Appeals Court: Deutsche Bank Must Turn Over Trump Financial Records to Democrats

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that banking institutions must comply with a House Democrat-issued subpoena for President Donald Trump’s financial records.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued the ruling, with Judge Debra Ann Livingston saying in a partial dissent that the lower court should take a longer look at the “serious questions” raised by the case and give the parties time to negotiate.

The court said the application by the president and his children to block the subpoenas was properly denied by a judge this year.

The House Financial Services and Intelligence committees have asked Deutsche Bank and Capital One to turn over records related to Trump’s business ventures. The lawyers for the congressional committees say they need access to documents from the banks to investigate possible “foreign influence in the U.S. political process” and possible money laundering from abroad.

The development comes after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the enforcement of a subpoena for the president’s records.

The high court has given the president until December 5 to file an appeal to a lower court ruling directing financial institutions to turn over the documents.

House Democrats filed a lawsuit in July against the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeking the documents.

“In refusing to comply with the statute, Defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people who participate in the nation’s voluntary tax system,” the lawsuit read.

“Without reviewing the requested return materials, the committee cannot ensure that the IRS’s audit process is functioning fairly and effectively, understand how provisions of the tax code are implicated by President Trump’s returns, or exercise its legislative judgment to determine whether changes to the code may be warranted,” it added.