Garcia, a Democratic member of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, asked the White House to turn over all documents, records, and correspondence on Kremlev, including warnings about his ties to President Vladimir Putin. In the letter, he also asked whether Trump Jr. has a security clearance, whether he informed the White House about his contacts with Kremlev, and whether President Donald Trump’s absence from his son’s wedding was linked to the oligarch’s involvement.
The congressman demanded to see records of all wedding purchases made by foreign citizens, as well as gifts from foreign citizens or people with close ties to U.S. adversaries. He separately asked Trump Jr. whether Kremlev gave him anything of value in exchange for favorable treatment from the U.S. government or for information about the Trump administration.
Garcia called ProPublica’s investigation, which first reported on Kremlev’s alleged financing of the wedding, “possibly the most serious allegation against you to date”. He also demanded from the U.S. president’s son a complete list of wedding guests and the dates of his contacts with Kremlev.
Trump Jr.’s wife Bettina Anderson said that “dear friend Umar” gave the newlyweds “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift” by organizing two “amazing celebratory evenings” after the wedding. Earlier, journalists found that Kremlev paid for the rental of one of the private islands in the Bahamas, fireworks, and expenses totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that his team took part in preparing Trump’s son’s wedding. In a comment to Axios, Donald Trump said that he does not know who Umar Kremlev is, has never heard of him, and that he did not pay for the wedding; according to Trump, it was an afterparty held in their honor, and he did not attend. Neither Trump Jr.’s representative nor Kremlev responded to Axios’s request for comment.
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