In the Cum-Ex tax affair, written records decided what the public learned. The Hamburg banker Christian Olearius kept diaries. Prosecutors seized them in their investigation against him. When entries were published, they revealed meetings with Olaf Scholz, then mayor of Hamburg. Scholz had at first denied the meetings. A review of his calendars later showed that he had received Olearius at city hall, the last time on 10 November 2017. On 30 April 2021 Scholz testified before the investigating committee of the Hamburg parliament. He was asked about what Olearius’s side had argued at the meetings. Zwar könne er dazu aus eigener Erinnerung nichts sagen, he could say nothing about it from his own memory, he said. He denied any influence on the tax decision.