Democrats look to hire staff to help investigate Donald Trump in the new year

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Democrats are looking for new staff as they gear up for likely investigations into Donald Trump once they regain control of the House of Representatives next month.

The House Judiciary Committee has posted job listings for legislative counsels with experience in “criminal law, immigration law, constitutional law, intellectual property law, commercial and administrative law (including antitrust and bankruptcy, or oversight work”, indicating that new staff could be tasked with taking a look at the president's dealings on a variety of fronts, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has begun looking for an “executive branch investigative counsel”.

All told, Democrats are expected to double the number of staffers on their payroll once Democrats take control on 3 January, and can officially hire new employees.

“They’re finding us,” Representative Adam Smith, of Washington State, told the news network. “There are a lot of Democratic refugees out there after the Republicans took over the House, the Senate, and the White House”.

The potential new hires are coming from all over the country, according to Democrats.

“We're being deluged with resumes, really impressive resumes,” Representative Adam Schiff of California, the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said. “There will be no shortage of good candidates. The difficulty will be choosing among them”.

Mr Schiff and other Democrats have indicated they have an appetite to pursue investigations into the president’s tax returns, and to determine if Mr Trump has any financial ties that could be seen as problematic for a leader of the United States.

Mr Trump broke with decades of tradition by not releasing his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign, and has come no closer to revealing his filings in the two years since he took office.

He is not required by law to disclose his tax returns, however Democrats in the House may be able to compel him to hand the documents over as a part of their investigations.

Democrats are likely to also push for protections for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which has been diving into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential campaigns and whether the Trump campaign colluded in that effort.