New York state prosecutors in Manhattan have subpoenaed eight years of Donald Trump's personal and corporate tax returns, according to a new report from the New York Times.

The subpoena was issued late last month, after investigators opened up a criminal inquiry into the role that Mr Trump and his family had in making hush payments in the run up to the 2016 election.

The effort to compel Mr Trump's accountants to hand over those documents marks the latest effort to obtain the president's financial information, which he promised to disclose during his presidential campaign, but has not yet done.

Since Mr Trump's election, it has been discovered that Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was reimbursed after making payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had sex with Mr Trump over a decade ago shortly after first lady Melania Trump gave birth to their child Barron. Mr Trump has denied the affair.

Cohen pleaded guilty last year to breaking campaign finance laws for his involvement in that payment, and is serving a three year prison term.

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The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, Cy Vance, has so far been said to be focusing on that $130,000 payment to Ms Daniels, and it is unclear if the larger scope of the reported subpoenas mean that the investigation is widening.

Federal prosecutors who put Cohen in jail said that their investigation had ended, but Mr Vance is working to determine if state laws had also been broken.

The efforts in Manhattan come after Democrats in Congress have pushed aggressively to obtain Mr Trump's financial records, which every modern president before him had voluntarily disclosed.

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Those congressional efforts have included subpoenaing the US Treasury Department for six years' worth of Mr Trump's tax forms, in addition to subpoenas for Mr Trump's records as they relate to Deutsche Bank, Capital One, and Mazars USA.