It’s no secret that House Democrats are and have been investigating President Donald Trump’s behavior. Now, thanks to a profile in The New York Times, we have some more insight into how the intelligence panel arm of that investigation has been proceeding. Apparently, among the many sources that they’ve used is a man named Val Broeksmit, who’s the son of an executive at the infamous Deutsche Bank who committed suicide in apparent anguish over the corruption that was around him. Val, the younger Broeksmit, has been feeding documents that he scraped from his family’s records to interests including the House Intelligence Committee, led at present by Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Schiff eventually subpoenaed Broeksmit after he hesitated to hand over the documents that the panel had been tipped off to, but not before the committee tried to get him to cooperate.
Investigator Daniel Goldman tried to turn Broeksmit via saying in a recorded phone call:
‘Imagine a scenario where some of the material that you have can actually provide the seed that we can then use to blow open everything that [Trump] has been hiding. In some respects, you — and your father vicariously through you — will go down in American history as a hero and as the person who really broke open an incredibly corrupt president and administration.’
What effect Broeksmit’s material may have on investigations of the president remains to be seen in full. Only traces are available publicly, including the revelation in that Times article of material documenting since sanctioned Russian financial institutions that owed Deutsche Bank money at one time — and thus were poised to continue to do business with the enterprise. The material was apparently also potent enough to spark the FBI getting in contact with Broeksmit as part of their ongoing criminal investigation into Deutsche Bank.
Trump himself has been suspected of connection to Russian money laundering schemes such as those that have swirled around Deutsche Bank. It’s one of the only financial institutions that would do business with him as his fortunes took a turn for the worse, and the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees (the latter of which is led by Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California) have made those suspicions loud via subpoenas going after Trump’s financial records, which he has consistently kept hidden from the public, thereby concealing from as many interests as possible the full scope of his financial ties to foreign interests like Russia.
Personally, Val Broeksmit has a complicated history, even appearing on the Fox Business channel early in his slow but sure foray into the public spotlight after he publicly posted some dirt from behind the scenes at Sony that he’d procured from the North Korean hackers who stole it via simply emailing them and asking for it.
The Times makes clear in their profile that where some have challenged Broeksmit personally, he has documents to back him up — and hard evidence doesn’t lie, despite some of Trump’s most desperate attempts to make the opposite true.
Featured Image via screenshot
