Democrats Back Republican Senator’s Call To Subpoena Donald Trump Jr. in Corruption Investigation

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee will support a Republican lawmaker’s effort to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. after it was reported that a Russian oligarch had paid for two lavish parties following Mr. Trump’s wedding earlier this year. The Republican lawmaker making that push, Senator John Curtis, wants to haul in both Mr. Trump and Hunter Biden to answer questions about presidential family members using their last name to peddle influence. When the ProPublica report was first published, Mr. Curtis described Mr. Trump’s actions as “corruption.” The report details how a Russian sports and gambling magnate who is close with President Putin, Umar Kremlev, spent more than $150,000 on two parties for Mr. Trump and his wife in the days after they were married. Mr. Trump and his wife confirmed the details of the report but argued that the parties were simply a gift from a close friend. In a letter to the leaders of the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Mr. Curtis pointed to the fact that Republicans spent years investigating Mr. Biden as reason to bring in Mr. Trump. He says America “should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president.”“For years, serious questions have been raised about members of presidential families using their names and proximity to the President to advance private business interests,” Mr. Curtis wrote, arguing that even the appearance of impropriety by either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden merits congressional scrutiny. Mr. Curtis went beyond just the wedding parties paid for by Mr. Kremlev, however. He raised concerns in his letter about Mr. Trump’s “active promotion” of the Trump family’s “cryptocurrency ventures,” Mr. Trump’s “continued pursuit of international real estate deals involving direct meetings with foreign heads of state,” as well as “reported investments in defense contracting” as other issues that need to be investigated. Mr. Curtis also pointed to Mr. Trump’s involvement with the prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi, which are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an agency which is led by a Trump nominee who has promised to shield the platforms from any state regulation. “These 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,” Mr. Curtis wrote. “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.”The top Democrat on the committee, Senator Dick Durbin, said Tuesday that he will support Mr. Curtis’s push to subpoena both Messrs. Trump and Biden. Mr. Durbin said in a statement that Mr. Curtis “made a good faith request that the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate the lavish gift of a Russian oligarch to President Trump’s son as well as any wrongdoing by the son of former President Biden.”Mr. Curtis said the committee must launch an investigation into presidential families’ “private financial benefit, preferential treatment, or access by domestic and foreign interests” which may have been won simply by being related to the sitting president. He says Messrs. Trump and Biden should be subpoenaed so they can testify “regarding their past business dealings, relationships with foreign individuals and entities, gifts, or other benefits they have received, and any instances in which their relationship to the President was invoked or understood to provide value.”“Americans deserve confidence that public institutions serve them — not presidents, political parties, wealthy interests, or members of powerful families. Congress has an obligation to pursue credible concerns wherever they lead and without regard to party,” Mr. Curtis wrote.

Democrats Back Republican Senator’s Call To Subpoena Donald Trump Jr. in Corruption Investigation

Democrats Back Republican Senator’s Call To Subpoena Donald Trump Jr. in Corruption Investigation

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