Moreno, Banks warn of ‘Russiagate 2.0’ amid GOP push to probe Trump Jr. wedding party

Republican Sens. Bernie Moreno (Ohio) and Jim Banks (Ind.) warned of a situation similar to previous investigations into President Trump’s ties with Russia amid a GOP push to question Donald Trump Jr. over reporting that a Russian oligarch funded his after-wedding party.

“I couldn’t care less who throws a private citizen a wedding after-party,” Moreno said in a Tuesday post on the social platform X.

“Subpoenas of presidential family members must pass a high bar. We can’t let the Senate become a partisan tool used to harass private citizens in pursuit of political points. Republicans must learn the lessons of the past, we can’t fall prey to Russiagate 2.0,” he added.

A day later, Banks responded to Moreno’s X post with his own, saying that “the last Russia hoax cost this country years of progress.”

“We are not doing it again over a private citizen’s wedding,” he added. “Don Jr. is a businessman, not an administration official. There is no evidence he sold access to the presidency.”

Multiple Republican senators have lent their support to Sen. John Curtis’s (R-Utah) push for the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the president’s son due to his business dealings and gifts he received from a Russian businessman linked to the Kremlin.

In a letter to leaders of the committee, Curtis noted Trump Jr.’s “lavish wedding afterparty” on a “private island” that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev spent money on, per recent reporting from ProPublica.

During Trump’s first term, former special counsel Robert Muller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow implicated six ex-Trump associates. However, it did not outright accuse the president of committing a crime and did not find evidence for collusion.