Thursday during an interview NPR’s Ailsa Chang, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) said Congress will continue seeking President Trump’s financial records even if he loses his reelection bid in November.
Partial transcript as follows:
CHANG: Well, in the interests of following that roadmap, how do you intend to narrow the scope of your demands for records going forward? I mean, at this point, tell me – what do you most need access to among the president’s financial records?
WATERS: Well, as you know, this all started out with us learning so much about Deutsche Bank and their relationship to the president. Not only are they the only bank in the world that would lend money to this president, all of the other banks have denied him because of his past actions. This president has not been honest. He has claimed assets that he does not have. He has, you know, embellished on his holdings, et cetera, et cetera. And they have – this bank has a great reputation for money laundering. And so his connection to them, the fact that they have, you know, a great reputation for money laundering, and he’s still owing the bank over $300 million. It did increase our interest in how he’s conducted himself and his financial background, et cetera. And so we think that, you know, we can stay with the main reason why we’re subpoenaing those records without – and eliminate maybe some of what we had included in our subpoenas and basically be in compliance with the review.
CHANG: OK. Well, these decisions essentially guarantee that voters will not get to see what’s in these financial records before the election. So I have to ask you, do you feel at some level that you have already lost in a way, even if you do eventually get the records you are asking for?
WATERS: No, I don’t feel that way. And unfortunately, we don’t have control over the timing of the court. We’ve been waiting a long time for the decision to come down. We would have loved to have had it earlier. However, they have decided. And still, I think that if this president is not reelected, he has a lot to answer to that has little to do perhaps with his having served as president but having to do with his relationship to Deutsche Bank and possible money laundering and some other issues that I think the American public still would be interested in. And maybe he will have to be judged by our courts in whether or not he has committed wrongdoing.
CHANG: So you do fully intend to continue pursuing these demands for records even if Donald Trump loses in November?
WATERS: Well, absolutely. We’re committed to our mission. We have the oversight responsibility as the Financial Services Committee in Congress, and we will not walk away from this. We will continue to do our work. As I have said, we believe that there are issues involved, you know, related to money laundering…
CHANG: Right.
WATERS: …And some other kinds of things that certainly this president would have to answer to whether or not he’s still the president or not.
CHANG: OK. Maxine Waters, Democrat from California and chair of the House Financial Services Committee, thank you very much for joining us today.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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