The top Democrat leading the probe and Deutsche Bank has shown its cooperation with the House Financial Services Committee’s investigation into Donald Trump’s finances. The chairwoman Maxine Waters has confirmed that the bank will provide its records of the president’s finances, after previously rebutting Democrats throughout 2017 and 2018. The bank previously declined to cooperate with Democrats on the committee before they assumed majority power after sweeping the House in the 2018 midterm elections.
Waters said on Tuesday and confirmed the bank’s cooperation to reporters on Capitol Hill. The committee was probing everything involving Trump’s financial dealings with the bank that was recently fined in a major Russian money laundering scheme. The chairwoman added she was satisfied with its level of cooperation since Democrats took over the investigation after Republicans previously rejected their efforts to probe Trump’s ties to Deutsche Bank.
The New York Times report published earlier this month that Trump and Deutsche Bank were deeply entwined throughout his rise to prominence as a New York real estate mogul. The report alleged the president inflated the value of his assets by as much as 70%. The extent of Trump’s potential involvement in criminal misconduct with Deutsche Bank remains unclear, as investigators probe other possible financial crimes in addition to the bank’s money laundering. The bank was previously blamed for violating international sanctions, along with money laundering, market manipulation, and other illegal practices. It was forced to pay $630 million in fines to the Justice Department in 2017.