Deutsche Bank Says It Doesn’t Have Trump’s Tax Returns

Topline: Deutsche Bank said it doesn’t have President Donald Trump’s tax returns in a court filing released Thursday in what is a blow to House Democrats’ efforts to get ahold of the president’s tax records.

• The disclosure comes in a ruling over Trump’s effort to block the bank from complying with a subpoena from House Democrats looking into his finances.  
• Deutsche Bank had filed a letter in August listing what information described in the subpoena the bank possessed. The letter contained two redacted names or entities, and a coalition of media companies later sued to have that letter unredacted and released.
• The ruling Thursday from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request to unseal the letter in part because, as a judge revealed, the letter said the bank didn’t have Trump’s tax returns.

Crucial quote: The “letter reports that the only tax returns it has for individuals or entities named in the subpoenas are not those of the President. In light of that response, information in the sealed letter, i.e., the identity of the two taxpayers whose tax returns Deutsche Bank has, is not relevant to any issue we need to decide,” judge Jon Newman wrote.

What’s next: There are several different avenues Democrats are pursuing in order to get Trump’s tax returns. The House Oversight and Reform Committee subpoenaed Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, in April for a decade of the president’s financial records. The House Ways and Means Committee has also sent requests and subpoenas to the Treasury Department and I.R.S. earlier this year seeking six years of Trump’s federal tax returns.

Key background: Trump is one of two presidents over the past 40 years who hasn’t voluntarily released his tax returns. The other, Gerald Ford, released summary tax data, not his full tax returns. Democrats have been clamoring to get Trump’s records, but so far their efforts have failed.

Further reading: Read the court filing here.