(AFP) – A Republican US senator called Tuesday for Donald Trump Jr. to be subpoenaed over a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin helping bankroll lavish celebrations for the president’s son’s wedding. Utah Senator John Curtis asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate whether members of presidential families have used their political connections for private financial gain, in a rare challenge from within President Donald Trump’s own party.
His request follows a ProPublica investigation reporting that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Trump Jr’s three-day wedding celebrations in the Bahamas in May, including the rental of a private island and a fireworks display. Trump Jr and his wife Bettina later confirmed Kremlev’s involvement, describing him as a friend who had “very generously hosted” two nights of celebrations.
“A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else,” Curtis posted on X. Curtis also called for former president Joe Biden’s son Hunter to be subpoenaed, arguing that Congress should apply the same standards to presidential families regardless of party. “Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now,” he said.
In a letter to Republican Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley and its top Democrat Dick Durbin, Curtis cited Trump Jr’s cryptocurrency ventures, international real estate dealings, defense investments, and ties to prediction markets. The reports, he said, raised questions about whether foreign interests could gain access or expect favorable treatment through relationships with a president’s family.
“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,” Curtis wrote. Curtis, who succeeded anti-Trump Republican Mitt Romney in the Senate, has generally backed the president’s agenda but last week described the wedding revelations as something that “just stinks.”
“It’s corruption,” he said. “I don’t like it.” The senator asked the committee to examine whether existing ethics and anti-corruption laws are adequate to prevent the presidency from becoming, in his words, “a vehicle for private enrichment by those closest to it.”
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