Tish James subpoenas Deutsche Bank, opens investigation into Trump projects

The fallout from Michael Cohen’s congressional hearing continues.

Two weeks after President Trump’s former “fixer” told lawmakers that his boss inflated the value of his assets to secure loans, the New York attorney general’s office issued subpoenas on Monday to two lenders, Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank, the New York Times reported.

Last week, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a subpoena to insurance broker Aon, also on the basis of Cohen’s testimony.

The subpoena to Deutsche Bank seeks loan applications, mortgages, lines of credit and other transactions connected to Trump properties in Miami, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., as well his failed attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014, according to the Times.

The subpoena to New Jersey-based Investors Bank is for documents related to a project it had backed, Trump Park Avenue.

This new inquiry, a civil investigation whose scope and focus is as yet unclear, opens up a additional scrutiny of Deutsche Bank, one of the few large lenders willing to do business with Trump in recent years. The bank is already the subject of two congressional investigations, and previously claimed it could not legally hand over documents related to its loans.

Soon after she was elected in November, attorney general Letitia James promised to investigate Trump’s real estate dealings, as well government subsidies, Russian collusion and possible violations of the emoluments clause. “We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” James told NBC in December. [NYT] — Kevin Sun