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Attorney General Todd Blanche has dismissed questions about whether the Justice Department would look into a Russian oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin who paid for some of Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebrations in the Bahamas.
Getting into it: “The president’s son has said that he’s a very close friend, and that he accepted a gift the weekend of his wedding,” Blanche said at a White House briefing. “So I’m not sure when you say, ‘Am I investigating,’ am I investigating what? And when you say this person is a friend of Putin, I don’t even know if that’s true or not. I don’t have any information. I don’t know this person either.”
This comes after ProPublica reported Monday that Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), covered hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for the May wedding weekend, citing records and three people familiar with the event. That included a private island rental reported at $100,000 a night, a fireworks display estimated at $70,000, and event planning help from his team. The money moved through a Dubai-based entity tied to the IBA. The boxing group has been funded by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, and the International Olympic Committee cut it loose in 2019 over money problems and corruption concerns.
Kremlev’s Kremlin ties are extensive. Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship weeks before the wedding. Ukraine has sanctioned him personally, pointing to how close he is to Putin and Russia’s security apparatus. One of his companies was picked by Putin to operate Russia’s national lottery, and Kremlev also owns a car dealership the Russian state nationalized.
The Trump family’s responses do not line up with each other. Trump Jr.’s spokesperson didn’t push back on the payments, calling Kremlev “a personal friend” he got to know through someone they both know from hunting, with no business relationship. Eric Trump’s spokeswoman said he “has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name.”
The president said he had “no idea who Umar is, never heard of him,” and that Kremlev “didn’t pay for Don and Bettina’s wedding, which took place at a totally different location, and on a different day.” Melania Trump’s office said she did not attend and “does not, and has never had, a relationship with Mr. Kremlev.”
Trump Jr. and Bettina Trump posted a defense on Instagram alongside 20 photos. “Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” they wrote, saying they married privately in Florida the day before flying to the Bahamas for a trip planned in advance as a weekend with friends. “It’s unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from. Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift.”
Roughly 50 people attended the reception, including Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos. ProPublica reported that Kremlev, a large bald man with little command of English, showed up with a group of Russians that left other guests confused, and the group mostly stayed in its own circle talking in Russian. One of them was Alexander Lagutin, a former senior figure at both a Russian defense firm and a state-backed energy company. Almost none of the Russians appear in the photos the couple made public. Trump Jr. had described the event on his podcast as “really small” and made up of “close friends.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are pressing the issue. Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member on House Oversight, sent letters to Trump Jr. and the White House demanding information and asking them to preserve records. “It’s baffling that the son of a President would even think about allowing a Russian oligarch to bankroll his wedding,” he wrote, and asked whether the gift points to pay-to-play dealings or a way for foreign intelligence to get inside the president’s family.
FBI Director Kash Patel was asked about it at a Senate hearing Tuesday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who wanted to know whether the bureau had opened an investigation into whether Kremlev’s money could have compromised the president’s family from an intelligence standpoint. “I’m not sure what public reporting you’re referring to,” Patel said. “And so, what the men and women of the FBI will do, as we do in every case, is we will look into whatever information comes our way and analyze it.”
