USA22 September, 20262 min read
John Curtis Urges Senate Judiciary Committee To Subpoena Donald Trump Jr. Over Russian-Funded Wedding
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Curtis calls on Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. over Russian-oligarch funded wedding. He seeks investigation into whether Trump Jr. used proximity to presidency for financial benefit.
Curtis seeks subpoenas
Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Donald Trump Jr. used his proximity to the presidency for financial benefit after a Russian oligarch helped fund parts of his wedding party.
Curtis wrote in a letter that it was necessary to subpoena Trump Jr. and to examine “any instances in which his relationship to President Donald Trump, a Republican, “was invoked or understood to provide value.”
Curtis also called for the same scrutiny of Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, and he urged the committee to subpoena Hunter Biden to testify regarding past business dealings and relationships with foreign individuals and entities.
Curtis framed the request as a trust issue, writing, “The country should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president,” and he directed the letter to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Kremlev, Bahamas, and replies
ProPublica reported that Umar Kremlev, described as a Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas in May.
Trump defended Kremlev’s involvement by saying his son paid back the Russian billionaire, and Trump told reporters, “A person that he knows — I guess, a friend of his — gave him a wedding party. That’s very common.”
Trump Jr. and his wife Bettina Anderson previously confirmed in a statement on social media that Kremlev funded aspects of their wedding party, and they wrote on Anderson’s Instagram account, “Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda.”
Curtis said the arrangement “just stinks” and called it “corruption,” and he added, “Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships” in a message tied to his push for oversight.
What happens next
Durbin, the top Democratic lawmaker on the Judiciary Committee, said he joined Curtis in calling for Trump Jr. to be investigated, while noting that Hunter Biden has already had a sworn deposition to Congress in 2024. The request also landed against a backdrop of House Republicans spending much of 2023 and 2024 investigating whether Hunter Biden used his father’s name and political position to benefit his business dealings with foreign interests.
The Biden family dismissed those investigations as politically motivated and denied any wrongdoing, and the GOP effort culminated in a report accusing Joe Biden of participating in a conspiracy to use his public office to enrich his family. Curtis argued that “‘Trust us’ was not enough then, and it is not enough now,” and he urged the committee to restore oversight by subpoenaing Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s review.