Donald Trump’s banking information has formally been handed over to Robert Muellerthe special prosecutor who is investigating whether the president’s campaign conspired with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election.
Deutsche Bank, a German bank that serves as Trump’s biggest lender, was forced to submit documents about its client relationship with the president and some of his family members, who also are Deutsche clients, after Mueller issued the bank with a subpoena for information, according to media reports.
The revelation makes it clear that Mueller and his team are investigating the president’s finances. Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, is also a client.
Deutsche Bank didnt comment, but told Bloomberg in a statement that it always cooperated with investigating authorities.
Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, denied the report, telling Reuters: “No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources.”
Deutsche Bank declined to comment to Sekulow’s statement. But Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, which is investigating the Trump campaign, said Mueller’s reported subpoena of Deutsche Bank “would be a very significant development”.
“If Russia laundered money through the Trump Organization, it would be far more compromising than any salacious video and could be used as leverage against Donald trump and his associates and family,” Schiff said in a statement. He was referring to a private investigator’s unsubstantiated allegation that the Kremlin had video proof of the president’s involvement in a salacious sex act.
Schiff also noted that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, has stated in the past that the Trump Organization received substantial funding from Russia and that there have been “credible allegations” that Russians have used the company to buy Trump properties for the purpose of money laundering.
Legal experts who are following the investigation said it showed Mueller was “following the money” in his search for possible links between the presidential campaign and the Kremlin.
It also indicated that any investigation into Trump personally may not be limited to the question of whether or not the president sought to obstruct justice when he fired the former FBI chief James Comey.
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