The Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit will turn over records requested by the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into potential ties between President Donald Trump’s associates and Russian operatives who intervened in the 2016 election, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Unnamed sources told the newspaper that the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which specializes in fighting money laundering, will share financial information with the committee, though they declined to elaborate on the nature of those records.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Bur (R-NC) and Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) wrote to FinCEN on April 26 requesting access to the same records the FBI has obtained as part of its own probe into Russia’s election interference, according to the Journal. The newspaper’s sources said that the committee has found information that prompted them to pursue more details about Trump’s business ties.
The Journal also reported that Trump’s Atlantic City, New Jersey casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, was hit with a $10 million civil penalty by FinCEN in 2015 for “willful and repeated violations” of anti-money laundering requirements.
Trump this week fired FBI Director James Comey, in part, he acknowledged, because of the FBI’s continued focus on the “Russia thing,” which the President has dismissed as “fake news.”
On Friday, Trump’s lawyers released a letter saying that a review of the past 10 years of the President’s tax returns reflect little income from Russian sources. The letter allowed that there were “a few exceptions.”