House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is raising concerns over a new report about President Donald Trump’s undisclosed Chinese bank account.
“Again, we mentioned the state involvement of banks in China. They can watch the flow of money there and perhaps have some, shall we say, sway over the person who’s taking money or putting money into that account. So it is a national security issue,” Pelosi said during her appearance on MSNBC.
She added, “Shame on the president that he has a bank account in China. But the fact is … what is the source of those funds, and what is the obligation of them? And that’s a national security matter.”
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According to the report published by The New York Times Tuesday, Trump has bank accounts in China, Britain and Ireland.
The foreign accounts are not visible on his public financial disclosures.
Trump International Hotels Management L.L.C. controls the account in China. Tax records show the company paid $188,561 in taxes in China from 2013 to 2015.
Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the publication the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes” related to business efforts there.
“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Garten said. “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”
Pelosi told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “Well, this is news to all of us, but it isn’t shocking.”
She continued, “Because the president has always been projecting his own shortcomings, or his own exposure, his own vulnerability on others besides projecting on to the Bidens’ connection to China, where he has the connection to China. And my concern is not just about who he owes money to, but where he’s going to get the money to pay it back.”