Dems to focus on Trump’s finances

WASHINGTON — The new Democratic-controlled House is looking at proposals to compel presidents and presidential candidates to make public years of their tax returns. But the burning question is what Democrats might do more immediately to get such files from President Trump.

That goal has been high on their list of priorities since they won control of the House in November’s midterm elections, but asking for Trump’s returns is likely to set off a huge legal battle with his administration.

The Democrats tried and failed several times to obtain Trump’s returns as the minority party in Congress. Their newly energized leftward wing is pushing the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., to set the quest in motion, and fast. The organization funded by billionaire investor and Democratic activist Tom Steyer has run a TV ad in Neal’s home district calling on him to subpoena Trump’s tax records.

The issue comes to the fore in a hearing Thursday by the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. Democratic Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, and Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, who’ve put forward legislation to require presidential disclosure of tax returns, say Trump has left Americans in the dark “about the extent of his financial entanglements and potential conflicts of interest.”

Democrats want to dive in and explore numerous questions about Trump’s personal financial webs. Among them: whether there are conflicts of interest between his companies and his presidential actions, what are the sources of his income and to whom he might be beholden as a result, whether he’s properly paid taxes and whether he benefited from the sweeping Republican-written tax law enacted in late 2017.