Mueller Demands Trump’s Deutsche Bank Account Details, Where President Owes Millions: Report – By Graham Lanktree (newsweek.com) / Dec 5 2017
Special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed President Donald Trump financial dealings with Deutsche Bank, likely including information on a large loan borrowed from Germany’s biggest financial institution, according to reports.
German business paper Handelsblatt first reported the supoena, confirmed by Reuters through an anonymous source close to the matter. Both reports said Mueller issued the subpoena several weeks ago. Handelsblatt said the subpoena requested information on the bank’s dealings with the Trumps, where Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, and her husband Jared Kushner are also clients. Deutsche Bank spokesman Chalie Olivier told Newsweek the bank declined to comment on the matter.
In June, President Trump disclosed that he owes the bank roughly $130 million. Sources familiar with Trump’s borrowing from the bank told The Financial Times the total he owed is more like $300 million.
Trump borrowed $640m in 2005 from the bank to build Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. In 2008 Trump sued the bank to get out of $40 million in guarantees he had made them on his loan. The case was settled in 2009.
While Trump campaigned during the 2016 election, the bank rejected calls to be transparent about exactly how much money Trump owes and why.
Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign helped Russia in the Kremlin’s efforts to interfere in the election to throw it to Trump. The president’s financial records could potentially show whether Trump owes or has received money from suspects connected to Russia.
Trump has done billions of dollars’ worth of business with Deutsche Bank in the past 20 years; he has previously said that he would consider Mueller looking into his finances beyond any connection to the Russia investigation “a violation.”
In September the IRS shared financial details about members of Trump’s campaign team with Mueller’s investigation. It is not clear whether the investigation has Trump’s tax returns, but Mueller is authorized to access such documents.
PB/TK – If Mueller has the authority to subpoena bank records then he should do it, however, his team should only be looking for details needed, no more no less. But why use a campaign account or known personal account to hide money, isn’t there some sort of off-shore bank to use and does Mueller’s search follow under a type of required records law?
