On April 29, I wrote an article in which I noted that given Trump’s connections to Deutsche Bank, the fact that Deutsche Bank has served the interests of government dictators who have engaged in genocide in the Middle East for over a century, and the recent arms deal signed by Trump with the Saudi government that supports the genocide of the Yemeni people, that it would be interesting to know how these three overlap and interlock with each other. I noted there is a possibility that Trump may be receiving monies from either the Saudis, Deutsche Bank, or both, but this would need further investigation.
Sure enough, Trump just had his attorneys file a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank to obstruct a congressional investigation into his financial holdings:
President Donald Trump; his children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka; and his business are suing two banks to block them from turning over financial records to congressional committees that have issued subpoenas for the information. It’s the second attempt in court that Trump has made this month to thwart the Democratic-led House of Representatives from investigating his financial history.
The legal action, filed in New York’s Southern District, is against Deutsche Bank, one of Trump’s lenders, and Capital One. Both banks “have long provided business and personal banking services to Plaintiffs,” Trump’s attorneys said.
“The subpoenas were issued to harass President Donald J. Trump, to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses, and the private information of the President and his family, and to ferret about for any material that might be used to cause him political damage. No grounds exist to establish any purpose other than a political one,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the complaint filed late Monday.
The lawsuit is the latest salvo by the President in efforts to hold off Democratic scrutiny of his business and personal finances, and is similar in legal strategy to actions brought last week against an accounting firm and a congressional chairman.
But Monday’s lawsuit had a slight difference from the suit last week, in that neither the House itself nor House members are being sued. The other lawsuit, in federal court in Washington against the accounting firm Mazars USA and the House Oversight Committee, is also attempting to prevent the House from getting Trump’s financial records.
The lawsuit in New York claims that the subpoenas the House Intelligence Committee and House Financial Services Committee sent to Deutsche Bank and Capital One aren’t valid because they violate banking privacy law and they are not for shaping legislation. Yet at least one other court has said previously that claims like those can’t stop congressional subpoenas.
In this new case, Trump’s team says it couldn’t get access to details of the subpoenas through the House committees and instead learned about them through Deutsche Bank on April 17.
Trump’s attorneys say the chairs of the House Intelligence and Financial Services committees — Reps. Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters, both of whom are California Democrats — confirmed two banks received subpoenas from their committees for information related to Trump’s finances but have refused to provide copies of the subpoenas.
The banks described the subpoenas to Trump’s attorneys, according the lawsuit.Based on those conversations, Trump’s attorneys claim that the committees are seeking all banking and financial records “not just concerning the individual Plaintiffs, but also their own family members,” including children and in some cases grandchildren, according to the lawsuit.
Trump’s attorneys — Will Consovoy, Patrick Strawbridge and Marc Mukasey — said the lawsuit is meant to protect Trump, his family and his business.
“The subpoenas issued to Deutsche Bank and Capital One by Chairpersons Schiff and Waters are unlawful and illegitimate,” the statement read. “They seek information going back decades from anyone with even a tangential connection to the President, including children, minors and spouses. Every citizen should be concerned about this sweeping, lawless, invasion of privacy. We look forward to vindicating our clients’ rights in this matter.”
Deutsche Bank said in a statement it will comply with all subpoenas and court orders.
“We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations and will abide by a court order regarding such investigations,” the statement read.
Last week, CNN reported that the bank was complying with a subpoena from New York Attorney General Letitia James for documents related to loans made to Trump and his business. The bank is in the process of turning over documents, including emails and loan documents, related to Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC; the Trump National Doral Miami; the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago; and the unsuccessful effort to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
CNN has reached out to Capital One for comment.
In a statement, Waters and Schiff called the lawsuit “meritless.”
“This lawsuit is not designed to succeed; it is only designed to put off meaningful accountability as long as possible,” Waters and Schiff said. “Trump has already said publicly that he is fighting all of the subpoenas from Congress, and that he does not respect Congress’ role as a coequal branch of government. This unprecedented stonewalling will not work, and the American people deserve better.”
CNN reported the committees issued joint subpoenas for the records early this month. Although the full scope of the subpoenas couldn’t be determined, the one to Deutsche Bank is for information about loans the bank made to Trump and the Trump Organization, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
By declining to provide the copies of the subpoenas to Trump’s legal team, the Democrat-led committees are preventing the President and his team “from even knowing, let alone negotiating, the subpoenas’ scope or breadth,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit comes one week after Trump sued the Chairman Elijah Cummings, of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, over his panel’s subpoena to an accounting firm that prepared several years’ worth of Trump’s financial statements.
The congressional lawsuits are more evidence that Trump is making good on his promise to aggressively fight or stall Democratic investigations into his personal finances and business. Last week, the Treasury Department missed a deadline to turn over six years of the President’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee. (source, source)
The entire “Trump saga” that has been the last three years of his presidency is but a show for the masses. It does not matter how many “sealed indictments,” “dossiers,” or other ridiculous drama is put out, because this is fodder for the masses to divide and distract them from actual issues.
