BREAKING NEWS

US Senate Democrats seek Trump tax returns

WASHINGTON - US Senate Democrats urged the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday to review President Donald Trump's tax returns, as part of a campaign in Congress that has begun to show signs of attracting Republican support.
Defying decades of precedent, Trump has refused to release his tax returns while his tax affairs are under federal audit. Democrats and other critics contend that the documents could show whether his global business empire poses any conflicts of interest as the president moves his agenda forward on issues ranging from tax reform to foreign relations.
In a letter dated on Wednesday, seven Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee urged the panel's Republican chairman, Orrin Hatch, to request the documents from the US Treasury so that lawmakers can review them in a closed session and determine whether the returns can be released to the public.
Democrats in the House of Representatives said they planned to pose a similar request on Thursday to Hatch and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady in a bipartisan letter signed by 140 lawmakers, including House Republicans Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Walter Jones of North Carolina.