Prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s business dealings have received a trove of information about the US president’s finances from Deutsche Bank, it has been revealed.
The criminal investigation into the property mogul’s finances was previously thought to have been focused around hush-money payments to two women made in 2016.
But revelations about Deutsche Bank’s involvement suggest the case is “more wide-ranging than previously known”, The New York Times reports. Court filings published on Monday refer to “possible criminal activity at plaintiff’s New York county-based Trump Organization dating back over a decade”.
The US president has faced several allegations of tax-dodging since he took office and has fought tooth and nail to keep his financial records out of the public eye. The resulting court battles have been a fixture of his White House tenure.
“Deutsche’s cooperation contrasts with numerous other attempts to access Trump’s financial records… that have been blocked by successful legal challenges,” The Guardian reports.
The German bank, which has lent Trump companies more than $2bn (£1.5m) over the last 20 years, complied with a subpoena issued last year by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, handing over wads of financial information in the process.
Mazars, the global accountancy firm, was also subpoenaed last year as part of the attorney office’s six-year pursuit of the president’s tax returns.
Last week Trump’s legal team submitted an “amended lawsuit”, Fox Business reports, arguing that the “request for his tax returns and other materials was ‘overbroad’ and issued ‘in bad faith’.”
On Monday, he labelled the entire investigation “a continuation of a witch hunt”.
