Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings speaks to reporters after Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee. The committee is requesting 10 years of financial records from the president. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Congress House Democrats make new push for 10 years of Trump's financial records

The House Oversight and Reform Committee is seeking 10 years of President Donald Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

The Democrat-led committee asked Mazars USA, a tax and accounting firm, for documents this month related to Trump’s personal finances, with a particular focus on his failed bid to purchase the Buffalo Bills before he became president.


It reflects an effort by the committee, under Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), to corroborate aspects of former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony before the panel last month.

Cohen told lawmakers that Trump inflated his personal net worth as he sought to buy the NFL team. He also claimed that Trump sought to reduce his tax burden by deflating the value of certain assets.

Cummings revealed in his letter to Mazars USA that the company signed the president’s financial statements, some of which Cohen disclosed to the committee and to the public ahead of his congressional testimony.

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Democrats have vowed to investigate these and other explosive claims Cohen made during his marathon public hearing before the panel last month. Cummings gave Mazars USA until April 3 to turn over the documents.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the Oversight panel, and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a senior member of the committee — two of the president’s closest allies on Capitol Hill — first revealed the broad document request in a letter to Cummings on Wednesday in which they claimed that asking for such information about Trump “appears to depart from responsible and legitimate oversight,” and is intended “solely to embarrass President Trump and to advance the relentless Democrat attacks upon the Trump administration.”

Their letter comes after Trump and his allies have claimed vindication after Attorney General William Barr informed congressional leaders on Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month investigation was unable to establish that Trump or his campaign conspired with Russians during the 2016 election.

The president and his supporters on Capitol Hill have called on Democrats to cease their investigations into the president, which they have long derided as politically motivated.

“We should not waste our limited resources and energies on matters that do not improve the operations of the federal government or better the lives of our constituents,” Jordan and Meadows wrote, calling Cummings’ investigation “an ill-conceived inquiry into the finances of President Trump when he was a private citizen.”

The lawmakers sent a separate letter to Victor Wahba, the chairman and chief executive officer of Mazars USA, stating that Cummings did not consult with the GOP side of the committee before request the documents on Trump’s finances.

Cummings dismissed the Republicans’ letters on Wednesday.

“If they had their way, the committee would just close up shop for the next two years, but that is not what the American people elected us to do,” Cummings said. “We are following up on specific allegations regarding the president’s actions based on corroborating documents obtained by the committee, and we will continue our efforts to conduct credible, robust, and independent oversight.”

The chairman later told POLITICO that Jordan and Meadows “complain about every single thing I do,” adding: “We’re just seeking the truth, that’s all.” He also indicated that the committee has in recent weeks intensified its efforts to corroborate the allegations Cohen presented to the committee when he testified publicly in February.

“I think the thing that the press isn’t paying enough attention to is all the things that Cohen talked about when he came before us,” Cummings added.

Jordan and Meadows also took issue on Wednesday with Cummings’ decision to seek documents from Diana Falzone, a former Fox News journalist who reportedly was working on a story before the 2016 election about Trump’s hush-money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, but was told to stop looking into the matter. The lawmakers cited a column from a former editor at the network who defended the decision not to run the story at that time.

Cummings asked Falzone earlier this month for documents “relating to women alleging extramarital affairs with Donald Trump, payments by the president or anyone on his behalf to silence them, or any potential campaign finance violation.”

Despite Mueller’s determination on Trump-Russia collusion, congressional Democrats have vowed to continue their own investigations into the president, noting that Mueller specifically declined to weigh in on whether Trump obstructed justice. The House Judiciary Committee has been probing allegations of obstruction, abuses of power and corruption.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this story.

