The Obama administration has secretly cut off military aid to Egypt, according to a spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
David Carle told the Daily Beast that Sen. Leahy's "understanding is that aid to the Egyptian military has been halted, as required by law." Leahy is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., arrives as his panel questions top Obama administration officials about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs for the first time since the House narrowly rejected a proposal last week to effectively shut down the NSA's secret collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Credit: AP
"The decision was we're going to avoid saying it was a coup, but to stay on the safe side of the law, we are going to act as if the designation has been made for now," another official told The Daily Beast. "By not announcing the decision, it gives the administration the flexibility to reverse it."
The Obama administration has not publicly announced any plans to place an official hold on U.S. aid to Egypt.
Obama spoke publicly just once during his vacation, against the violence in Egypt that left scores of people dead. The White House is currently reconsidering all U.S. assistance to Egypt, and "will consider additional steps as we deem necessary," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Sunday.
Further, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday that about $585 million of $1.23 billion in U.S. Foreign Military Financing to Egypt for the year remains "unobligated."
(H/T: HuffPost)
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Featured image via AP.
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