Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis is asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden over foreign relationships, gifts and business dealings that may have benefited from their ties to presidents.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah called Tuesday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena both Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden as part of an investigation into whether relatives of presidents have used their family relationships for private financial gain or preferential access.

Curtis sent the request to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois after reports that Russian businessman Umar Kremlev helped finance post-wedding celebrations for Trump Jr. and Bettina Trump in the Bahamas.

“The country should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president,” Curtis wrote.

Curtis asked the committee to examine Trump Jr.’s business dealings, relationships with foreign individuals and entities, gifts and other benefits, along with situations in which his relationship to President Donald Trump “was invoked or understood to provide value.” He requested comparable scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s foreign business activities.

Curtis framed the proposal as a broader examination of “the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit, preferential treatment, or access by domestic and foreign interests.”

The immediate catalyst was reporting about Kremlev’s involvement in celebrations surrounding Trump Jr.’s May marriage.

ProPublica reported that Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association and a businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, covered substantial costs associated with post-wedding events, including use of a private island and a fireworks display. Trump Jr. and his wife later confirmed that Kremlev hosted portions of the festivities.

In an Instagram statement signed by the couple, Bettina Trump described Kremlev as a “dear friend” who “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.”

She said the couple’s actual wedding ceremony had been private and attended only by family, distinguishing it from the subsequent celebrations Kremlev hosted.

President Trump has defended the arrangement while saying his son intended to reimburse Kremlev.

“It’s totally allowed. And a lot of people have parties and all,” Trump told reporters Friday before adding, “But, as I understand it, he paid them back.”

Trump later said, “I hear he paid them back,” and described Kremlev as someone his son knew.

“That’s very common,” Trump said of friends hosting wedding celebrations, adding, “I’ve given wedding parties to numerous people.”

“With all of that being said, I understand that Don’s paying him back,” the president said.

Curtis has not accepted that explanation as sufficient to resolve his concerns.

“A Russian oligarch paid for a lavish wedding after-party for Donald Trump Jr., which to me just stinks. It’s corruption. I don’t like it,” Curtis said Friday in a social media video.

That characterization represents Curtis’s assessment; no judicial or congressional finding has established that Trump Jr. committed corruption in connection with the celebrations.

Curtis followed the video with his formal request for Senate action.

He argued that Republican scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s foreign business relationships created a standard that should also be applied to relatives of a Republican president.

Republicans “nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships,” Curtis wrote on social media, adding that they “should not unplug it now.”

In his letter, Curtis also pointed beyond the wedding celebration, saying questions surrounding Trump Jr.’s foreign business contacts, gifts and other commercial activities warrant examination because relationships involving presidential family members can create concerns about access and potential expectations of favorable treatment.

Curtis wrote that the committee should establish what occurred before determining whether existing ethics, disclosure or anti-corruption laws apply.

The purpose, he said, 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.”

Kremlev’s relationship with the Trump family has drawn scrutiny in part because of his connections to Putin.

The International Boxing Association has said Kremlev received Russia’s Order of Friendship from Putin, and he accompanied Putin during a trip to China shortly before the wedding celebrations, according to reporting cited by The Associated Press.

Those connections have prompted questions from lawmakers about whether accepting a substantial benefit from a foreign businessman with ties to a foreign head of state creates potential influence or national-security concerns.

Curtis wrote that such relationships “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 said.

Curtis is also seeking testimony from Hunter Biden, whose overseas business activities became the subject of extensive Republican investigations while Joe Biden was president.

House Republicans spent much of 2023 and 2024 examining Hunter Biden’s work involving foreign companies and whether Joe Biden participated in or benefited from those relationships.

The Biden family denied wrongdoing and characterized the investigations as politically motivated.

Republican-led House committees ultimately issued a report accusing Joe Biden of participating in what they described as a scheme that benefited members of his family, but the House did not vote on articles of impeachment against him.

Curtis explicitly invoked that history in arguing for equal congressional scrutiny now.

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

Curtis was elected to the Senate in 2024 and has at times publicly disagreed with Trump.

His latest request goes further by asking a Republican-controlled Senate committee to use its subpoena authority to investigate the president’s eldest son alongside the son of the previous Democratic president.

Whether Grassley will act on Curtis’s request has not yet been announced.

For now, the Utah senator is presenting the issue as one of consistent congressional oversight: if lawmakers believed foreign relationships involving Hunter Biden justified subpoenas and extensive investigation, Curtis argues that similar questions involving Trump Jr. should be examined under the same standard.

Original article