{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/democrats-say-paradise-papers-leak-should-derail-gop-s-tax-overhaul", "Democrats say Paradise Papers leak should derail GOPs tax overhaul", "2017-11-07", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "TX", "Lloyd Doggett", "D000399", "doggett.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Top Democrats said Monday that the so-called \u201cParadise Papers,\u201d a leaked cache of millions of documents exposing major world figures\u2019 use of offshore tax havens, are damning enough to derail the GOP\u2019s push for an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.\nSeveral top Trump administration figures, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur J. Ross Jr., Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, appear in the data.\nMr. Ross in particular appears to have an ownership stake in a shipping company that does business with a Russian firm whose owners are connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin.\nThe Paradise Papers are a massive cache of documents from Appleby, a law firm that advises on how to offshore. The documents were obtained by a German newspaper and shared with an international consortium of investigative reporters, which released reporting on them this week.\nDemocrats said the revelations should sour the entire debate over the GOP\u2019s plans to overhaul the existing tax code, saying the legislation doesn\u2019t do enough to shut down offshoring.\n\u201dThe revelations in the Paradise Papers are proof positive that the Republican tax plan favors the wealthy and betrays the middle class in this country, who are the ones left carrying the financial burden of massive corporate tax avoidance,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on tax matters in the Senate.\nIn the House, where the GOP tax bill hit the Ways and Means Committee on Monday, Democrats said the revelations pump the brakes on the push.\n\u201dThese new reports from yesterday raise a number of questions about Trump allies,\u201d said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Texas Democrat.\nTheir attempt to delay was defeated on a party-line 24-16 vote.\nMentioned in the new documents are Mr. Cohn, who had holdings in Bermuda while an executive at Goldman Sachs, and Mr. Tillerson, who was part of a Bermuda-based joint venture while head of Exxon Mobil, according to the consortium\u2019s reporting.\nIn the case of Mr. Ross, he has maintained an ownership stake in Navigator, a shipping firm, which does tens of millions of dollars in business with Silbur, a Russian firm whose owners include Mr. Putin\u2019s son-in-law and a close friend of the Russian president who is subject to U.S. sanctions.\nSilbur itself is not subject to sanctions.\nAnti-Trump activist groups said Mr. Ross\u2019 holdings were still shady.\nCommon Cause, which advocates for stricter campaign finance and conflict-of-interest rules, said the Commerce Department\u2019s inspector general should probe the secretary\u2019s dealings, saying he should have disclosed them.\n\u201dThese latest revelations are part of a disturbing pattern of Trump administration officials seeking to hide their links to Russian business interests and members of Vladimir Putin\u2019s inner circle,\u201d said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/democrats-say-paradise-papers-leak-should-derail-gop-s-tax-overhaul"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1007289867848158, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}