Thread by @seth_hettena

Thread: There's a lot of news breaking today about Deutsche Bank and its connections to both Trump and Russia. 1/

First, the @nytimes reported that Deutsche Bank had turned down a request from Trump for a loan in early 2016. 2/ nytimes.com/2019/02/02/bus…

Two sources told the @nytimes that the Trump Organization had been seeking to borrow against its Miami resort to pay for work on a golf property in Turnberry, Scotland. 3/

This is interesting because, as the story notes, it's been unclear how Trump has financed his golf courses. 4/

According to golf writer James Dobson, Eric Trump told him in 2013 that the Trump Org didn't rely on US banks to finance its golf courses. "We have all the funding we need out of Russia," Eric Trump said, according to Dobson. 5/ wbur.org/onlyagame/2017…

According to Dobson, Eric Trump said that the Trump Org had access to $100 million, supposedly from Russia. 6/

In 2014 and 2015, a Trump legal entity lent at least $96 million to the subsidiary that operated Turnberry, according to British regulatory filings.

The next year, the Trump Organization asked Deutsche Bank for more. 7/

But Deutsche Bank said no. The @WSJ, which matched the Times' story, noted that the bank was concerned that "the financing could possibly be funneled elsewhere out of the bank’s control, such as to benefit Mr. Trump’s campaign for the U.S. presidency." 8/

Then, the same two @WSJ reporters who matched the Times story broke a story of their own: After Trump's election, Deutsche Bank was scrambling to shed a $600 million loan it had lent to the Russian bank VTB. 9/ wsj.com/articles/deuts…

The story notes that Deutsche Bank was "worried about its financial contacts with Russia, which US intelligence officials accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election while the campaign was still under way." 10/

That's a really curious sentence. The unstated implication is that Deutsche Bank was worried about its loans to Russia BECAUSE US intelligence had blown the whistle on Russia's hacking of the Clinton campaign. 11/

Further down: VTB said in a statement to the Journal that the loan was intended for regular bank functions "and wasn’t directed to President Trump or any business affiliated with him." 🚨🚨🚨 12/

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank said, “Any assertion that our financing to VTB was intended to benefit President Trump or anyone else connected to him is false.” 13/

But you'll recall that @BuzzFeedNews reported that VTB had agreed to finance the Trump tower deal Felix Sater was developing with Michael Cohen during the 2016 campaign. VTB has denied this too. 14/ buzzfeednews.com/article/anthon…

Another interesting wrinkle: The Deutsche Bank loan to VTB was overseen by its London-based emerging-markets and interest-rates trading desks, according to the @WSJ. 15/

Deutsche Bank's London office is a little too cozy with Russian money launderers. It helped Russians move $10 billion out of the country. 16/ newyorker.com/magazine/2016/…

So what does this all mean? 17/

The $100M spent in 2014 and 2015 on Trump's golf courses may have come from VTB, the Russian bank. 18/

if so, it would explain why Deutsche Bank freaked out after Trump's victory. 19/

A. Russia helps elect Trump
B. Trump had been quietly financed by a Russian state bank.
C. And Deutsche Bank was financing that bank. 20/

Everyone will say no, no, no that never happened.

But remember what Mueller's investigation is showing us: Everyone caught up in the Trump/Russia scandal, is lying. 21/

Congratulations to all the reporters involved in this effort: @jennystrasburg, @rebeccaballhaus, @davidenrich, @JesseDrucker, @benprotess.

I've always found it curious that Trump lawyer George Sorial told The Scotsman newspaper in November 2008 that despite the fact that global markets were imploding the Trump Org had £1 billion ready to invest in a Scottish course. /23 scotsman.com/news/i-ve-got-…

Here's what Glenn Simpson had to say about Trump's Scottish courses in his House testimony: "They're sinks. They don't actually make any money."

I think they are mainly looking for information related to Trump’s Washington hotel, but this is still worth noting. businessinsider.com/us-prosecutors…