Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah has asked the US Senate judiciary committee to investigate Donald Trump Jr’s business dealings and foreign relationships following reports that a Russian official helped pay for part of his wedding celebrations in the Bahamas.
Curtis wrote to the committee’s leaders on Tuesday asking them to subpoena Trump Jr over his business dealings, relationships with foreign individuals, gifts he has received and occasions when his connection to his father, Donald Trump, may have been used or understood to provide value.
The request follows reporting that Umar Kremlev, a Russian boxing official with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, helped cover the cost of renting a private island and staging fireworks for Trump Jr’s wedding to Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas in May.
Anderson later described Kremlev as a “dear friend” on Instagram and said he had hosted two nights of celebrations after the wedding.
Donald Trump did not attend the ceremony. According to The Guardian, he defended Kremlev’s involvement and said he had been told by Trump Jr that the money would eventually be reimbursed. Trump also said giving a wedding party as a gift was “totally allowed” and “very common”.
Curtis compared the situation with the congressional scrutiny Republicans previously directed at Hunter Biden over his foreign business relationships. In a social media post accompanying his letter, Curtis wrote: “A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else.”
The senator’s request also asks the committee to examine Trump Jr’s relationships with foreign individuals and any benefits connected to his family ties to the president.
Trump Jr previously came under scrutiny during the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. He attended a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower involving a Russian lawyer who had been presented as having potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
Curtis was elected to the Senate in 2024. His request comes ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections and amid wider political disputes over the Trump administration and Republican candidates.
Source: The Guardian
