US District Judge Edgardo Ramos of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Wednesday that a preliminary injunction that would block Deutsche Bank from complying with a congressional subpoena for Trump's financial records was "inappropriate" and that the plaintiff's arguments were "not sufficiently serious."
The subpoena that can now move forward covers Trump as well as three of his children, their immediate family members and several Trump Organization entities, and seeks financial records, as well as records of ties they might have to foreign entities, from both Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial Corporation.
Deutsche Bank, which said in a previous statement it was remaining neutral as to the question of the subpoena's legality, has long been a principal lender for Trump's real estate business. A 2017 disclosure form showed Trump had at least $130 million of liabilities with the bank. The New York Times reported that Deutsche Bank has lent Trump over $2 billion in the last two decades, using his business as a launch pad for entering the US market.
Capital One was subpoenaed for documents related to the Trump Organization's hotel business.
The ruling follows one on Monday by a Washington, DC, federal judge that Trump couldn't sue to stop a similar subpoena for his tax records from the Internal Revenue Service.
Several Democrat-controlled congressional committees have issued subpoenas for Trump's financial records, including the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Financial Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.
In order to avoid a conflict of interest between his presidency and his business holdings, Trump was expected to follow the examples of past presidents and either divest from his investments or place them into a blind trust before occupying the White House. Trump did neither, instead placing his adult children in charge of his businesses and dismissing the need for his tax returns to go public. Now, he is accused of having violated the emoluments clause of the US Constitution, which bans the profiting off of public office.
