Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the likely incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" Sunday that he wants to obtain President Donald Trump's records with Deutsche Bank because they could expose "a form of compromise" with Russia.
Schiff told The New Yorker in a profile published last week that he plans to subpoena information on Trump's transactions with the bank because of the German financial institution's longtime relationship with Trump and its past ties to Russian money laundering. Schiff, who Trump has referred to as "little Adam Schitt," said the answer to whether the president was involved with Russian money laundering could exist in the Deutsche Bank records.
"Well, the concern about Deutsche Bank is that they have a history of laundering Russian money," Schiff told Todd on Sunday. "And this, apparently, was the one bank that was willing to do business with the Trump Organization."
"If this is a form of compromise, it needs to be exposed," he added.
Trump has been associated with the German bank since the late 1990s, a time when the big Wall Street banks wouldn't lend to him following a series of business mishaps.
Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that news stories — which were inaccurate — about special counsel Robert Mueller having subpoenaed records from the bank led Trump to consider firing the Mueller in early December.
In September, journalist Bob Woodward reported in "Fear: Trump in the White House," that the president exploded at his former attorney John Dowd after reading those erroneous news reports.
Woodward wrote in the book that after learning of the news, a furious Trump phoned Dowd to voice his displeasure.
"This is bulls---!" Trump said.
The president said last year that Mueller looking into his business dealings would be crossing "a red line."
Trump's financial disclosures showed he held roughly $360 million in debt to the bank prior to his election as president, The Washington Post reported.
Last year, Deutsche Bank was fined roughly $630 million by New York and British law enforcement for its role in a Russian money-laundering scheme.
