— --美国一名资深参议员本周表示，司法部对借给唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)超过3亿美元的德国银行的两项调查必须移交给一名独立检察官，因为特朗普的个人商业利益和他的公共职责之间将存在“明显的利益冲突”。
康涅狄格州民主党参议员、前联邦检察官理查德·布卢门撒尔(Richard Blumenthal)本周在接受美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)独家采访时表示，“这项调查的可信度将被完全破坏，我们的刑事司法系统将被这种明显的利益冲突削弱。”。“这里显然需要一名独立的检察官，与司法部长没有任何联系，司法部长可能是唐纳德·特朗普的私人知己和竞选代理人。”
德意志银行已经成为他的公司最可靠的贷款人之一。这家德国银行帮助特朗普在华盛顿特区的旧邮局开发项目的翻新，他在佛罗里达州购买的Doral高尔夫球场和乡村俱乐部，以及在芝加哥建造的特朗普办公楼提供了融资。
与此同时，该行一直是两项长期联邦调查的目标——一项调查是调查导致2007年和2008年大规模抵押贷款崩盘的放贷行为，另一项调查的重点是指控该行帮助客户将资金非法转移出俄罗斯。
德意志银行在公开文件中证实，司法部在抵押贷款欺诈案的和解谈判中的要求可能很高——美国最初的立场是要求140亿美元的和解。在文件中，该银行表示，它正在“全面配合”调查。
参议员布卢门撒尔说，如果司法部得到它想要的东西，和解“将严重威胁银行，可能使其破产，从而非常非常严重地影响唐纳德·特朗普的商业利益。”
该银行拒绝对美国广播公司新闻发表评论，但在公开声明中表示，希望在更多谈判后，和解金额将大幅减少。
“谈判正在进行中，”该银行向投资者报告。
调查的状况一直是德国金融界的一个主导话题，但德国大使馆发言人表示，上周四特朗普与德国总理安格拉·默克尔通电话时，这个话题没有被提及。
“我很确定这不是它的一部分，”大使馆发言人Markus Knauf说。"她祝贺他赢得总统大选，并承诺美国和德国将继续合作。"
特朗普司法部(Trump Justice Department)将如何进行这些谈判，已成为一系列问题中的最新一个，这些问题涉及即将上任的总统将如何在他的许多商业纠葛和他新的强大的政府职位之间导航。
特朗普表示，他将把自己的生意交给孩子，并将注意力集中在总统职责上。
在当选后的一次采访中，他告诉CBS《60分钟》，“我不在乎酒店入住率。与我们在这里所做的相比，这简直微不足道。”
自选举以来，报道表明他的商业交易和他的官方工作之间的界限已经模糊。
其中包括一份关于他对英国官员关于他的苏格兰高尔夫球场的评论，和一个他与印度商人举行的会议关于孟买的一个项目。一名拒绝透露姓名的特朗普组织官员描述了会议作为与印度商人的“顺便祝贺交流”
对其财务披露文件的审查表明，特朗普在全球各地都有商业利益，从18个国家的各种实体获得了超过5000万美元的收入。
特朗普已经因为与印度特朗普项目的开发商会面，以及在与英国官员会面时提出风力发电场的问题而受到关注——这是他的苏格兰高尔夫俱乐部运营的一个问题。
道德专家警告说，如果特朗普继续为他的商业帝国辩护，这些行为可能会影响特朗普政府期间德意志银行和司法部之间的任何谈判。
“可能发生冲突的范围是巨大的，”DC著名伦理组织CREW的执行董事诺亚·布克宾德说。“也许最成问题的是外交政策问题，在这方面，他可能有动机，例如，试图在他有业务的国家提高特朗普和特朗普酒店及特朗普大厦的声誉和品牌，这可能会影响他在美国外交政策方面做出的各种决定。”
“这真是一个令人不安的想法，”布克宾德说。
前联邦检察官布克宾德描述了一系列可能会使针对德意志银行的联邦案件复杂化的情况。
比如，如果对银行处以高额罚款会造成如此严重的财务困境，以至于银行家可能被迫收回特朗普的贷款，特朗普会反对吗?相反，他说，如果特朗普的贷款以更有利的条款重新谈判，批评者可能会质疑这样的努力是否是为了讨好即将上任的总统。
“我认为，即使唐纳德·特朗普什么都不说，什么都不做，司法部正在处理此事的律师和员工也会知道，新总统可能对德意志银行达成一笔好交易感兴趣，”他说。“所以，即使没有证据表明唐纳德·特朗普真的做了任何事情试图影响结果，也会有一些怀疑。”
美国广播公司新闻向特朗普过渡团队和特朗普组织寻求评论，但尚未得到回应。
昨晚，特朗普在推特上发文，显然是对他在与外国领导人会谈时提及商业交易的批评做出回应:“在选举之前，众所周知，我对世界各地的房地产都感兴趣。只有歪门邪道的媒体才把这当回事!”
