Bank Does Not Have Trump Tax Returns -- WSJ

By Corinne Ramey 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 11, 2019).

Deutsche Bank AG, President Trump's longtime lender, doesn't have the president's tax returns that were requested by congressional subpoenas, a federal appeals court said Thursday after reviewing an unredacted letter filed by the bank.

The ruling, from the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, comes in response to a request by news organizations, including Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, to unseal that letter.

In the ruling, the three-judge panel denied the request to unseal the letter but commented on the redactions. "That letter reports that the only tax returns it has for individuals or entities named in the subpoenas are not those of the President," U.S. Circuit Judge Jon Newman wrote.

In April, Mr. Trump and his family sued Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial Corp. in an attempt to block congressional subpoenas. The House Intelligence and Financial Services committees earlier that month had subpoenaed the banks for tax returns and financial records related to Mr. Trump, his children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, and their various business entities.

The district court judge declined to temporarily block the subpoenas, leading Mr. Trump to appeal. A decision on the subpoenas is currently pending before the appeals court.

In a letter in August, lawyers for Deutsche Bank told the appeals court that it had tax returns for two people or entities sought by the subpoenas. Those two names were redacted in the public version of the letter, prompting speculation one of those returns could be the president's.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on Thursday's ruling beyond saying, "We remain committed to cooperating with authorized investigations."

A lawyer for Mr. Trump didn't respond to a request for comment.

The Deutsche Bank case is one of several lawsuits over subpoenas for Mr. Trump's tax returns currently making their way through the courts. Later this month, the same appeals court in New York is scheduled to hear arguments in a dispute between Mr. Trump and the Manhattan district attorney's office over a subpoena for his tax returns and other financial information.

Write to Corinne Ramey at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 11, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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