Deutsche Bank says it has Trump-related tax returns sought by Congress

MANHATTAN: Deutsche Bank AG confirmed that it has tax returns requested by US lawmakers seeking financial information for President Donald Trump and his family. Whose returns are those? That’s still a secret.

The disclosure was made by the bank in a letter filed on Tuesday in response to a question from an appeals court. The panel is considering a request from Trump to block access to financial records at Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial subpoened by House Democrats.

The appellate judges had asked if the banks actually had the records. Deutsche Bank and Capital One declined to answer the question in open court, citing laws and customer privacy agreements, but agreed to file the information under seal.


Trump, his children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, and his businesses, sued the banks in April to block them from complying with the demand from lawmakers to turn over financial information. A federal judge in May rejected that request, and Trump has appealed. In its filing on Tuesday, Deutsche Bank said it has tax returns — in either draft or as-filed form — responsive to the subpoenas. The names were redacted. The bank also said it has “such documents related to parties not named in the subpoenas but who may constitute ‘immediate family’ within the definition provided by the subpoenas.”

Deutsche said it does not believe it possesses tax returns responsive to the subpoenas for any individuals other than the people it identified. The bank said it is reluctant to publicly identify information related to tax returns for specific individuals because of “statutory, contractual and privacy concerns”.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act generally prohibits banks from disclosing nonpublic personal information of customers to a third party if the customer hasn’t consented, although the law may allow financial institutions to give out some nonpublic personal information to comply with a subpoena or other legal request, Deutsche said.