As the “Hamburger Abendblatt” reports, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office viewed e-mails, calendar entries and attachments since January 1, 2015 this spring. The search warrant for the mailbox “olaf.scholz@sk.hamburg.de” was issued on March 30, 2022.

According to the report, the search is related to the investigation of SPD man Johannes Kahrs and other suspects in the Cum-Ex complex. A few days ago it became known that almost 200,000 euros had been found in a safe deposit box at Kahrs last fall. The origin of the money is not known.

The spokesman for the federal government, Steffen Hebestreit, told the “Abendblatt” on Monday that he was not aware of the search of the Scholz emails. “There is also nothing to hide.” According to Hebestreit, Scholz knew nothing about the cash amount in Kahr’s safe deposit box. He could rule that out, said Hebestreit.

The investigations of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, which is responsible for the entire Cum-Ex complex with more than 1000 suspects, in this case the question is whether the Hamburg politicians have influenced the fact that tax reclaims against the Warburg Bank in the amount of 47 million euros were not claimed. According to the “Abendblatt”, the search warrant also referred to meetings between Scholz and banker Christian Olearius.

After media reports about the large find of cash, Union and Linke as well as Transparency International had previously requested clarification from Scholz. “Here, the SPD at the federal level also has a duty to finally clear things up,” Hamburg’s CDU leader Christoph Ploß said on Monday to the “Spiegel”. “Of course, more than 200,000 euros in cash in a locker raises questions,” said CDU faction leader Dennis Thering. That also aggravates the situation for Scholz and Hamburg’s Mayor Peter Tschentscher. “The pressure for a comprehensive investigation is growing,” says Thering.

On August 19, Scholz is to testify again in the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the Cum-Ex scandal. Numerous other witnesses will be heard on Tuesday and Thursday.