Three more Republican senators have come out in support of an investigation into Donald Trump Jr. after a Russian oligarch bankrolled his wedding party to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah called on the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday to investigate the president’s oldest son following an explosive report from ProPublica detailing how Umar Kremlev rented a private island and paid for an elaborate fireworks display the weekend of Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding to socialite Bettina Anderson.
The couple confirmed in a statement that their “dear friend Umar”—who has close ties to Russia’s Vladimir Putin—had hosted two “incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” and complained about the “wedding gift” being “recast as something political or sinister.”
Curtis blasted the gift as “corruption” and sent a letter asking Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who chairs the judiciary committee, to also subpoena Trump Jr. over his cryptocurrency ventures, overseas property projects involving foreign leaders, defense investments, and advisory roles with prediction-market companies, all of which experts have warned raise conflict-of-interest concerns.
Now, three more Republican senators—including two who serve on the committee—have said they’re on board with an investigation, the AP reported.
Retiring North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he had no problem with a probe of the wedding events, which showed “colossally bad judgment at best,” he said.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn—who lost his seat in this year’s Republican primary after Trump Sr. endorsed his scandal-plagued opponent Ken Paxton—said, “I would support Sen. Curtis’s request.”
And Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who doesn’t sit on the judiciary committee but has four other committee assignments, said she was “glad [Curtis] said what he said.”
“It doesn’t make any difference if you’re Republican or Democrat, if you’re Trump or you’re Biden,” she said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Trump Jr. for comment.
Grassley worked alongside House Republicans in 2023 and 2024 to investigate whether President Joe Biden’s son Hunter had used his father’s political career to secure international business deals.
In asking for a subpoena against Trump Jr., Curtis also wrote in a letter to Grassley that Hunter Biden should be called in to testify about his business dealings in China and Ukraine.
The senator also acknowledged, however, in a social media post that Republicans “nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships.”
“We should not unplug it now,” he wrote.
Biden chimed in on the controversy on X.com, writing, “I say bring it on. I’ve already given more than seven hours of sworn testimony.”
“I’ll sit next to Don Jr. and testify any time, any place. Eric and Jared can join us too,” he added, referring to Trump’s other son Eric and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who have spent much of the president’s second term negotiating billions of dollars’ worth of foreign real estate deals.
Speaking CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday, Forbes senior editor Dan Alexander said it would be hard to investigate Trump Jr.’s finances without “getting into” his father’s finances as well.
“This investigation could ultimately embarrass not just Don Jr. but also the president,” he said.
Forbes has estimated that Trump Jr.’s net worth skyrocketed from $50 million before his father’s re-election to $300 million within a year of Trump returning to office.
The president did not attend Trump Jr.’s May wedding and previously said in a statement to the Daily Beast that he had “no idea who Umar is.” The statement, however, also defended the party as “not a big deal.”
Trump later claimed his son was paying Kremlev back, though there’s been no confirmation of that from Don Jr.’s camp.
