Sen. John Curtis of Utah is pressing the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena both Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden over foreign business dealings, arguing Republicans cannot hold one standard for Democrats and another for their own.
Curtis, a Republican, sent a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the Judiciary Committee, calling for formal investigations into both presidential sons. The letter asks the committee to compel testimony from Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden, treating their respective foreign entanglements with the same level of congressional oversight.
The move puts Curtis at odds with many in his own party. Republicans spent years investigating Hunter Biden's overseas business relationships and whether former President Joe Biden served as an access point for his son's deals. Biden denied involving his father. Now Curtis wants the same machinery turned on Trump Jr., and he is not shy about saying so.
In his letter to Grassley, Curtis laid out a principle that left little room for partisan dodge. Fox News Digital reported that Curtis wrote:
"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. Nor should congressional oversight begin and end when control of the White House changes hands."
Curtis also posted on X, sharpening the point with a line aimed squarely at colleagues who might prefer to look the other way.
"A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else. Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden's foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now. 'Trust us' was not enough then, and it is not enough now."
That reference to a "private-island party" stems from reporting first published by ProPublica. Trump Jr. married Bettina Anderson in a private wedding in the Bahamas, and his wedding after-party reportedly took place on a private island allegedly provided by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The oligarch has ties to the scandal-ridden International Boxing Association, which has been funded in part by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy company.
Trump Jr. recently met again with the same oligarch, according to the reporting.
The senator did not limit his concerns to the wedding after-party. His letter described what he called a broader web of financial activity by Trump Jr. that raises questions about foreign access to a sitting president's family.
Curtis wrote that the concerns "are compounded by Donald Trump Jr.'s active promotion of family-backed cryptocurrency ventures, his continued pursuit of international real estate deals involving direct meetings with foreign heads of state, and his reported investments in defense contracting."
He went further, flagging Trump Jr.'s ties to prediction market platforms. Curtis stated that "this pattern extends to his significant financial and advisory ties to prediction market platforms that depend on favorable federal regulatory decisions being considered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission." The CFTC is the federal agency that regulates derivatives and certain financial trading platforms.
Trump Jr. has been described as a key figure in boosting his father's wealth. He runs the president's holdings and ventures in cryptocurrency alongside his brothers.
The financial backdrop is striking. President Trump's income between 2024 and 2025 ballooned by roughly 250 percent, from just over $620 million to approximately $2.2 billion, according to the president's financial disclosure forms reviewed by Fox News Digital. Much of that growth has been linked to ventures his sons manage.
Curtis cited polling in his letter claiming nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the federal government is corrupt. He did not identify the specific survey. But the number served his broader argument: that the public's trust in government cannot survive selective accountability.
In his letter, Curtis wrote that the reports about Trump Jr.'s dealings "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." He added that such relationships "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."
Fox News Digital reported that neither the Trump Organization nor the White House provided comment by publication. Hunter Biden also did not respond. Grassley, the chairman Curtis addressed directly, has not publicly responded to the letter.
That silence matters. Grassley oversaw aggressive oversight of Hunter Biden's foreign dealings during the previous administration. Whether he applies the same energy to a fellow Republican's son will test the committee's credibility on the very principle Curtis invoked.
Curtis's argument is not complicated. Republicans built a case that presidential family members should not trade on their father's office. They demanded transparency, subpoenas, and sworn testimony. They were right to do so. The question now is whether those standards survive a change in which party controls the White House.
Accountability that only flows in one direction is not accountability. It is politics dressed up as principle, and voters can tell the difference.
