Sen. John Curtis wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday and asked its chairman and its senior Democrat to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. Curtis is a Republican from Utah. He wants the president's son under oath about the hundreds of thousands of dollars ProPublica reported a Putin-connected Russian spent on Don Jr.'s wedding party in the Bahamas in May.
ProPublica broke that story on 14 September. For eight days no Republican senator asked anyone to look into it. Curtis went first.
"A toaster is a wedding gift," Curtis wrote on X. "A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else." Republicans, he added, nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden's foreign relationships: "We should not unplug it now."
Trump had already answered the question on Friday, in the Oval Office, before any senator put it to him — Narativ reported his answer Monday. He called the money "totally allowed." He said he has given wedding parties to numerous people himself. Then he said Don Jr. paid it back, three different ways in one appearance.
Don Jr. has not confirmed that. Umar Kremlev, the Russian who paid, has not confirmed it either. Neither man has produced a wire, a receipt, a date or a figure.
The repayment exists as a sentence the president said out loud.
Curtis wants the Senate to go looking for the paper. He is not asking about the other Russians.
