House Oversight Committee Wants Trump’s Financial Records From The Last 10 Years As Investigation Continues
Congressional Democrats are not done yet.
Despite the Trump administration receiving news last week that Attorney General William Barr is refusing to release the full Mueller report, it seems the president’s troubles are not going to end anytime soon. Congressional Democrats, who have long been hoping to lay their hands on Trump’s financial records, have requested that the documents pertaining to the last 10 years be turned over to them, reports CNBC.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings has requested Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm that prepared several years of financial statements for him, according to a letter Cummings wrote last week, but which was released on Wednesday.
Democrats have been after Trump’s records ever since he refused to release his tax returns before the 2016 elections, making him the first president in three decades to have done so. Congressional Democrats are hoping the analysis of Trump’s finances will help them find answers to the many questions raised by the testimony of his former personal fixer, Michael Cohen.
Cohen turned over the documents, which were prepared by a New York-based accounting firm to help Trump secure a loan, during his testimony to the Congress. Cohen alleged that Trump had submitted false financial statements to Deutsche Bank in order to get financing to buy the Buffalo Bills NFL team, as well as to an insurance company to deflate the value of his real estate possessions in order to receive a tax break.
BREAKING: The House Oversight and Reform Committee is demanding 10 years of Donald Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm, according to two Republicans on the panelhttps://t.co/fb8A5piPgi
— POLITICO (@politico) March 27, 2019
Cummings wrote the letter to Victor Wahba, CEO of Mazars USA, the firm employed to prepare Trump’s financial documents. In the letter, Cummings mentioned that the documents provided by Mazars “raise questions about the President’s representations of his financial affairs on these forms and on other disclosures, particularly relating to the President’s debts.”
Other specific questions — relating to how Trump managed to omit properties from taxation and the discrepancies between the actual interest rate Trump paid to Deutsche Bank versus what was mentioned in his filings to the Federal Election Commission — were also mentioned in the letter.
It is not yet clear if Mazars would furnish the committee with Trump’s financial records, but Wahba has been given until April 3 to turn them over. When asked if the firm would concede to the demand, a spokesperson for Mazars attempted to evade the matter.
“Mazars believes strongly in the ethical and professional rules and regulations that govern our industry, our work and our client interactions. As a matter of firm policy and professional rules we do not comment on the work we conduct for our clients,” the spokesperson said.
