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The arrest in New York last week of an Egyptian-American accused of spying on exiles opposed to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s repressive regime has lifted the curtain on a “significant” but little noted national security issue: the recruitment of U.S. state and local police by foreign intelligence agencies. 

Pierre Girgis, a dual Egyptian-U.S. citizen in Manhattan, worked at the "direction and control" of several Cairo agencies to advance the regime's interests in the United States from 2014 through 2019, according to a federal indictment handed down Jan. 6.

Girgis, a Capital One bank vice president who openly promoted interchanges between Egyptian officials and American police, had a secret helper, according to the Justice Department:  a source in local law enforcement. FBI wiretaps overheard Girgis and Egyptian officials talking about exploiting the (unnamed) police officer for private information on anti-regime activists here. 

The Girgis case is hardly atypical, law enforcement so…