House investigators are planning to pursue interviews with two attorneys responsible for Donald Trump’s ethics and financial disclosures, a sign that the congressional probes are broadening their scope into new members of the president’s orbit.

House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings has his sights set on attorneys Sheri Dillon and Stefan Passantino, two figures that could help establish whether Donald Trump committed crimes while making hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels.

Democratic aides tell NBC News that neither attorney has agreed to cooperate with the committee, and both failed to meet a deadline earlier this month to agree to provide transcribed testimony to the committee.

The White House, meanwhile, has declined to make Mr Passantino available for interviews.

The requests mark some of the first attempts by Democrats to compel the Trump administration to cooperate in their attempts to investigate questions surrounding $130,000 in hush money that was allegedly paid to Daniels just before the 2016 election.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

In letters to the lawyers, the House committee says they “appeared to provide false information” to federal officials in the financial disclosure forms.

Mr Passantino was a White House deputy counsel overseeing ethics policy. He now works for the Trump Organisation. Ms Dillon is a personal attorney to Mr Trump.

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Questions surrounding the payments gained newfound momentum following the testimony of Mr Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who provided the committee with copies of cheques he received from the president as reimbursement for that payment. Court fillings indicate that the payments may have been made in violation of federal campaign finance law.

Republicans have push back on Democrat efforts to compel the new testimony, however, with Representative Jim Jordan leading a charge calling the suggestion that either attorney lid “extremely unfair and unsupported accusations.”