Franfurt: Deutsche Bank AG has received a subpoena from special prosecutor Robert Mueller over its dealings with President Donald Trump, in another sign that Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the US election is deepening.
Mueller has demanded that Germany’s largest lender share data on its client relationship with Trump, according to a person briefed on the matter. The subpoena, received several weeks ago, obliges the bank to submit documents detailing its business with Trump and his family, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the action has not been announced publicly. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
The news comes as Mueller’s investigation appears to be entering a new phase, with Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleading guilty Friday to lying to FBI agents, becoming the fourth associate of the president ensnared by Mueller’s probe. More significantly, he also is providing details to Mueller about the Trump campaign’s approach to Flynn’s controversial meeting with a Russian envoy during the presidential transition.
Mueller’s team has also been interviewing White House aides in recent weeks, including former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and National Security Council chief of staff Keith Kellogg, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Trump loans
Trump owed Deutsche Bank about $300 million (Dh1.1 billion) from his real estate dealings before moving into the White House. Democratic lawmakers, led by Representative Maxine Waters of California, have for months been pushing for more transparency over the president’s relationship with the bank.
Waters and other lawmakers have asked whether the bank’s loans to Trump, made years before he ran for president, “were guaranteed by the Russian government, or were in any way connected to Russia.”
Previously, the bank rejected demands that it release information on Trump, saying the sharing client data would be illegal unless it received a formal request to do so.
As Mueller’s investigation unfolds, Trump has gone on the offensive. Over the weekend on Twitter, he attacked the FBI and Mueller’s team and defended some of Flynn’s actions. In particular, Trump hailed the news that one of Mueller’s aides had been removed from his job over the summer for some anti-Trump text messages.
On Monday, as he left the White House for a trip to Utah, Trump restated his sympathy for Flynn and his assertion that prosecutors should have pursued action against his general election rival, Hillary Clinton.
