Donald Trump, three of his children and seven of his companies have launched legal action against two banks in a bid to stop them complying with court orders to cooperate with congressional investigations into his financial dealings.

The federal lawsuit, filed in the US District Court's Southern District of New York, contends that Democrat-controlled House committees have no legitimate or lawful purpose in demanding records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One.

"The subpoenas were issued to harass President Donald J. Trump, to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses, and the private information of the President and his family," court documents said.

The lawsuit alleges Democrats are hoping "they will stumble upon something they can expose publicly and use as a political tool against the President."

Democrat representatives Maxine Waters, who chairs the Financial Services Commission, and Adam Schiff, chair of the Intelligence Committee, called the legal action "meritless".

"This lawsuit is not designed to succeed; it is only designed to put off meaningful accountability as long as possible,” they added in a joint statement. “This unprecedented stonewalling will not work, and the American people deserve better."

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

The two committees issued summons to nine financial institutions for information on Mr Trump's finances on 15 April. Both Deutsche Bank and Capital One have been involved in the president’s property empire.

"The potential use of the US financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern,” Ms Waters said in an earlier statement. “The Financial Services Committee is exploring these matters, including as they may involve the president and his associates, as thoroughly as possible.

Mr Schiff said the summonses included a "friendly subpoena to Deutsche Bank" and were part of an investigation "into allegations of potential foreign influence on the US political process."

The president's businesses have benefited from Russian investment over the years and Mr Schiff said he wants to know whether Russians used laundered money for transactions with the Trump Organisation.

Mr Trump has repeatedly vowed to defy any efforts from the Democrats to dig into his affairs and has used similar tactics before to avoid scrutiny.

Last week he sued his own accounting firm, Mazars USA, and the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee in a bid to stop the company turning over details of his financial dealings.

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The latest lawsuit, also brought by the president’s eldest children Donald Jr, Eric, and Ivanka as well as the Trump Organisation, states that the court has the power to declare the subpoenas invalid.

Last year a federal judge rejected a similar lawsuit brought by political research firm Fusion GPS, which had been looking to prevent TD Bank turning over financial records to congress.

A Deutsche Bank statement said: "We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorised investigations and will abide by a court order regarding such investigations."

Mr Trump received more than $2bn in loans from the bank over two decades.