Democrats call for Trump to release financial dealings with Deutsche Bank
THE personal bank of Trump and his family is facing calls to release further information about a loan made to help Trump out of a sticky situation.
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DEMOCRATS and anti-corruption campaigners are calling for further investigation into the relationship between Deutsche Bank, President Trump and his family in light of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the US election.
On Friday, Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee called on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “co-operate” in “determining the extent of any undue influence” Russian money has had on the President and his government.
It follows a letter senior Democrat Maxine Waters sent to Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein a week earlier, citing the “unusual and extensive business” Trump and his family have with the German bank and calling for full disclosure.
Waters noted her concern following reports a Justice Department investigation into Deutsche Bank’s dealings with Russia had “gone dormant” despite the bank previously being fined more than $630 million for failing to prevent $10 billion worth of Russian money laundering through a complex system of “mirror trades”.
While there is no connection between Deutsche Bank’s role in Russian money laundering and the fact it counts Trump and his immediate family as personal clients, Democrats claim the lack of transparency leaves unanswered questions.
“Should there be any nexus between Deutsche Bank, the Russian mirror trading scheme and the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election, will the information be provided to Special Counsel Robert Mueller?” Waters wrote in her letter demanding answers by December 15.
WHY DEUTSCHE BANK IS SIGNIFICANT
The German investment bank has been catapulted into the spotlight following media reports it was forced to hand over documents relating to Trump family financial transactions to Mueller’s investigation.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders denied the reports as “completely false”. Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow also said “no subpoena has been issued or received”.
“We have confirmed that the news reports that the special counsel had subpoenaed financial records relating to the president are false,” he said.
The bank would not comment on reports, saying only that it was “committed to co-operating with authorised investigations”. However news Mueller’s team is looking into bank records has raised new questions about Deutsche Bank, Trump’s family finances and the bank’s Russian operation.
Guardian journalist Luke Harding, author of Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money And How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, said while there are no clear links at present, “there are two things going on, both of them interesting”.
“The first is the strange lending to Donald Trump after 2008 when he defaulted on this $40 million loan and countersued Deutsche Bank, claiming that Deutsche Bank had co-created the financial crisis.
“It was really the most kind of frivolous-try-it-on meal claim that I think I’ve ever seen,” Harding said about Trump’s brazen plan to countersue, claiming the 2008 crisis was akin to a flood, riot or strike.
“The mystery is why Deutsche Bank continued to lend to Trump. Not only that but he owed tens of millions of dollars to the real estate division and then the private wealth division of the same bank, Deutsche Bank, lent him the money to pay off that debt.”
“It’s very strange. I spent months trying to get Deutsche Bank to talk about this. The bank refused, I talked to sources inside the bank and I said, ‘Is this normal behaviour?’ Normally you would expect that if a client defaults and sues you would dump them. I got the answer ‘Are you f***ing kidding me?’ In other words people deep inside Deutsche Bank New York were also totally bewildered as to why this is going on.”
Deutsche Bank also made headlines in January for failing to stop an elaborate “mirror trading” scheme to launder Russian money, for which it was fined more than $630 million.
“What we can’t say is that these two things directly connect but what we can say is that the bank in Moscow was laundering billions in Russian money while the New York division was simultaneously lending to Donald Trump,” Harding said.
Russian anti-corruption campaigner Roman Borisovich, who previously worked at Deutsche Bank and is now dedicated to exposing Russian corruption, said the “completely unnatural” Trump loans deserve the sunlight of Mueller’s investigation.
“I would love for [Mueller] not to just subpoena documents not just related to Deutsche-Trump relationship, I would love them to subpoena Deutsche-Russia documents as well. Any potential linkage they need to investigate that first and foremost. If they do find it, I’m sure they’ll follow the thread and unwind this whole affair.”
Trump has consistently denied benefiting from Russian influence in the US election, reportedly believing the investigation is a Democratic plan to delegitmise his presidency.
He has a long history with Deutsche Bank from his real estate career and it’s estimated he owed the bank around $300 million in July 2016. His wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared are also known to be clients.
In February, Deutsche Bank sources admitted records were “doubled checked” after Trump’s election to make sure loans were not underpinned by Russian money, Harding reported for The Guardian. While no evidence of a link was found, Democrats ramped up pressure on the bank to release information.
At the time, Democrat Bill Pascrell Jr said: “We know that Deutsche Bank is a major lender to President Trump, and the firm is also currently undergoing scrutiny by the Department of Justice for alleged misconduct.
“I think it’s important for the American people to know the extent of the bank’s involvement with the president, and whether there is any Russian involvement in loans made to Mr Trump.”
The calls come as Robert Mueller’s investigation has intensified, with charges against former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort, his deputy Richard Gates and campaign official George Papadopoulos.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn also pleaded guilty to lying to investigators, a relatively minor charge stoking speculation he had agreed to testify against others.
Originally published as Democrats call for Trump to release financial dealings with Deutsche Bank
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