Wisner went to Egypt to gauge Mubarak’s intentions, according to The New York Times. This assignment led many to believe the Obama administration was trying to pressure Mubarak into resigning in the face of his country’s violent protests.
Wisner met with Mubarak on Feb. 1 to urge him not to run for reelection, but the Egyptian leader declined to meet with Wisner for a second time on Feb. 3 after being angered by a speech President Obama had recently made.
Wisner declined to comment as he is prohibited from speaking to the press.
At a meeting in Munich on Feb. 5, however, Wisner said that the U.S. should not rush to displace Mubarak and that the Egyptian president had an important role to play through the end of his term in September, according to the Times.
“You need to get a national consensus around the preconditions of the next step forward,” he said. “The president must stay in office in order to steer those changes through.”
However, Patton Boggs LLP, the litigation firm at which Wisner previously worked, claims to have advised both the Egyptian military and the Egyptian Economic Development Agency.
The company has handled litigations and arbitrations in Europe and the United States on behalf of the Mubarak government, leading to questions about a potential conflict of interest for Wisner.
Wisner’s public comments at the time did not reflect official policy, the Obama administration said the time.
“The views he expressed today are his own,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said, according to the Times. “He did coordinate his comments with the U.S. government.”
Wisner graduated from the University in 1961 with a degree in Oriental languages and literatures and later joined the U.S. Foreign Service, traveling to Algeria and Vietnam during the height of the Vietnam War.
He later served as ambassador to Zambia, the Philippines and India.
During his time as ambassador to the Philippines under President George H.W. Bush, Wisner helped stabilize the administration of President Corazon Aquino who had survived several coup attempts by Philippine military members.
Wisner was also a special envoy for the Bush administration from 2006 to 2007, helping to negotiate the independence of Kosovo.
In addition to working at Patton Boggs, Wisner served as vice chairman of insurance company AIG for 10 years.
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