New York State obtains Donald Trump’s financial records
Last month, House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters appeared on MSNBC and revealed that Deutsche Bank had already begun giving her Donald Trump’s financial records. This subtly made clear that Trump’s financial crimes will play a key role in any impeachment process brought against him. But Trump can’t be indicted and arrested on a federal level until he’s out of office, right? Now he has an entirely different problem: New York State.
Deutsche Bank has now begun turning over Donald Trump’s financial records to New York Attorney General Tish James, according to reports today from CNN and other major news outlets. This is a big deal for a few reasons. It means that Congress and New York State are going to be working with the same evidence at the same time.
If impeachment hearings expose that Trump committed a certain financial crime that’s particularly egregious, such as taking money from Russia and lying about it – which is entirely feasible considering the history that Trump and Deutsche Bank both have with money laundering and Vladimir Putin – New York State can go ahead and act on it immediately. That could mean New York seizing Trump’s ill-gotten assets while he’s still in office. It could even mean New York criminally indicting Trump on state charges while he’s still in office, if James wants to try going there.
At the least, it means that New York can have state level indictments lined up against Donald Trump for the minute he’s no longer in office. If the Feds at the SDNY don’t immediately arrest Trump after he exits office, New York State will – and no future president can pardon state charges. Also, if Donald Trump’s banking records reveal that other people in the Trump Organization have committed crimes, New York State can easily indict and arrest them while Trump is still in office.
