Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed bank records for President Donald Trump and the Trump family from Deutsche Bank, expanding and extending the Russia investigation beyond its mandate and predicted timeline.
Reuters reported Tuesday:
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) to share data on accounts held by U.S. President Donald Trump and his family, a person close to the matter said on Tuesday.
Germany’s largest bank received a subpoena from Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain money and credit transactions, the person added, confirming a report by German daily Handelsblatt published on Tuesday.
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Deutsche Bank rejected demands in June by U.S. House Democrats to provide details of Trump’s finances, citing privacy laws.
The subpoena is likely aimed at determining whether money for various Trump family business ventures — including those of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — came from Russian sources.
The Special Counsel will likely be looking for any payments that appear to come from the Russian government, or any evidence of money-laundering that might have happened through real estate transactions possibly unrelated to the 2016 presidential campaign.
The bank subpoena is the latest sign that the Special Counsel is casting a wide net, potentially going far beyond the original investigation into Russian interference in the election and and searching for any past wrongdoing by the president, his family, his aides, and his associates.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb, who was brought aboard over the summer to deal with the Russia investigation, once predicted that the Special Counsel probe would be over by Thanksgiving. He doubled down on Monday morning, insisting that any part of the investigation having to do with the White House would be over by January.
But the Deutsche Bank subpoena means that the investigation will likely drag on for months or even years, and could target White House personnel on matters totally unrelated to the presidential campaign.
Speculation has also mounted in the days since Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI that the Special Counsel may be building a case for obstruction of justice against the president. Congressional Democrats have also indicated that they may be focusing their investigative efforts on that claim, in preparation for a possible impeachment bid.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.