Deutsche Bank has Donald Trump’s tax returns and is handing them over to House Democrats
Even as Attorney General William Barr ruins his reputation and puts himself in legal jeopardy in the name of trying to hide Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice crimes, one of Trump’s other scandals just took a major turn in an ugly direction for him. Trump recently filed suit against Deutsche Bank to try to prevent it from turning over his financial records to Congress. Now we know why he suddenly hit the panic button over it.
Deutsche Bank isn’t just turning over Donald Trump’s banking and loan records to the House Intelligence Committee and House Financial Services Committee. Deutsche Bank also has portions of Trump’s personal and business tax returns, and is also turning them over to the committees, according to the seventh and twentieth paragraphs of a lengthy new expose from the New York Times. Why is this such a major revelation?
It’s normal for a lending institution to ask a client for tax returns while making a lending decision, so it was a given that Deutsche Bank had the relevant portions of Trump’s tax returns at some point. But up to now it was never clear if the bank had retained those copies, and if it was willing to turn them over to Congress. Now we know that it has.
When Donald Trump first filed his suit earlier this week, Palmer Report asked why he was suddenly making this move in such belated fashion, considering that House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters announced on MSNBC weeks ago that Deutsche Bank had already begun turning over some of Trump’s financial records. Now we know why Trump made this move. The New York Times must have asked him if he wanted to comment for this story, and in the process he learned that Deutsche Bank was also turning over his tax returns. That’s what this fight is all about.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report