Republican calls for Senate investigation of Trump Jr wedding paid for by Russian oligarch

A Republican senator has accused Donald Trump Jr of corruption and demanded a Senate investigation into revelations that a Russian oligarch bankrolled part of his recent wedding in the Bahamas.

John Curtis, of Utah, wrote to the leaders of the US Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday, urging them to subpoena Trump Jr over his business dealings, his relationships with foreign individuals, gifts he has received – and any occasions where his connection to his father, Donald Trump, “was invoked or understood to provide value”.

Trump Jr’s wedding warrants the kind of scrutiny Republicans once trained on Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, Curtis said.

“A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else,” he wrote in a social media post accompanying the letter to the committee. “Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now.”

The push follows reporting by ProPublica that Umar Kremlev, the Russian boxing official with close ties to Vladimir Putin, helped cover the cost of renting a private island and staging a fireworks display for the wedding of Trump Jr and Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas in May. Bettina Trump later described Kremlev on Instagram as a “dear friend” who had generously hosted two nights of post-wedding celebrations.

Donald Trump, who did not attend the ceremony, defended Kremlev’s involvement but said he was told by Trump Jr that the money would eventually be reimbursed, though explained that giving a wedding party as a gift is “totally allowed” and is also “very common”.

It is not the first time Trump Jr’s conduct has drawn scrutiny over ties to Russia. He was a central figure in the Robert Mueller investigation that followed the 2016 election, after it emerged he had attended a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer who had promised damaging material on Hillary Clinton.

The call for a formal committee inquiry marks one of the sharper breaks with the president by a sitting Republican senator. Curtis first flagged the wedding payment as problematic on Friday, calling it “corruption” in a video posted online and promising further comment. He was elected to the Senate in 2024, pledging not to shy away from disagreements with Trump.

His letter, addressed to the committee chair, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and its top Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, lands amid signs of broader unease among Republicans over Trump’s standing heading into November’s US midterm elections, with the party facing pressure over the war in Iran, high gas prices and slipping poll numbers.

Republicans in the House of Representatives spent much of 2023 and 2024 investigating whether Hunter Biden traded on his father’s name in his overseas business dealings, an effort that produced a report alleging a conspiracy to enrich the Biden family, but never resulted in impeachment articles reaching a House vote. The Bidens denied wrongdoing throughout.

“‘Trust us’ was not enough then,” wrote Curtis, “and it is not enough now.”