December 24th, 2016 by WCBC Radio

Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is ramping up pressure on President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of State to release tax returns, writing Thursday that it will be difficult to schedule a confirmation hearing until "all necessary and relevant information" is submitted. Cardin requested three years of tax filings from ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, whom Trump named last week as his top diplomat. Tillerson will submit financial disclosure and ethics forms to the committee as part of his confirmation process, but Cardin said the tax returns are important because Tillerson has "never made public disclosures of this type" and "has never been in public service." In a letter to fellow Democrats on the committee, Cardin wrote that he and Republican Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee "have a disagreement" about the need to review the tax returns.