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BERLIN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 09: People walk past a branch of Deutsche Bank on February 9, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. Shares of Deutsche Bank rose 16% on the Frankfurt stock exchange on February 10 following rumours the bank may announce a bond buy-back initiative. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
- Deutsche Bank executives told New York Times reporter David Enrich that the bank at one time possessed the president's tax returns dating back to around 2011, according to a new book extract.
- The bank told a federal court last October that it does not possess the documents, in response to a subpoena from congressional committees.
- Trump has broken with decades of precedent in refusing to make his tax returns public.
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Deutsche Bank was in possession of tax returns that President Donald Trump has long shielded from public scrutiny, according to excerpts from a new book on the president's finances in The New York Times.
In the book Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction, Times reporter David Enrich explores the controversial relationship between Trump and the financial giant.
In the book, he claims he was told by executives from the bank that at one point it possessed the tax returns that Trump broke with decades of precedent to withhold from release when he launched his presidential bid in 2015.
"Executives told me that the bank has, or at one point had, portions of Trump's personal federal income tax returns going back to around 2011," writes Enrich in the excerpt.
The significance is potentially huge, Enrich writes: "If Trump cheated on his taxes, Deutsche Bank would probably know. If his net worth is measured in millions, not billions, Deutsche Bank would probably know. If he secretly got money from the Kremlin, Deutsche Bank would probably know."
Democrats have long sought to obtain the tax returns, with House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff claiming in 2018 that they might contain evidence of Trump's reliance on foreign investment from illicit sources.
But in response to subpoenas for the records from two Democrat-controlled congressional committees, the bank last October told a federal court that it does not possess them.
Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in his businesses and finances, and has claimed that he is unable to release the tax returns because they are under audit. The Trump Organization did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the book from Enrich.
Speculation has long centered on Trump's relationship with Deutsche Bank, which was one of the few institutions that would lend to him at a time when most financial institutions were refused to do business.
The claim that Deutsche Bank had the records was previously reported by the Times in April 2019.
Deutsche Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.