Trump, House Democrats working to resolve dispute on Deutsche Bank subpoenas

[June 19, 2021]  By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives remain in talks to resolve disputes concerning congressional subpoenas of the former U.S. president's financial records from Deutsche Bank AG, their lawyers said on Friday.

Deutsche Bank, long Trump's main bank, has taken no position on the subpoenas and said it would comply with the law.

A joint status report filed in Manhattan federal court did not say whether Trump and the Democrats, who control the House, still believed they were "close to an agreement," as they had been when filing a similar report on May 17.
 

The lawyers said all parties, including Deutsche Bank, are addressing matters concerning "the scope, logistics, and other factors implicated by the proposed terms of any such resolution to determine the best procedure to move this case forward." They asked a judge for another 30 days to continue talks.

Lawyers for Trump and the Democrats did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Two House committees had in 2019 subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for years of banking records concerning Trump, his adult children and his businesses.

The House Financial Services Committee was examining possible money laundering in U.S. property transactions, while the House Intelligence Committee was probing whether Trump's dealmaking left him vulnerable to foreign government influence.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the North Carolina GOP convention dinner in Greenville, North Carolina, U.S. June 5, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

Trump opposed the subpoenas, citing the powers he then had as president. Unlike several recent presidents, he declined to make his tax records public.

Last July, the U.S. Supreme Court said Trump did not have an absolute right to block Congress from seeing his records, but said a lower court failed to adequately consider whether lawmakers' demands were overbroad or too intrusive.

The 2019 subpoenas have expired but an agreement on Deutsche Bank's records would eliminate a need for new subpoenas.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has eight years of Trump's tax returns for a criminal probe into the former president and his businesses, after the Supreme Court separately rejected Trump's effort to keep Vance from seeing them.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Howard Goller)

[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.