Three days after the Obama administration came to the defense of the Muslim Brotherhood in response to an online petition demanding the group be designated as a terrorist organization, the trial of former Egyptian President and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mursi, began. Mursi is being tried for espionage and his legal team argued that Mursi’s Brotherhood did not collaborate with the Obama administration.

Hillary: The unwelcome face of the Obama administration in post-Mursi Egypt.

According to Egypt Daily News, the trial was also delayed a week, soon after it began on December 4th:

Ousted president Mohamed Morsi’s trial for espionage was postponed on Sunday to 14 December, with his defence lawyer denying collaboration between the Muslim Brotherhood and the United States. Mohamed Al-Damaty, a member of Morsi’s defence team said many NGOs and political parties cooperate with the US in different ways, and that the prosecution has singled out the Brotherhood to “oppress the group politically”.

It is not known if there is any connection between the the timing of the proceedings an the the White House response to the petition but it is noteworthy, especially since the petition was launched on July 7, 2013, shortly after Mursi’s removal from office. The Obama administration’s defense of the Muslim Brotherhood also coincides with the group receiving terrorist designations from the so-called ‘moderate’ Islamic countries of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Egypt has also identified the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Just three days prior to Mursi’s trial, the White House thumbed its nose at that designation.

Why would these countries identify the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and the Obama administration reject such a designation as Mursi’s legal team denied Brotherhood collaboration with the Obama administration?

A day before Mursi’s trial began, an article by Charles Ortel at the Washington Times actually zeroes in on a key figure – close Hillary Clinton adviser Huma Abedin:

…we learned in 2013 that Huma Abedin, long-time confidante of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had been receiving compensation from three employers in addition to the U.S. State Department while supposedly performing work on behalf of American citizens starting right around the time Morsi assumed office.

In July 2012, those who correctly asked questions about Huma Abedin’s origins, interests, beliefs, and loyalties were skewered by many on the left and in the mainstream press — but that was before so many Obama administration “truths” were exposed as bold-faced lies.

In theory, employees acting on behalf of foreign interests are supposed to register with the Department of Justice. Ms. Abedin did not register as such and may well have believed she was not acting in such a capacity.

Last year, Shoebat.com reported extensively on the issue of Abedin’s work as a Special Government Employee (SGE) that appears to have been a clearly illegal arrangement.

Grassley: Raised serious questions about Huma Abedin last year.

Attention was called to this arrangement by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) when he sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry in which he inquired about it. In part, Grassley highlighted the maximum length of time an executive branch employee – which Abedin was in her capacity as Deputy Chief of Staff to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – can work as an SGE:

…an officer or employee of the executive or legislative branch of the United States Government, of any independent agency of the United States or of the District of Columbia, who is retained, designated, appointed, or employed to perform, with or without compensation, for not to exceed one hundred and thirty days during any period of three hundred and sixty-five consecutive days, temporary duties either on a full-time or intermittent basis..

In response to that letter, Abedin’s attorney wrote the following:

The effective date of Ms. Abedin’s SGE appointment was June 3, 2012 (a Sunday that marked the beginning of a pay period). She served in this position until February 1, 2013, when she ended her services with the Department.

As Shoebat.com reported, that translates to approximately 240 days, which would seem to be more than 100 days allowed by law. As an SGE, one of Abedin’s clients was a global consulting firm named Teneo.

This led Ortel to ask some legitimate questions on the eve of Mursi’s espionage trial:

And what, exactly, did Teneo Corporation do for whom to leap into prominence and acquire so many clients with so little private sector experience in such a short time?

Who was paramount Master for Huma Abedin?

What would a rigorous analysis of all email, text message, and voice traffic show among Huma Abedin, associates at Teneo Corporation, associates at the (then-named) William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, the Clintons, the Egyptian government, and the Muslim Brotherhood from June 29-Sept. 11, 2012 and on past the American election?

…What we do not know yet, is what role Ms. Abedin, the Clintons, Teneo Corporation and the Clinton Foundation played in managing Mr. Morsi so that he did not erupt as a toxic, election-losing liability to the Obama administration between June 29 to Nov. 6, 2012.

Legitimate questions all but two individuals Ortel did not mention are Mursi’s wife Najla Ali Mahmoud and former Clinton Foundation employee Gehad el-Haddad. It was Shoebat.com that first reported on the connection between Mahmoud and Abedin’s mother. As two of the Muslim Sisterhood’s 63 leaders, Saleha Abedin and Mahmoud were close colleagues.

Mohammed Mursi speaks at Clinton Global Initiated on September 25, 2012

In addition to working as a “top official” with the Clinton Foundation for five years, as Shoebat.com reported, el-Haddad was also the chief of staff to Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat el-Shater. Like el-Shater and Mursi, el-Haddad was also arrested after Mursi was removed from office.

Moreover, el-Haddad’s father Essam el-Haddad was a close adviser to Mursi, as Shoebat.com reported.

Below is Obama’s response to the petition to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization:

White House runs interference for Muslim Brotherhood.