New York state has steadily passed legislation in recent days that seeks to limit the president’s pardon powers and curtail his ability to withhold his tax returns from Congress.

The state’s senate voted on Wednesday in favour of a bill that requires local agencies to comply with requests for state tax returns from the heads of Congress’s House ways and means committee, the Senate finance committee or the joint committee on taxation.

New York’s senate also voted to support legislation that allows state prosecutors — including Attorney General Letitia James — to file charges against certain members of the president’s orbit if they have received pardons for federal crimes.

Those who received presidential pardons would need to be members of the president’s family, former employees, or there must be a clear and present conflict of interest in order for New York state to invoke its new so-called “double-jeopardy loophole”.

The senate’s tax return legislation is expected to pass in the state assembly before governor Andrew Cuomo — a prominent opponent to Mr Trump — signs it into law.

That means Mr Trump’s home-state could be the first to provide Congressional committees probing the president’s financial dealings with copies of his tax returns after the president defied modern precedent by refusing to disclose his returns.

It also means the state’s attorney general — who sailed to victory in her recent election on a message of holding the nation’s most powerful institutions accountable — could soon be able to file new charges against Mr Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who the president has suggested he may pardon.

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

Manafort is a former New York state resident currently serving a prison sentence over bank and tax fraud charges, as well as for witness tampering and failing to disclose lobbying work.

Discussing the possibility of pardoning his ex-campaign boss in a November interview with the New York Post, Mr Trump said: “It was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?”

New York has been one of the most important states to have served as a form of checks-and-balances against Mr Trump’s administration, launching subpoenas for multiple banks the president has been known to deal with and new investigations into his finances.

“Here you have a president who is stonewalling the US Congress, a co-equal branch of government undertaking its important oversight responsibilities,” New York state senator Brad Hoylman told CBS News about the tax legislation.

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events