Deutsche Bank Article Among Trump's Classified Documents Raises Eyebrows

Donald Trump speaks at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago on June 5, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. An article about a Deutsche Bank whistleblower was found among classified documents during an August, 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.

Donald Trump appeared to keep an article about a dead Deutsche Bank whistleblower among his classified documents, according to newly released FBI photos.

The article was a feature about Val Broeksmit, a rock musician, who leaked details of Deutsche Bank's files to media and FBI agents investigating the bank's alleged links to money laundering, the Trump Organization and Russia.

Trump has had a long association with Deutsche Bank. The bank lent him hundreds of millions of dollars and one of its officials testified in Trump's defense during his New York civil fraud trial, which Trump is appealing.

Newly released FBI photos from the agency's August, 2022, raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate shows a New York Times feature on Broeksmit, who hacked into Deutsche Bank email of his stepfather, William Broeksmit, a senior executive of the bank, before sharing the information.

Val Broeksmit had a history of drug addiction and credit card fraud.

The newly released photo is of a business feature section of The New York Times, published in October 2019 by New York Times journalist, David Enrich.

After the picture's release, Enrich wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday: "This is strange indeed. My 2019 article about Deutsche Bank whistleblower Val Broeksmit was found in a box of documents marked "confidential" at Mar-a-Lago."

The photo was included in special counsel Jack Smith's rebuttal of Trump's claim that the FBI mishandled boxes of documents found at his Florida home.

Trump is facing 40 federal charges in Cannon's court over his alleged handling of sensitive materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, after leaving the White House in January 2021. He is also accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to retrieve them. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In February Judge Engoron, who sits on the New York State Supreme Court, imposed a fine of $454 million, including interest, on Trump after concluding he engaged in civil fraud by falsely inflating the value of his assets when securing bank loans. In addition Trump was banned from holding any directorships in New York for three years and the Trump Organization is unable to secure any loans with companies in the city during this time.

Trump maintains his innocence in all legal matters and is appealing the civil judgment.

Newsweek contacted Trump's attorney for comment on Wednesday.

By showing photos of the "cluttered" and "haphazard" way that Trump mixed classified documents with Christmas ornaments, newspapers and thank you notes, prosecutors hope to demonstrate that any mixing of classified documents with personal items was entirely Trump's doing.

The article was the cover of the Sunday business feature section. Trump did not cut it out to read it and there is no indication that he was even aware of its existence. It is resting on top of a pile of other newspaper sections, which suggests its placement is coincidental.

Smith's explanation in court documents of the randomness of Trump's boxes of personal possessions didn't stop the speculation on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday, journalist Sandi Bachom wrote on X: "WHY would Trump have an article about Val Broeksmit in his secret file folders and why would Jack Smith release it last night?"

The X account, MuellerSheWrote, which catalogs the Trump criminal cases, noted on Tuesday: "I would like to know whether Jack Smith purposely wanted us to see that Trump had an article about a Deutsche Bank whistleblower three months after he mysteriously died. Perhaps it's just a coincidence. But Val Broeksmit was a friend."

Broeksmit died in Los Angeles in May, 2022. He had been homeless for several months before his death. Los Angeles police said his death was not suspicious and the medical examiner said the cause of death was undetermined.

According to The New York Times, his stepfather, William Broeksmit, hanged himself in his London flat in January 2014.

"The next day, after finding passwords to his stepfather's email accounts, Val Broeksmit gained access to confidential files incriminating the bank in suspect financial transactions," the newspaper reported upon Val Broeksmit's death in May, 2022.

However, the date when Val Broeksmit first obtained access to Wiliam Broeksmit's email account, and the sequence of events that led to William Broeksmit's suicide, have never been fully determined.

At an inquest into his death in March, 2014, written medical evidence suggested he had been "very anxious" for some time about an investigation into Deutsche Bank.

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