Jack Crane’s View | Opinion
So, apparently, it has already been done. A key congressional committee has already gained access to President Donald Trump’s dealings with two major financial institutions, according to two sources familiar with the House probe.
This comes as a court ruling Wednesday promised to open the door for even more of the president’s records to be handed over.
According to NBC News, Wells Fargo and TD Bank are the two of nine financial institutions that have complied with subpoenas issued by the House Financial Services Committee demanding information about their dealings with the Trump Organization, according to the sources.
Wells Fargo provided the committee with a few thousand documents and TD Bank handed the committee a handful of documents, according to a source who has seen them. The committee, led by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is especially interested in the president’s business relationship with Russia and other foreign entities.
Waters, appearing on MSNBC’s “Hardball” Wednesday, said “we don’t have information to share with you at this time about what we’ve learned from the documents.”
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that two other banks — Deutsche Bank and Capital One — can hand over financial documents related to their dealings Trump and his businesses to Congress. The Trump family previously sued to prevent those two banks from complying with the congressional subpoena and the ruling paves the way for the committee to now have access to years of financial records from at least four financial institutions.
The documents that have been provided at this point are a fraction of those requested by Waters. Her committee has also sent subpoenas to Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank and JP Morgan Chase. The Royal Bank of Canada is in the process of complying with the subpoena, according to a source.
The development comes as House Democrats are in an internal debate whether to move forward with launching an impeachment inquiry of the president or not.
Deutsche Bank has been the Trump Organization’s biggest lender, financing more than $2 billion in loans to the president during his business career. The president still owes the bank at least $130 million, according to Trump’s latest financial disclosures.
An NBC News analysis reports that at least 14 different Democratic-led House committees are investigating various aspects of Trump and his presidency. Accessing bank records could provide new momentum for an investigation centered around questions of whether foreign individuals or governments hold financial leverage over the president, his family or his businesses.
Credit: NBC News
