WASHINGTON: Two House committees subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and several other financial institutions Monday as part of investigations into President Donald Trump’s finances.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-California, said in a statement that the subpoenas are part of an investigation “into allegations of potential foreign influence on the US political process.”
Schiff did not name the other financial institutions or describe the subpoenas.
House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said in a separate statement that “the potential use of the US financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern.” She said her committee is looking into those matters, including whether they pertain to Trump.
It was unclear exactly what the committees asked for. The investigations are among several House Democrats are conducting into aspects of the president’s personal and political life, and Schiff has said he is investigating whether foreign actors, including Russia, have sought to hold leverage over Trump or his family and associates.
Eric Trump, the president’s son and executive vice president of The Trump Organization, said in a statement released Monday that the subpoenas were “an unprecedented abuse of power and simply the latest attempt by House Democrats to attack the President and our family for political gain.”
As part of his investigation, Schiff has said he wants to know whether Russians used laundered money for transactions with the Trump Organization. Trump’s businesses have benefited from Russian investment over the years.
Deutsche Bank is a German asset management firm that has lent Trump’s real estate organization millions of dollars over time. The two committees have been working with the bank for several weeks, and both Waters and Schiff have said officials have been cooperative. Schiff said in his statement that the subpoena to Deutsche Bank is a “friendly” subpoena, meaning he expects them to continue working with the committees.
The request comes as a third committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, is sparring with the White House over Trump’s tax returns.
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has set a deadline of April 23 for six years of returns. But Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, has said Democrats will “never” see the returns, “nor should they,” and “they know it.”
Democrats subpoena banks as they probe Trump finances
Democrats subpoena banks as they probe Trump finances
- The investigations are among several House Democrats are conducting into aspects of the president’s personal and political life.
- Trump son lash at subpoenas as “an unprecedented abuse of power" by the Democrats
Bangladesh readies for polls, worry among Hasina supporters
- The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold elections on February 12, its first since the uprising
- Hasina was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in Nov. and her former ruling party has been outlawed
Gopalganj: Bangladesh is preparing for the first election since the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina, but supporters of her banned Awami League (AL) are struggling to decide whether to shift their allegiance.
In Gopalganj, south of the capital Dhaka and a strong bastion of Hasina’s iron-grip rule, residents are grappling with an election without the party that shaped their political lives for decades.
“Sheikh Hasina may have done wrong — she and her friends and allies — but what did the millions of Awami League supporters do?” said tricycle delivery driver Mohammad Shahjahan Fakir, 68, adding that he would not vote.
“Why won’t the ‘boat’ symbol be there on the ballot paper?” he said, referring to AL’s former election icon.
The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold elections on February 12, its first since the uprising.
Hasina, who crushed opposition parties during her rule, won landslide victories in Gopalganj in every election since 1991.
After a failed attempt to cling to power and a brutal crackdown on protesters, she was ousted as prime minister in August 2024 and fled to India.
She was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity by a court in Dhaka in November, and her former ruling party, once the country’s most popular, has been outlawed.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the AL ban as “draconian.”
“There’s so much confusion right now,” said Mohammad Shafayet Biswas, 46, a banana and betel leaf seller in Gopalganj.
“A couple of candidates are running from this constituency — I don’t even know who they are.”
As a crowd gathered in the district, one man shouted: “Who is going to the polling centers? We don’t even have our candidates this time.”
‘DEHUMANISE’
Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, hailed from Gopalganj and is buried in the town.
Statues of Rahman have been torn down nationwide, but in Gopalganj, murals and statues are well-maintained.
Since Hasina’s downfall, clashes have broken out during campaigning by other parties, including one between police and AL supporters in July 2025, after which authorities filed more than 8,000 cases against residents.
Sazzad Siddiqui, a professor at Dhaka University, believes voter turnout in Gopalganj could be the lowest in the country.
“Many people here are still in denial that Sheikh Hasina did something very wrong,” said Siddiqui, who sat on a government commission formed after the 2025 unrest.
“At the same time, the government has constantly tried to dehumanize them.”
This time, frontrunners include candidates from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest religious party.
Both are from Hasina’s arch-rivals, now eyeing power.
“I am going door to door,” BNP candidate S.M Zilany, 57, told AFP, saying many would-be voters had never had a candidate canvass for their backing.
“I promise them I will stand by them.”
Zilany said he had run twice against Hasina — and was struck down by 34 legal cases he claimed had been politically motivated.
This time, he said that there was “a campaign to discourage voters from turning up.”
Jamaat candidate M.M Rezaul Karim, 53, said that under Hasina, the party had been driven underground.
“People want a change in leadership,” Karim told AFP, saying he was open to all voters, whatever their previous loyalties.
“We believe in coexistence; those involved in crimes should be punished; others must be spared,” Karim said.
Those once loyal to Hasina appear disillusioned. Some say they had abandoned the AL, but remain unsure whom to support.
“I am not going to vote,” said one woman, who asked not to be named.
“Who should I vote for except Hasina? She is like a sister.”
