US Republican calls for probe into Donald Trump Jr’s business dealings

A member of Donald Trump’s political party has issued a rare call for a congressional investigation into the foreign dealings of the United States president’s eldest son.

US Senator John Curtis, a Republican from the state of Utah, on Tuesday said “questions have arisen” about Donald Trump Jr’s relationships with foreign business figures and acceptance of “significant gifts”, alleging he may have personally benefited from his relationship with the president.

In a letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Curtis referenced a ProPublica report that found Trump Jr’s Bahamian wedding party in May was funded by a Russian oligarch.

“These reports 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,” Curtis wrote. “They also 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.”

The letter comes as a small but slowly growing number of Republicans have spoken out against Trump, who has largely avoided criticism from members of his own party. But record-low approval ratings sparked by the war in Iran and concerns over the cost of living in the US have forced some Republicans to reconsider that support as they face growing prospects of major losses in the congressional midterm elections.

If Democrats retake one, or both, chambers of the US Congress in November, investigations into Trump, including his family’s dealings, are likely. But those probes are less likely under Republicans wary of the president’s wrath.

A spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is under Republican control, told the Associated Press that it had received Curtis’s letter but did not say whether there would be an investigation.

Curtis, who isn’t up for re-election until 2030, also called on the chamber’s panel to subpoena Trump Jr, as well as the son of former US President Joe Biden, a Democrat.