Deutsche Bank has agreed to cooperate with members of Congress probing President Trump’s finances, Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, said Friday.
The newly seated chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, Ms. Waters said she recently began working with the German banking giant to acquire documents detailing its ties to Mr. Trump.
“We started sending letters to Deutsche Bank last year, and they were not responsive because they did not feel we had the authority to demand anything from them, the documents we wanted,” Ms. Waters told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “But now that I am chairing that committee, the Democrats are in charge of the House, they have said they will cooperate.”
“We’re going to find out a lot about Deutsche Bank and that bank’s relationship to the president,” Ms. Waters added. “We are very concerned about money laundering. We know that Deutsche Bank has had a reputation for money laundering for a long time.”
Messages seeking comment from Deutsche Bank and the White House were not immediately answered.
“Deutsche Bank is engaged in a productive dialogue with the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees to determine the best way of assisting them in their official oversight functions,” the bank said previously. “We remain committed to providing appropriate information.”
First elected to Congress in 1990, Ms. Waters became chair of the House Financial Services Committee when Democrats took control of the House as a result of the outcome of the November 2018 midterms.
Michael Cohen, the president’s convicted former personal attorney, repeatedly mentioned Deutsche Bank during his appearance at an open hearing Wednesday held by the Democrat-controlled House Oversight Committee, and his testimony was supplemented by financial statements Mr. Trump allegedly gave to Deutsche Bank in an effort to obtain a loan to be used toward purchasing the Buffalo Bills football team.
“It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes,” Mr. Cohen testified.
Mr. Trump described his former lawyer’s testimony afterward as rife with “fraudulent and dishonest statements.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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