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Senate Russia investigators ask Treasury for Trump team financial information

Senate Russia investigators ask Treasury for Trump team financial information
Posted at 2:07 PM, May 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-09 17:07:42-04

Senate Russia investigators have sent a request to the Treasury Department's criminal investigation division for any information related to President Donald Trump, his top officials and his campaign aides, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee told CNN Tuesday.

"We've made a request, to FinCEN in the Treasury Dept, to make sure, not just for example vis-a-vis the President, but just overall our effort to try to follow the intel no matter where it leads," Sen. Mark Warner told CNN. "You get materials that show if there have been, what level of financial ties between, I mean some of the stuff, some of the Trump-related officials, Trump campaign-related officials and other officials and where those dollars flow -- not necessarily from Russia."

FinCEN is the federal agency that has been investigating allegations of foreign money-laundering through purchases of US real estate.

The news comes just a few days after the revelation that Senate investigators sent broad-based requests for documents to four key potential witnesses in their probe: former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former adviser Roger Stone and former foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

Warner added that until the Treasury Department responds with documents, that he will withhold his support for Trump's nominee to oversee terrorism and financial at the Treasury Department, Sigal Mandelker.

"Chairman Burr and I requested that information -- until we get it, I'm not going to support the administration's nominee for undersecretary of Treasury finance, for terrorism and finance, because they owe us these documents first," Warner said.

Warner did not specify what documents exactly that investigators are hoping to find or who exactly they asked about in their request. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment and have not yet gotten a response.

The focus on Trump's own finances emerged Tuesday after Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is leading his own investigation into Russian interference, said he wanted to investigate potential business ties between the Trump Organization and Russia. Graham later walked back those comments, saying he is broadly interested in "all things Russia" and was not specifically targeting Trump's business dealings.