Deutsche Bank May Have Donald Trump’s Tax Returns, Court Letter Reveals

Deutsche Bank has Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Or at least that’s what it sounds like, based on a letter filed Tuesday with an appellate court which is currently weighing Trump’s request to block the bank and Capital One from turning over financial records to House Democrats, who subpoenaed the documents earlier this year.

“Based on Deutsche Bank’s current knowledge and the results of the extensive searches that have already been conducted, the Bank has in its possession tax returns responsive to the Subpoenas for”… and that’s all you get. Here’s the beginning of the letter (it’s embedded in full below):

As you can see, the redactions mean the public doesn’t know whose tax returns Deutsche has, but one can certainly speculate.

Deutsche lists a number of “statutory, contractural and privacy concerns” as factors which compelled them to redact the name (or names, plural) of the person (or persons) for whom the bank possesses returns. The bank cites the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which prohibits financial institutions from disclosing nonpublic personal information about customers without the consent of those customers.

That said, the letter notes that such information can be released to third parties “in line with the Bank’s own privacy notices, which generally reserve its right to disclose customer information in response to court orders”. Further, Gramm-Leach-Bliley allows for the release by financial institutions of nonpublic personal information to comply with “applicable legal requirements”, including a subpoena.

The letter goes on to say that confirmation of Deutsche’s possession of the tax returns obviously “confirms the Bank’s client relationship with those individuals”, and notably, if the name (or names) on the returns were known, Deutsche says it would “reveal information concerning the nature of the business the Bank has conducted or contemplated with such individuals [as] tax returns are not among the types of information typically shared by a client in opening an ordinary deposit account or applying for a credit card”.

And so, Deutsche had to redact the names in the letter filed on the public docket. The bank thinks that “strike[s] an appropriate balance between compliance with the Court’s order and the competing client privacy considerations underlying Gramm-Leach-Bliley”.

There are other concerns listed to explain the redactions (and you can read them for yourself below), but you get the idea.

“The question of whether the banks had Trump’s tax returns –and would be turning them over if the House subpoenas are allowed — became a sticking point at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday”, CNN recounts. “A lawyer for Deutsche Bank initially wouldn’t answer when asked if the embattled bank had the tax returns, when the court asked during oral arguments over the subpoenas”.

Separately, Capital One said it does not possess tax returns that would be covered by another House subpoena related to Trump.

Democrats didn’t immediately respond to the news (spokespersons for the relevant committees and their members declined to comment on the letter to the media), but you can be sure America will be hearing more about this over the next couple of days.

Conceivably, Democrats could try to say that because the returns were shared with a third party, that constitutes a waiver of privacy. “The House committees told the court in a letter earlier Tuesday that a law prohibiting certain disclosures of tax returns or return information doesn’t apply if the banks obtained that information from Trump or any of the other plaintiffs, and not from the Internal Revenue Service”, Bloomberg notes on Tuesday evening.

“Put simply, the power of Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process”, US District Judge Edgardo Ramos said in May, reading from the 25-page opinion rejecting Trump’s original bid to block the banks from complying with congressional demands.

The president (along with Ivanka, Eric and Don Jr.) sued in April, after Adam Schiff issued what he described at the time as “friendly” subpoenas to several financial institutions. That effort was carried out in conjunction with Maxine Waters’s House Financial Services committee. Waters has zeroed in on Trump’s relationship with Deutsche, one of the few banks willing to deal with the president.

As Politico writes, “if the 2nd Circuit upholds those subpoenas to the two banks, the president’s tax returns and other financial documents could be used as part of the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment investigation”. Last week, Jerry Nadler requested that the House Intelligence, Financial Services, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs panels all share documents with his committee for the purpose of pursuing its impeachment probe.

The president is fighting on multiple fronts to prevent lawmakers from obtaining his financial records. In addition to his efforts to keep House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal from obtaining his returns, Trump also sued Elijah Cummings to prevent Mazars from complying with congressional document requests.

Full letter