But this issue with Deutsche Bank is very interesting. It must not be ignored because as noted earlier, Deutsche Bank has a historical reputation for being the bank of choice of war criminals or through which many questionable financial dealings leading to war crimes have taken place.
Is it then a surprise why Trump works with them? It is not an exaggeration to say that Trump is a “war criminal” not because he directly ordered massacres (such as with Talaat Pasha in the Armenian Genocide), but because he, knowing there is a genocide taking place in Yemen, willingly signed an arms deal to sell weapons to the people committing the genocide because it was “too big to pass up.”
Whether one calls it giving a keg of alcohol to a drunk, a line of cocaine to a drug addict, a line of credit to a gambler, the fact is that the Saudi government cannot commit genocide without the tools needed for genocide, and Trump just gave them those tools because there was money in it.
It is a war crime.
The fact that Trump would sue Deutsche Bank is not a liberal or conservative issue. It is an issue of interest to the public in the same way that it would be for any other person. There is no doubt that whatever the outcome is, it will be used for political leverage.
Unlike the rest of the Trump drama, this issue with Deutsche Bank is serious and could result in an impeachment or other charges, especially if he was found to have gained personal financial benefit from it.
Do not believe that Trump is not going to try and work out a “deal” in private with the German government and Deutsche Bank to try and shield his records. Why else would he make a statement almost a half-a-day before filing his lawsuit through his sodomite ambassador Richard Grennell that Germany “could be his favorite country”?:
U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said he believes Germany “has the potential” to become U.S. President Donald Trump’s “favorite country.”
“I say this constantly and I really believe this,” Grenell told Bild Monday. “Germany has the potential to be Trump’s favorite country — because we speak the same language.”
But the envoy, who has been in Germany since last year, was talking about economic performance, not German.
“That’s the language that President Trump speaks: jobs and the economy,” he said.
Grenell also had a dig at the EU over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which the U.S. strongly opposes. “There are 16 European countries that are opposed to Nord Stream 2,” he said, adding the United States was “standing with those.” (source)
Grenell can present this conversation however he wants, but it does not change the curious timing and nature of the remarks themselves. It would not be a surprise if suddenly any document detailing Trump and questionable collaboration with Deutsche Bank and Saudi Arabia disappeared. Why else would he make such a conditional announcement of friendship at this time?
It is also interesting to note that two weeks ago, Turkey froze the assets of three senior Houthi militia leaders:
Turkey has frozen assets of three senior Yemeni Houthi militia leaders in line with U.N. Security Council sanctions against the rebels, the state’s official gazette said on Thursday.
The U.N. imposed sanctions in 2014 on the Houthi leadership and then Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced out in 2012 and blacklisted for obstructing peace by later backing the Shiite militia after it seized power in Sanaa.
Ankara has in the past targeted assets of Saleh and his son, in line with U.N. sanctions against the ousted strongman, who was assassinated two years ago.
The official gazette said the new sanctions targeted Houthi leader Abdulmalek al-Houthi and two military commanders Abd al-Khaliq al-Houthi and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim.
It also listed Saleh and his son Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Assets belonging to Saleh and his son in Turkish banks and other financial institutions were already temporarily frozen more than two years ago.
Saleh amassed between $32 billion and $60 billion through corruption and stashed assets in at least 20 countries during his 33 years in power, according to a U.N. report.
The Yemen conflict pits the Iran-linked Houthis against a regional pro-government coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which intervened in the conflict four years ago.
Since then the war has killed around 10,000 Yemenis, according to the World Health Organization, triggering what the U.N. calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. (source, source)
Money does not come out of nothing, and it certainly does not disappear. Somebody has to receive those assets. The question is who, and it is a very important question as it is the Saudis with American backing and connections to German finance who are waging war against the Yemenis and who stand to benefit the most. It is no different than how the Ottomans and their American and German backers directly benefited from the stolen assets of Armenians Christians taken by the Ottomans as a result of the genocide.
Trump heavily criticized Hillary Clinton for destroying documents and data to obstruct an investigation against her, who he not prosecuted as he so often said during his campaign. Now, it appears that Trump is doing the exact same things that Hillary did- obstructing an investigation, and while we do not have direct evidence of it, a suggestion at the destruction of documents that could indict him.
What applies to one group of people also applies to another. The Bible makes this very clear, that God favors no man save for one characteristic, and that is the moral righteousness of that person.
Standards and law exist for a reason, and that is the preservation of truth and order. What is expected of Hillary Clinton is also expected of Donald Trump.
During the Armenian Genocide, the assets of the murdered Christians were taken by the Ottoman officials and deposited into their bank accounts. Deutsche Bank was the banker. This was in 1917.
Could it be that the same is happening today, except the Armenians then are the Yemenites now, and the Ottomans then are the Saudis now? Could it be that Trump is getting, likely as a kickback, some of the blood money stolen by the Saudis?
That is a serious question, and that in spite of his claims, the fact that Trump is trying to stop an investigation into his connections with not just any bank, but the bank of choice of war criminals for a century, only raises more suspicion.