周二，一位目中无人的当选总统告诉《纽约时报》:“法律在我这边，总统不能有利益冲突。”
Calls for Deutsche Bank, a Big Trump Lender, to Face Independent Prosecutor
— --Two Justice Department investigations of the German bank that has loaned Donald Trump more than $300 million must be turned over to an independent prosecutor, a senior U.S. Senator said this week, because there will be “a clear conflict of interest” between Trump’s personal business interests and his public duties.
“The credibility of this investigation will be completely undermined, and our criminal justice system will be diminished by this obvious conflict of interest,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and former federal prosecutor, told ABC News in an exclusive interview this week. “What's needed here is clearly an independent prosecutor, without any connection to an Attorney General who likely will be someone who is a personal confidant and campaign surrogate for Donald Trump.”
Deutsche Bank has become one of his company’s most reliable lenders. The German bank has helped finance the renovation of the Trump Old Post Office development in Washington, D.C., his purchase of the Doral golf course and country club in Florida, as well as the construction of a Trump office building in Chicago.
At the same time, the bank has been the target of two long-running federal investigations – one looking at lending practices leading up to the massive mortgage meltdown of 2007 and 2008, and another focused on allegations that the bank helped clients illegally funnel money out of Russia.
Deutsche Bank has confirmed in public filings that the Justice Department’s demands in settlement negotiations over the mortgage fraud case could be steep – the initial U.S. position was to demand a back-breaking $14 billion settlement. In the filings, the bank said it was "cooperating fully," with the investigation.
Sen. Blumenthal said if the Justice Department gets what it wants, the settlement “would gravely threaten the bank, possibly bankrupt it, and thereby impact Donald Trump’s business interests very, very severely.”
The bank declined comment to ABC News, but has conveyed in public statements that it hopes the settlement amounts will be reduced significantly after more negotiating.
“Talks are ongoing,” the bank reported to investors.
The status of the investigation has been a dominant topic in German financial circles, but a German embassy spokesman in Washington said the topic did not come up during Trump’s phone call with Chancellor Angela Merkel last Thursday.
“I’m pretty sure this was not part of it,” said Markus Knauf, the embassy spokesman. “She congratulated him for winning the presidency and pledged that the U.S. and Germany would continue to work together.”
How a Trump Justice Department will proceed with those talks has become the latest in a series of questions about how the incoming president will navigate between his many business entanglements and his new and powerful government post.
Trump has indicated he would leave his business dealings to his children, and focus his attention on his duties as president.
In an interview after his election, he told CBS 60 Minutes, “I don’t care about hotel occupancy. It’s peanuts compared to what we’re doing here.”
Since the election, reports suggest that the line between his business dealings and his official work has been blurred.
That included a report aboutcomments he made to British officials about his Scottish golf course, and ameeting he held with Indian businessmenabout a project in Mumbai. A Trump Organization official who refused to be nameddescribed the meetingwith the Indian businessmen as a "congratulatory exchange in passing."
A review of his financial disclosure filings indicates that Trump has business interests around the globe, generating more than $50 million in income from various entities in 18 countries.
Already, Trump has garnered attention for meeting with developers of a Trump project in India, and for raising the issue of wind farms during a meeting with British officials – an issue for the operation of his Scottish golf club.
Ethics experts have warned that if Trump maintains a role in advocating for his business empire, those actions could taint any negotiation between Deutsche Bank and the Justice Department during a Trump administration.
“The scope of possible conflicts is tremendous,” said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of CREW, a prominent ethics group in Washington, DC. “Perhaps most problematic are foreign policy issues, where he might have an incentive, to, for instance, try to improve the reputation of and brand of Trump and Trump Hotels and Trump Buildings in countries where he has businesses, and that could conceivably affect the kinds of decisions he makes in terms of American foreign policy.”
“And that's a really disturbing thought,” Bookbinder said.
Bookbinder, a former federal prosecutor, described a range of scenarios that would complicate the federal case against Deutsche Bank.
Would Trump object, for instance, to imposing steep fines on the bank if that would create such serious financial distress that bankers could be forced to call in Trump’s loans? Conversely, he said, if Trump’s loans were re-negotiated with more favorable terms, critics could question whether such an effort was done to curry favor with the incoming president.
“I think that even if Donald Trump says and does nothing, the attorneys and the employees at the Department of Justice who are working on this are going to know that the new president has an interest potentially in Deutsche Bank getting a good deal,” he said. “So there's going to be some suspicion even if there's no evidence of Donald Trump actually doing anything to try to influence the result.”
ABC News sought comment from the Trump transition team and the Trump Organization, but has not received a response.
Overnight, Trump tweeted in apparent response to criticism of his references to business dealings during talks with foreign leaders: “Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!”
And on Tuesday, a defiant president-elect told the New York Times: “The law is on my side, the President can’t have a conflict of interest.”
