The US House Democrat Robert Garcia has launched an investigation into Donald Trump Jr.ʼs financial ties to Russian businessman Umar Kremlev. Earlier, ProPublica released an investigation claiming that Kremlev partially paid for the wedding of the US presidentʼs son.
Axios writes about this.
Garcia asked Trump Jr. for documents about his communications with Kremlinov and financial records about wedding expenses paid for by foreigners. He also asked Trump Jr. if Kremlinov had ever given him “anything of value in exchange for favors from the US government or information about the Trump administration”.
And in a letter to the White House, he asked whether Trump Jr. had access to classified information, whether he had disclosed his ties to the Kremlin to the White House, and whether President Trumpʼs absence from the ceremony was related to the oligarchʼs participation.
Axios emphasizes that as a minority representative on the committee, Garcia can only hope for voluntary responses at this time — the administration and members of the Trump family can easily ignore such requests.
Everything will change if Democrats gain a majority in the House of Representatives and Garcia heads the Oversight Committee next January: then he will be able to require potential witnesses to testify and provide documents.
What Donald Trump says
The US President Donald Trump said in a comment to Axios that he "has no idea who Umar is, has never heard of him, and he did not pay for Don and Bettinaʼs wedding, which took place in a completely different place and on a different day".
“It was an ʼafter-wedding party’ organized in their honor. Nothing special! I was not present at this party,” he added.
- Trump Jr.ʼs wedding took place in late May. On September 14, ProPublica published an investigation that found that the celebration was partly financed by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who is close to Vladimir Putin.
- In particular, he paid for the rental of one of the private islands where the reception was held and where guests slept. He also paid for the fireworks, and his team helped plan the wedding.
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