House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., set off a congressional race for information about President Trump’s finances Monday with a request for the Trump Organization and other Trump-related entities to provide documents on financial transactions related to foreign governments, including Russia.
Several other House committees are poised to seek similar or related documents from Trump and people and entities related to him, as Democrats jockey to investigate potential conflicts of interest or financial misconduct by the president.
Nadler asked Trump’s company to provide any documents relating to possible loans, financing, or capital investment by Russia or Russian nationals and their businesses.
[Read more: It begins: House Democrats launch Trump investigation with demand for documents from 81 people]
The Judiciary Committee also requested similar information from Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, in particular any information he has about Trump campaign officials meeting with Russian nationals.
Rep. Elijah Cummings D-Md., the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that heard former Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony last Wednesday, has also expressed interest in calling on Weisselberg to testify.
Nadler also sent a document request to the Trump Foundation, which closed late last year following several media reports and a subsequent lawsuit from New York state alleging that Trump used the foundation to illegally funnel money to himself.
“We have sent these document requests in order to begin building the public record,” Nadler said in a release announcing the document requests.
Nadler’s request includes more information on the Trump Tower Moscow project the president’s company reportedly pitched to Russian officials during the course of the 2016 campaign.
The House Financial Services, Intelligence, and Ways and Means committees are running parallel investigations into the president’s business relationships.
The Financial Services and Intelligence committees are investigating Trump’s business relationship with Deutsche Bank, a German bank that U.S. and U.K. authorities accuse of facilitating money laundering by Russian nationals and companies. In 2017 the bank agreed to an order from New York state and U.K. regulators over the charges and paid $425 million as well as set up an independent review of its anti-money laundering compliance. Deutsche Bank is also currently under investigation by German authorities for its involvement in an international money laundering scheme exposed through a leak of documents related to a Panama-based law firm, the so-called “Panama Papers.”
Separately, Rep. Richard Neal D-Mass., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, says he will use the panel’s authority to demand and review tax returns of an individual or company to investigate Trump. That investigation would likely focus on whether Trump committed fraud in underreporting his income and assets for tax purposes, according to the New York Times, though it may also lead to greater scrutiny of the sources of his income. The Treasury Department has signaled it may challenge such a request in court. Efforts to make the president’s returns public, which several congressional Democrats want to do, could run into separate legal hurdles.
Democrats efforts to investigate Trump’s business dealings and conflicts of interest will be time-consuming. Meanwhile federal investigators have a head start and could issue findings or file indictments before House Democrats wrap up their investigations, as Nadler acknowledged Monday.
Nadler instructed the individuals and organizations he contacted that, in some cases, they may simply provide similar information to what they’ve already provide special counsel Robert Mueller and the Southern District of New York, a U.S. attorney’s office running a separate investigation from Mueller’s.
“The Special Counsel’s office and the Southern District of New York are aware that we are taking these steps,” Nadler said in a release.
