U.S. President Donald Trump | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Trump lawyers: Tax returns show no income, debt tied to Russia ‘with a few exceptions’ Exceptions included $12.2 million of foreign income — including from Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Lawyers for President Donald Trump said a 10-year review of his tax returns show no income, debt or equity investments tied to Russia, “With a few exceptions.”

The exceptions included $12.2 million of foreign income in 2013, “a substantial portion” of which came from the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow; and the 2008 sale of an estate in Florida “to a Russian billionaire for $95 million,” more than double what Trump had paid for it three years earlier.

In addition, the March 8 letter, obtained by POLITICO from the White House, said, “over the years it is likely that TTO [The Trump Organization] or third-party entities engaged in ordinary course sales of goods or services to Russians or Russian entities….”

“With respect to this last exception, the amounts are immaterial,” the letter from Morgan Lewis tax partners Sheri A. Dillon and William F. Nelson said.

The claims could not be independently verified since Trump has refused to release his tax returns. The issue has flared again after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director, amid the agency’s investigation of possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

One of the leaders of congressional efforts to spring Trump’s returns, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), immediately seized on the letter.

“Exceptions? #CongressMustRequest a closed session review of @POTUS #TaxReturns to help understand the full extent of #TrumpRussia story,” he tweeted soon after the Associated Press reported on the letter.