Joe Lockhart: Deutsche Bank is ‘Looking After Their Own Interests’ by Slow-Rolling Release of Trump Tax Returns
A CNN New Day panel raised many questions about the heavily redacted report from Deutsche Bank released Tuesday in regards to President Donald Trump’s tax returns, but CNN’s Joe Lockhart cut right to the chase about why the bank was hesitant to comply with House investigations: “they’re looking after their own interests.”
“They needed to be subpoenaed to admit they may even have something, which shows they’re either really — they’re concerned about giving forward the information they have is to put it mildly,” said CNN’s John Avlon. “But it raises a lot of questions about what might be on these pages and what it could show.”
Whose money was the bank loaning to Trump “when no one else would” giving out, Avlon wondered, and who were the cosigners?
Lockhart said plainly that Deutsche Bank was making it as difficult as possible for House Democrats to access Trump’s tax returns because “they’re looking after their own interests. They’ve been accused of money laundering.”
“The bombshell in this could be that Donald Trump was a player in this with the Russians at Deutsche Bank in laundering money. We don’t know. But they’re not protecting Donald Trump, they’re protecting themselves,” Lockhart concluded.
CNN analyst Elaina Plott said court proceedings regarding the president’s tax returns will likely make their way to the Supreme Court. Though the White House may try to delay the proceedings, she said they will likely wrap up before the 2020 election, “which is when it could matter most.”
Deutsche Bank said Tuesday that it does possess tax returns tied to President Trump. After two House Committee subpoenas, Deutsche Bank admitted that it possesses tax returns which may be related to Trump, his family, or the Trump Organization, but the court filing is so heavily redacted that little else is yet known.
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said Wednesday morning he has sources that tell him Russian oligarchs co-signed on Trump’s loans with Deutsche Bank (NBC has not verified the reporting yet).
Watch above via CNN.
