Curtis Wants Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden Subpoenaed. The Committee Hadn't Read the Letter Yet.

Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah sent a letter this week to the Senate Judiciary Committee's chairman and ranking member asking them to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden, requiring both men to testify about gifts, foreign business relationships, and any instance in which their fathers' presidencies created financial value for them. The letter does not compel anyone to appear. Only the committee, which Curtis's own party controls, can issue a subpoena, and by Tuesday afternoon it had not scheduled a vote on whether to.

What Curtis is responding to

The letter follows a ProPublica investigation, published September 14, that found Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev quietly paid for large parts of Trump Jr.'s wedding celebration in the Bahamas on May 24. Kremlev's team rented one private island, used in earlier films including a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel and Casino Royale, for the reception and guest housing, and a second island, at roughly $100,000 a night, for the couple's first dance. A fireworks display cost about $70,000. The payments moved through IB Challenger, a Dubai-based entity tied to the International Boxing Association, the organization Kremlev leads.

Kremlev received Russia's Order of Friendship from President Vladimir Putin a month before the wedding and is under Ukrainian government sanctions. Trump Jr.'s spokesman said the two men met through a mutual friend in the hunting world and bonded over boxing and the outdoors. After ProPublica's story ran, Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Trump, posted on Instagram that "our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us." The White House did not respond to ProPublica's requests for comment.

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

A second track, without subpoena power

Curtis's letter is not the only one pending. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent his own letters on September 15 to the White House and to Trump Jr. directly, requesting communications between Trump Jr. and Kremlev and "financial records of all purchases made for your wedding by foreign nationals." Garcia's letters carry no subpoena power on their own. Oversight is controlled by a Republican chairman, and a ranking member can request records but cannot compel them without majority support, the same limitation Curtis faces in the Senate unless Grassley calls a vote.

Where the committee actually stands

Reaction inside the Judiciary Committee split less along party lines than along who had opened the email. Grassley, asked why he had not read a letter addressed to him, told reporters he had "just got to town." Sens. Cory Booker and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, said the same: they had not yet seen it, though Blumenthal said he supported an investigation regardless. Durbin called it "a great letter" and said Judiciary should look into "the lavish gift of a Russian oligarch to President Trump's son as well as any wrongdoing by the son of former President Biden." Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, said he would "not oppose" an investigation. Majority Leader John Thune said he lacked enough information and would defer to Grassley.

A committee spokesperson confirmed the letter had arrived but said hearing dates are "extremely limited" through the end of the year. How often a letter like this actually produces a subpoena vote isn't something the committee publishes, and none of the outlets that reported this story cited a comparable rate. What is verifiable: neither Trump Jr. nor Hunter Biden has testified before Congress about these specific dealings, despite years of legislative interest in both.

Curtis's own position

Curtis is in his first year in the Senate, elected in 2024 to succeed Mitt Romney, who did not seek re-election. He spent seven years in the House and, before that, seven years as mayor of Provo, where he left office with a 94 percent approval rating. In his letter, he cited public trust in government at 27 percent and argued that oversight of a president's family should not depend on which party holds the White House, pointing to Hunter Biden's paid board seat on a Ukrainian energy company and consulting work in China during Joe Biden's presidency as the comparison case.