Part of a memo authorizing an investigation into election interference remains classified. A judge wants to know why

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A judge is urging the U.S. government to explain why part of the memo authorizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into foreign election interference and former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign remains classified seven years after it was made public.

At a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Leonie Brinkema gave the Justice Department until Wednesday to explain why the passage must remain secret.

A group of media organizations is demanding that then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s portion of the memo be made public. The secret part is believed to relate to allegations that Egypt secretly donated $10 million to Trump’s cash-strapped campaign in the final days of the 2016 election campaign.

Much of Rosenstein’s memo authorizing the Mueller investigation was declassified and released as part of the prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who Mueller was also investigating. Manafort was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to nearly four years in prison, but was released in 2020 due to the coronavirus. In December 2020, Manafort finally received a pardon from Trump.

At Friday’s hearing, Brinkema told press coalition lawyers that she had no authority to release anything from the trial, such as the redacted portion of the Rosenstein memo, if that information was still classified. She said her only option was to press the government to explain its reasons for the continued classification.

Prosecutor Drew Bradylyons said multiple government agencies were involved in the secrecy and asked Brinkema for 30 days to explain whether the passage could be released or why it had to remain secret.

Brinkema said that was too long and gave the government until Wednesday to make a statement.

Brinkema, who said she reviewed the classified portion of the memo, said, “Unless they have a good reason, I don’t see any reason why it should be kept under wraps.”

Ted Boutros, a lawyer representing the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Washington Post, said the information was of great public interest given Trump’s ongoing presidential campaign. And the need for secrecy has diminished, he said, now that the investigation has been completed and the broad outlines of the Egypt allegations are now publicly known.

“The investigations in Egypt concerned matters of serious and significant national importance: the potential bribery and illegal campaign contributions of a foreign state to a presidential candidate who became president and is running for that office again,” the press coalition’s lawyers wrote in their court filing. “There is an overwhelming public interest here in the greatest possible disclosure.”

It is not clear whether the release of the passage in question will lead to any significant insight into the investigation. Details of the Egypt investigation were revealed as part of a CNN investigation in 2020, and a Washington Post report earlier this year fleshed out further details.

According to media reports, members of Mueller’s team were investigating US intelligence reports that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi wanted to give Trump $10 million to boost his 2016 presidential campaign. Specifically, the report states that an organization linked to Egyptian intelligence withdrew $10 million in cash in $100 bills from the Egyptian National Bank at the exact time that Trump was making a $10 million contribution to his own campaign dollars donated.

Trump’s campaign denied wrongdoing and noted that the investigation was closed without criminal charges.

Some of the prosecutors said their investigations were blocked or thwarted by senior Trump administration officials.