SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, subpoenaed financial documents from Deutsche Bank, one of the only banks to maintain a relationship with President Donald Trump in recent decades. (Photos: Getty Images)
House Democrats Ramp Up Probe of Trump's Finances With Deutsche Bank Subpoena
President Trump previously threatened to shut down Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation when he subpoenaed documents from the German bank
Apr 16, 2019
The only major bank that President Donald Trump has been able to count on for financial backing was among those that were issued subpoenas Monday by House Democrats.
The House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees both demanded that Deutsche Bank--one of Trump's most reliable creditors--as well as Citigroup and Bank of America turn over records pertaining to the president's personal and corporate finances.
"The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern." --Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
Last year, reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating Trump's financial dealings with Deutsche Bank led to the president to call for Mueller's probe to be shut down. But Deutsche itself opened an investigation into Trump shortly after he entered office to determine whether its loans to the president had any links to Moscow.
Over the past two decades, Deutsche Bank has been the only financial institution to continue giving credit to Trump. It loaned more than $2 billion to Trump over those years, $300 million of which Trump still owed to the bank when he took office.
As Common Dreams reported last year, German police raided Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters in November in connection with the Panama Papers money laundering investigation. The subpoenas issued by the House committees reportedly pertain to possible money-laundering in Russia and Eastern Europe.
"The information that could bring down Trump," wrote John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus, at Common Dreams last year, "may be somewhere in the Deutsche Bank files. The relevant documents would link the bank's two most questionable financial activities--lending to Trump and washing Russian money."
Democrats vowed to pursue Trump's financial records after they won control of the House in November, saying they wanted to determine whether Russia may have had leverage over the president via his loans from Deutsche Bank.
"The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement Monday.
The subpoenas represent the latest step in Democrats' effort to get to the bottom of Trump's financial ties and those of the Trump Organization--from which the president refused to divest when he took office in 2017.
The House Ways and Means Committee also requested Trump's personal and business tax returns from his accounting firm, leading the president to tell the company not to comply. The accounting firm, Mazars USA has said it plans "fully comply with its legal obligations" while Deutsche Bank says it is cooperating with the House Committees' requests.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The only major bank that President Donald Trump has been able to count on for financial backing was among those that were issued subpoenas Monday by House Democrats.
The House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees both demanded that Deutsche Bank--one of Trump's most reliable creditors--as well as Citigroup and Bank of America turn over records pertaining to the president's personal and corporate finances.
"The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern." --Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
Last year, reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating Trump's financial dealings with Deutsche Bank led to the president to call for Mueller's probe to be shut down. But Deutsche itself opened an investigation into Trump shortly after he entered office to determine whether its loans to the president had any links to Moscow.
Over the past two decades, Deutsche Bank has been the only financial institution to continue giving credit to Trump. It loaned more than $2 billion to Trump over those years, $300 million of which Trump still owed to the bank when he took office.
As Common Dreams reported last year, German police raided Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters in November in connection with the Panama Papers money laundering investigation. The subpoenas issued by the House committees reportedly pertain to possible money-laundering in Russia and Eastern Europe.
"The information that could bring down Trump," wrote John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus, at Common Dreams last year, "may be somewhere in the Deutsche Bank files. The relevant documents would link the bank's two most questionable financial activities--lending to Trump and washing Russian money."
Democrats vowed to pursue Trump's financial records after they won control of the House in November, saying they wanted to determine whether Russia may have had leverage over the president via his loans from Deutsche Bank.
"The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement Monday.
The subpoenas represent the latest step in Democrats' effort to get to the bottom of Trump's financial ties and those of the Trump Organization--from which the president refused to divest when he took office in 2017.
The House Ways and Means Committee also requested Trump's personal and business tax returns from his accounting firm, leading the president to tell the company not to comply. The accounting firm, Mazars USA has said it plans "fully comply with its legal obligations" while Deutsche Bank says it is cooperating with the House Committees' requests.
The only major bank that President Donald Trump has been able to count on for financial backing was among those that were issued subpoenas Monday by House Democrats.
The House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees both demanded that Deutsche Bank--one of Trump's most reliable creditors--as well as Citigroup and Bank of America turn over records pertaining to the president's personal and corporate finances.
"The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern." --Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
Last year, reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating Trump's financial dealings with Deutsche Bank led to the president to call for Mueller's probe to be shut down. But Deutsche itself opened an investigation into Trump shortly after he entered office to determine whether its loans to the president had any links to Moscow.
Over the past two decades, Deutsche Bank has been the only financial institution to continue giving credit to Trump. It loaned more than $2 billion to Trump over those years, $300 million of which Trump still owed to the bank when he took office.
As Common Dreams reported last year, German police raided Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters in November in connection with the Panama Papers money laundering investigation. The subpoenas issued by the House committees reportedly pertain to possible money-laundering in Russia and Eastern Europe.
"The information that could bring down Trump," wrote John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus, at Common Dreams last year, "may be somewhere in the Deutsche Bank files. The relevant documents would link the bank's two most questionable financial activities--lending to Trump and washing Russian money."
Democrats vowed to pursue Trump's financial records after they won control of the House in November, saying they wanted to determine whether Russia may have had leverage over the president via his loans from Deutsche Bank.
"The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement Monday.
The subpoenas represent the latest step in Democrats' effort to get to the bottom of Trump's financial ties and those of the Trump Organization--from which the president refused to divest when he took office in 2017.
The House Ways and Means Committee also requested Trump's personal and business tax returns from his accounting firm, leading the president to tell the company not to comply. The accounting firm, Mazars USA has said it plans "fully comply with its legal obligations" while Deutsche Bank says it is cooperating with the House Committees' requests.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.