Senator Murphy Links Egypt's Press Crackdown to US Aid Waiver
Sen. Chris Murphy has blamed a crackdown on independent journalism in Egypt on the Trump administration's decision to waive human rights conditions on US military funding.
Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the remarks at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "The minute that money was released, the crackdown began in an absolutely devastating way," he said.
Among the actions against independent media in Egypt, a court in Cairo ordered the closure of Mada Masr, a news website, and fined its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah. Egyptian authorities also arrested six journalists at Matsda2sh, an independent fact-checking platform, and charged them with belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that is outlawed.
The money at the centre of the dispute is part of a large annual flow. Washington sends Egypt $1.73 billion a year in military assistance. US law allows up to $320 million of that funding to be withheld until democracy and human rights requirements are met, but those restrictions can be waived on national security grounds. A waiver is a formal decision to set aside a legal condition.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio waived human rights conditions on $320 million in military aid to Egypt in September. The State Department said it had waived conditions on a portion of military aid, citing Egypt's importance to US national security interests.
The September decision followed a similar step in 2024. Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken waived the human rights conditions so that Egypt could receive its full military aid allocation, at a time when the US was seeking Cairo's help in mediating between Israel and Hamas.
Murphy has pressed the issue for several years. In 2021 he called on the Biden administration to withhold aid to Egypt over human rights violations. In a 2022 statement, he said that for the first time, in fiscal year 2021, $75 million was conditioned with no waiver. He also argued that sending billions in aid while only verbally criticising rights violations harmed American credibility.
In August 2023, US lawmakers urged blocking some US military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns.
