Tom Emmer Corruption & Ethics Checks & Balances Minnesota

Tom Emmer Said 'No One, Not Even the President's Son, Is Above the Law.' Now He Says a Probe of Don Jr.'s Russian-Paid Wedding Is a 'New Russia Hoax.'

When the president's son was Hunter Biden, Tom Emmer said nobody was above the law and a 'private citizen' was no excuse. When a Republican senator asked to look at a Putin-tied oligarch paying for Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding party, Emmer called it a hoax.

MAGA Report Cards · Sep 26, 2026

Tom Emmer Said 'No One, Not Even the President's Son, Is Above the Law.' Now He Says a Probe of Don Jr.'s Russian-Paid Wedding Is a 'New Russia Hoax.'

Tom Emmer is the House Majority Whip, the third-ranking Republican in the House. In 2024, when the president's son was named Hunter Biden, Emmer had a simple rule. This week, when the president's son is named Donald Trump Jr., he threw it out.

What happened this week

On September 14, ProPublica reported that Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding celebration was secretly bankrolled by Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in wedding-related costs, including renting a private island and a fireworks show. Trump Jr.'s spokesperson didn't dispute the payments and said "Umar is a personal friend of Don." President Trump later claimed his son had paid Kremlev back.

A Republican, Utah Sen. John Curtis, then asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate "the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit." His letter asked for subpoenas of both Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden. Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis said they'd support an inquiry.

Emmer's answer, posted on X: the idea was a "new Russia hoax" and an "unwarranted attack" that would "go nowhere," because "Don Jr. is a private citizen and businessman." He added: "This partisan distraction is NOT what the American people voted for!"

Curtis answered him directly: "I know Tom (Emmer) well… But he's wrong."

What Emmer said when it was Hunter Biden

In January 2024, House Republicans were fighting Hunter Biden over a subpoena. Emmer, then as now the Majority Whip, called Biden's surprise appearance at an Oversight hearing a "press stunt" and warned that if the delays continued, Republicans would resume efforts to hold him in contempt. Then he said this, as NPR reported:

"No one, not even the president's son, is above the law."

Hunter Biden held no government job at the time. He was, in Emmer's current words, a private citizen and businessman. That didn't stop Emmer then.

Blaine resident Chad Maschke went through Emmer's record for a column in the Minnesota Reformer and found more. In November 2023, Emmer told Fox Business about the Bidens: "If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide." In December 2023 he voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Biden over his family's business dealings. He has said the Clintons should be held in contempt over the Epstein subpoenas and that Rep. Ilhan Omar's husband "should be subpoenaed." Maschke found no example, before this week, of Emmer saying a private citizen should be spared from congressional scrutiny.

The questions Emmer doesn't want asked

Kremlev's wedding money isn't the only Trump Jr. deal that's drawn questions during his father's second term. The Reformer column lists several:

Trump Jr. advises and holds equity in Kalshi and advises Polymarket, the country's two biggest prediction-market companies, while his venture firm committed $300 million to a Polymarket funding round. Both are regulated by a federal agency his father's administration controls.
Companies backed by that same venture firm, 1789 Capital, won more than $735 million in federal contracts in 2025, according to the Financial Times.
A rare-earth magnet company got a $620 million Pentagon loan three months after 1789 invested in it.

Curtis's letter asks Congress to look at whether being the president's son was "invoked or understood to provide value." That is almost exactly the question House Republicans asked about the Biden family in 2023. Emmer wanted that question asked then.

Republicans now control the House, the Senate and every committee in both, so an investigation only happens if Republicans allow one. When Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee tried to subpoena Trump Jr. in March over the rare-earth magnet deal, the Reformer column notes, Republicans voted to adjourn. As the House's third-ranking Republican, Emmer has now told his party publicly that it shouldn't even look.

Selective oversight is a pattern

This isn't the first time Emmer has picked his investigations by party. We reported earlier that he loudly promotes the Oversight Committee's Minnesota fraud probe but stays silent on the same committee's Epstein investigation.

Emmer is running for reelection in Minnesota's 6th District against Democrat Doug Chapin.

What we know

In January 2024, Tom Emmer said "no one, not even the president's son, is above the law" while pushing to punish Hunter Biden, a private citizen. In September 2026, after ProPublica reported that a Putin-tied Russian oligarch paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding celebration, Emmer called a Republican senator's request for an investigation a "new Russia hoax" and said it would go nowhere because Trump Jr. is "a private citizen and businessman." Two Republican senators on the committee disagree with him.