GOP senator asks Senate committee to subpoena Donald Trump Jr., Hunter Biden

Washington — GOP Sen. John Curtis of Utah asked the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden for testimony regarding their business dealings, relationships with foreign individuals and entities and gifts they received, after recent revelations about a Russian oligarch's financial involvement in the wedding of President Trump's eldest son. 

"A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else," Curtis said in a post on X. "Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden's foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now."

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Curtis asked that the committee "launch an investigation into the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit, preferential treatment, or access by domestic and foreign interests." As part of that investigation, he urged the committee to subpoena the eldest son of President Trump and the son of former President Joe Biden. 

Curtis pointed in the letter to Hunter Biden conducting "substantial business" with foreign entities, including in China and Ukraine, while his father was in office or seeking office. And he wrote that more recently, questions have surfaced about Donald Trump Jr.'s relationships with foreign business figures and "the acceptance of significant gifts."

"These include a lavish wedding afterparty, on a private island, provided by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who reportedly traveled to China as part of a delegation accompanying Vladimir Putin shortly before giving the gift," Curtis wrote. 

Last week, ProPublica published a story with the headline, "Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding was secretly bankrolled by Russian oligarch close to Putin." In a post on Instagram, Bettina Anderson, the wife of Donald Trump Jr., confirmed that Kremlev had hosted some of their May post-wedding festivities on a private island in the Bahamas as "an extraordinarily generous wedding gift."

The Utah Republican has decried the gift from a Russian oligarch, saying on social media last week that "it just stinks — it's corruption." He called it a "big deal" and gave a video preview of his plan to call for congressional action. 

Curtis wrote that, in addition to Trump Jr.'s promotion of the family's cryptocurrency ventures, pursuit of international real estate deals and ties to prediction-market platforms, among other things, the reports "raise legitimate questions about foreign access to members of a sitting president's family and whether such relationships can create actual or perceived expectations of favorable treatment." 

"They also may create expectations of a returned favor that would not be in the best interests of the American people or our allies, and could even create national security vulnerabilities," he wrote. 

Curtis said the purpose of the probe should be "straightforward: establish the facts, determine whether existing ethics, disclosure, or anti-corruption laws apply, and identify reforms necessary to prevent the presidency from becoming a vehicle for private enrichment by those closest to it."

"Americans deserve confidence that public institutions serve them — not presidents, political parties, wealthy interests, or members of powerful families," Curtis continued. "Congress has an obligation to pursue credible concerns wherever they lead and without regard to party."