Donald Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein scandal just got even worse for him
Donald Trump had a bad day on Wednesday, thanks to Robert Mueller, who said just enough during his uneven testimony to help convince a chunk of non-partisan Americans that Trump is indeed a criminal who belongs in prison. The Mueller spectacle threatened to drown out a scandal of a different kind, which could end up being every bit as dangerous for Trump.
For years, Deutsche Bank made suspiciously large loans to Donald Trump – many of which were simply never paid back – even as Deutsche Bank was laundering Russian money through places like New York City. It’s not difficult to connect the dots and figure out that the Kremlin was using these “loans” to launder money through Trump’s businesses. Deutsche Bank is currently caught in a court battle between Trump and House Democrats over whether it should turn over Trump’s financial records. Part of that will depend on the court’s ruling, but part of it will also depend on how honest and forthcoming Deutsche Bank is willing to be about Trump’s crimes. This brings us to Jeffrey Epstein.
The New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump’s old friend Jeffrey Epstein was doing significant financial business with – you guessed it – Deutsche Bank. It’s a sign of just how eagerly the bank was courting wealthy criminals at the height of it’s corporate depravity. But even before Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking of minors, Deutsche Bank had already begun reporting some of Epstein’s transactions to the United States government, in the hope of helping to nail him on financial crimes.
What does this have to do with Donald Trump? There are two things Trump has to worry about here. First, this is a sign of just how eager Deutsche Bank is in general these days to help take down its own longtime criminal customers, in the hope of pulling itself back from the legal brink. Second, if Epstein and Trump are intertwined in financial crimes, as has long been suspected but never proven, the Epstein financial records turned over by Deutsche Bank could end up nailing Trump.
