trump campaign accepted $10 million from Egypt was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the new revelations from The Washington Post. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the story with one another.

We also included mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned the new revelations without another speaker engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about new revelations scheduled to air later in the broadcast.