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Special counsel Robert Mueller has reportedly subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for financial information on President Donald Trump and his associates as part of the investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Multiple news outlets report that Germany’s largest bank received a request from Mueller’s team several weeks ago for data on money and financial transactions made by Trump and his associates.
It’s still unclear which specific individuals Mueller requested information on and whether the president himself was one of them. One of Trump’s personal lawyers, Jay Sekulow, disputes the reports. “We have confirmed that the news reports that the Special Counsel had subpoenaed financial records relating to the President are false,” he said in a statement. “No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources.”
Trump’s family has relied Deutsche Bank for past business loans: The real estate company owned by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and top White House adviser, finalized a $285 million loan from Deutsche Bank one month before election day as part of a refinancing package for one of Kushner’s company’s properties in Times Square.
The bank has also been linked to criminal activity. In January 2017, Deutsche Bank received $630 million in penalties because it was involved in a $10 billion Russian money-laundering scheme that involved the bank’s Moscow, New York, and London branches, CNN reports.
So far, four members of Trump’s inner circle have been charged in connection to the Mueller probe: former campaign chair Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates, campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, and former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. Only Papadopoulos and Flynn have pleaded guilty and both are now working with investigators.
Analysts are speculating that Kushner may be Mueller’s next big target, which may help explain why the special counsel’s office is asking for this information. But this isn’t the first time Mueller’s team has examined financial records as part of its probe, and they retain campaign finance experts on staff.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the Reuters report when Vox called to confirm the story, but did tell NBC News that “Deutsche Bank takes its legal obligations seriously and remains committed to cooperating with authorized investigations into this matter.”
The Office of the Special Counsel also declined to comment when contacted by Vox.
