Before running for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, Abdul El-Sayed was reportedly among the signatories to a statement urging Egypt’s president to “purge the media and police”, a demand issued as the country’s newly elected leader expanded his powers.

Published by Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram on November 25, 2012, the statement supported President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood politician elected after the uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. The Brotherhood is an Islamist movement seeking a greater role for Islamic principles in government.

The statement backed Morsi’s “revolutionary decisions” and demanded a purge “as quickly as possible.” It portrayed institutions including the judiciary as controlled by remnants of the former regime. However, signatories also expressed concern about concentrating power in Morsi’s hands.

The list names “Dr. Abdel Rahman al-Sayed—New York.” The Washington Free Beacon identified him as the Michigan candidate, citing sources familiar with Arabic-language media and his attendance at Columbia University at the time. The outlet reported that his campaign did not respond to its questions about the letter.

The period brought documented abuses. The Committee to Protect Journalists recorded prosecutions of journalists for insulting the president or Islam. Human Rights Watch later criticized Morsi’s failure to confront anti-Shiite incitement before four Shiite Muslims were lynched in June 2013.

El-Sayed has denied personal or family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, but the New York Post reported that his half-sister wrote in 2012 about their mother’s “activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college.”

The Midwesterner also reported $7,000 in donations from Mohamed Soltan, convicted in an Egyptian Brotherhood-related case.

The dispute resurfaced this weekend: CBS correspondent Jan Crawford apologized after backlash over praising an attendee who questioned El-Sayed about the Brotherhood.