AP Photo/John Locher
There’s no shortage of acid-drenched comments from Steve Bannon about Donald Trump and his family in Michael Wolff’s new book Fire and Fury, but one passage in particular has caught the attention of House Democrats attempting to investigate the financial ties of the Trump and Kushner families.
“You realize where this is going,” Bannon told Wolff, referring to the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to fucking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner… It’s as plain as a hair on your face… It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner shit. The Kushner shit is greasy. They’re going to go right through that.”
In a new letter, five top Democrats on the House financial services committee, led by ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), are demanding Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin offer up his agency’s resources in tracking financial crimes to investigate possible money laundering by the Trumps and Kushners. The committee’s Democrats previously asked Mnuchin to turn over data from Treasury’s Financial Intelligence Unit relating to Trump and Kushner investments. Mnuchin didn’t respond, but the committee’s Democrats now emphasize the importance of probing possible money laundering.
“This troubling account from a Trump campaign senior official underscores the need for your compliance with our request,” the letter says.
Additionally, Waters and her fellow committee Democrats are requesting that Mnuchin, who was the Trump campaign’s finance chairman, answer questions about any improper foreign influence on the campaign’s finances—and recuse himself from any law enforcement or regulatory activity involving Trump and his family.
The letter can be read below:
