Deutsche Bank is complying with New York authorities and has begun turning over documents related to loans to the Trump Organization, according to reports made by both CNN and Agence France-Presse.
New York Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed Deutsche Bank on Monday, March 11, requesting records associated with loans issued to now-President Donald J. Trump. Some of the loans in question were granted after Trump falsely inflated his assets, according to testimony by the President’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
As reported by German news organization DW:
Deutsche Bank has been one of the few major banks to lend to Trump and his family-owned organization, following several defaults and bankruptcies by the real-estate mogul in the 1990s. The German bank stopped lending to Trump after he entered office as US president in 2017.
A 2018 financial disclosure form showed that Trump had at least $130 million (€115 million) in outstanding liabilities to Deutsche Bank’s American unit. The bank has loaned Trump and his organization some $2 billion over the years.
The document transfer is independent of the subpoenas issued by the House Intelligence and House Financial Services Committees on April 15. Compliance with the New York investigations, though, strongly suggests there will be compliance with the House inquiries.
This comes as the Treasury Department, under the purview of the White House, has repeatedly delayed providing tax returns filed by President Trump and the organizations under his control. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin has now let two deadlines for providing the information pass, and claims to be consulting with the Justice Department regarding the validity of the Democrat’s requests.
The apparent stonewalling follows Trump repeatedly swearing to provide his tax returns on the campaign trail, and after Trump recently used tax information to attack one of his political opponents.
This writer’s opinion on the hunt for Presidential information has been made clear in a recent editorial.
