Once Again The Media Lies

Huckabee Sanders Vindicated: Bloomberg and WSJ Walk Back Deutsche Bank Subpoena Story

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The Associated Press

by JOHN CARNEY6 Dec 20172,496

Several major news organizations were forced to provide corrections or clarifications on stories that initially claimed investigators had subpoenaed Donald Trump’s financial records from a German bank.

After an initial report about a subpoena from the German daily Handlesblatt, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported that Deutsche Bank had received a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller targeting Trump and his family’s bank records. Those reports were disputed by White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Trump’s personal lawyer.

“We confirmed that the news reports that the special counsel had subpoenaed financial records related to the president are completely false,” Sanders said during the White House’s daily press conference. “No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources. I think this is another example of the media going too far and too fast and we don’t see it going in that direction.”

“We have confirmed that the news reports that the Special Counsel had subpoenaed financial records relating to the president are false. No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources,” Trump lawyer John Dowd wrote in an email.

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Instead of targeting Trump or his family’s records, the subpoenas were aimed at records that pertain to people or organizations affiliated with the president, according to the corrected stories.

Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal have since issued corrections or clarifications about their stories. “An earlier subheadline said a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office requested data and documents about President Trump’s accounts. The subpoena concerns people or entities close to Mr. Trump,” the Wall Street Journal said. 

AFP reported late Tuesday that the subpoena sought information about Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign official who was indicted in October.

The corrections and clarifications come just days after ABC News suspended investigative reporter Brian Ross after he falsely reported that former Trump administration official Michael Flynn had said he was told to make contact with Russian government officials when Trump was still a candidate. Instead, the alleged instructions to contact Russians came after the election, when Trump was president-elect and his team was transitioning into power.

More Fake News?

White House: Mueller has not subpoenaed Trump’s bank records

BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 12/05/17 03:43 PM EST 2,084

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White House: Mueller has not subpoenaed Trump’s bank records

TheHill.com

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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday disputed reports that special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed President Trump’s bank records.

“We confirmed that the news reports [that] the special counsel had subpoenaed financial records related to the president are completely false,” Sanders said during the daily press briefing.

“No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources. I think this is another example of the media going too far and too fast and we don't see it going in that direction," she said.

Citing an anonymous and unidentified official, Reuters reported earlier Tuesday that Mueller’s team had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank, where Trump is believed to have a line of credit and to have conducted tens of millions of dollars in transactions.

But Sanders said those reports are false and were another example of the news media getting something wrong in the frenzy to report on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Sanders declined to say whether banks should comply with subpoenas for records if they receive them.

“I'm not going to get into hypothetical situations and try to determine everything that could happen,” she said. “We know it hasn't happened up until this point and that the reports out were totally false and again the media got ahead of their skis a little bit, pushing and driving that story that wasn't true.”

Tuesday’s reports came on the heels of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleading guilty last week to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.

If Only Democrats Were As Concerned About Hillary

Democrats Renew 

Push to Probe 

Deutsche Bank Russia 

Scandal

By 

Greg Farrell

 and 

Billy House

August 11, 2017, 10:06 AM EDT August 11, 2017, 11:12 AM EDT

• Waters writes letter to GOP chief of House finance committee
• Lawmakers seek information on mirror trades, loans to Trump

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Deutsche Bank Said Close to Deal on Fed's Russia Probe

Can China and Russia Solve the Korea Crisis?

FBI Searches Manafort Home in Russia Investigation

Deutsche Bank Said Close to Deal on Fed's Russia Probe

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A handful of Democratic lawmakers have renewed their effort to get a powerful House Republican to investigate Deutsche Bank AG’s loans to President Donald Trump and the bank’s role in helping Russians move billions of dollars from Moscow to the west.

In a letter to Jeb Hensarling of Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Representative Maxine Waters of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat, urged him to issue subpoenas to Deutsche Bank. She wants to force the German lender to disclose its internal review of the so-called “mirror-trading” scandal that has cost the bank more than $600 million in fines and penalties, and a separate review it conducted concerning Trump, who borrowed more than $300 million in real estate loans years before running for office.

How ‘Mirror Trades’ Moved Billions From Russia: QuickTake Q&A

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This is Waters’s fourth attempt to investigate Deutsche Bank. She first urged Hensarling to start a probe in March. In the absence of a response, she then wrote to Deutsche Bank’s chief executive officer, John Cryan, in May, demanding documents and records connected to the Russian scandal and the president’s accounts. The bank declined, saying it could turn over sensitive records only in response to a congressional subpoena, issued by the head of a committee.

Last month, Waters used a parliamentary maneuver to force a response from Hensarling. Republicans voted down the motion.

Democrats’ Letter

“The fact remains that more than four months after we initially called on you to investigate Deutsche Bank’s Russian money-laundering scheme, we still do not know who participated or benefited, or whether the scheme was related to the broader money-laundering scheme known as ’The Global Laundromat,’” Waters wrote in the letter, which was signed by her and four other leading Democrats.

In a written statement, Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Renee Calabro said, “Deutsche Bank takes its legal obligations seriously and remains committed to cooperating with authorized investigations into this matter.”

There’s simmering frustration among Democrats on the Financial Services Committee and two other top committees that Republicans who control the House are shirking the panels’ oversight responsibilities over issues tied to the president.

Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has rebuffed requests that his committee look into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian collusion in last year’s presidential campaigns, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, or Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s recusal from Russia-related probes.

Special Counsel

Goodlatte has said that there are enough other investigations already under way, including one led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate intelligence committees.

The chairman of the Oversight Committee, Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, also has said that his committee wouldn’t pursue any inquiries related to the Russia’s election meddling. Gowdy is a member of the Intelligence Committee, which is investigating.