House Democrats are pressing Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, for any information on ties that President Trump might have to Russia.
Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday that they had sent an inquiry to the bank regarding possible transactions between Trump and Russian figures, the latest in Democratic attempts to extract information about Trump through financial firms or the U.S. Treasury.
The Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters of California, sought the information from Deutsche Bank because Trump’s business reportedly owed the bank $300 million before he took office.
They have also sought similar information from the Treasury, which monitors bank transactions for money-laundering and anti-terrorism purposes.
“Congress remains in the dark on whether loans Deutsche Bank made to President Trump were guaranteed by the Russian government or were in any way connected to Russia,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to bank CEO John Cryan.
In particular, the Democrats asked for the results of an internal review conducted by the bank to determine whether it had facilitated transactions between Trump and Russian “political leaders, oligarchs and organized crime leaders,” and whether any such ties ran afoul of U.S. sanctions or anti-bribery laws.
In the same letter, the Democrats requested the results of another internal review into a Russian money-laundering scheme for which the bank paid $630 million in penalties this year.
