CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Lynch
Interview
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OUTFRONT now, the Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, who as I mentioned is a member of the Financial Services Committee, which is investigating Deutsche Bank's relationship with the president.
Thank you very much, Congressman. I appreciate your time.
So, "The New York Times" is now going into great lengths on the reporting here with Deutsche Bank saying, Deutsche Bank did anything it could do to keep the then Donald Trump happy. The story says, quote, Mr. Trump told Deutsche Bank his net worth was about $3 billion, but when the bank employees reviewed his finances, they concluded he was worth $788 million.
Nonetheless, Deutsche Bank agreed in 2005 to lend Mr. Trump more than half a billion dollars for the project.
First of all, that's crazy, right, somebody will lie to you by that much, when they're starting to do business with them. Why was Deutsche Bank so intent to doing business with Trump when no other banks would?
REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA), FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, at least part of that story in "The Times" alleges, they were trying to get into the investment banking business, but some of these loans were made far after, as you know, Erin, most of these investment banks had already converted into holding companies and so that really wasn't a motivation at the time.
The thing that really gets me is that they knew that before they made the loan that President Trump had overstated some of his assets by as much as 70 percent. Yet they continued to make the loan. So as you mentioned at the outset, we're waiting for documents from Deutsche Bank to see if we can figure that out.
BURNETT: To understand why. I mean, yes. So, you know, then the "Times" goes on in the story today, Congressman, as you noted, there were concerns after the election internally. The quote from the article, on Deutsche Bank's trading floor, managers began warning employees not to use the word "Trump" in communications with people outside the bank.
Why would that be? What would they be afraid of?
LYNCH: Well, you know, I think at this point of that statement, President Trump was in his campaign and was making some very outlandish statements. I think there was some blowback. And so -- and there was also probably the fear that these loans were not, you know, according to usual banking lending standard. So I don't think they wanted the additional scrutiny.
BURNETT: So, Deutsche Bank, of course, in 2017 was fined more than $600 million, and they were fined related to a Russian money laundering scheme. OK, $10 billion Russian money laundering scheme, which involved various Deutsche Bank branches.
I want to play for you what the House Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and the chairwoman of your committee, Maxine Water, have said about this particular issue.
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BURNETT: So, obviously, paying $630 million fine for laundering Russia money is a really big issue. Doing president -- doing business with then Donald Trump, who other banks didn't want to do business with can have its own issues. But do you have any reason to think those two things are related?
LYNCH: Not at this point. Not without getting the documents. Not without really understanding fully what is happening here.
One interesting angle on this is that the only way to verify what the president alleged in his application for the loan would be to really compare it to his tax returns. So this may at some point give a judge reason to compel the president to produce his tax returns.
BURNETT: All right. And that, obviously, could be very crucial. As I know there has been a lot of debate over how and if that would happen. Since obviously, the treasury secretary will fight it.
[19:55:00] Thank you very much, Congressman Lynch. I appreciate your time.
LYNCH: Thank you, Erin.
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