Sen. John Curtis of Utah went out on a lonely limb last week when he became the first and only Republican member of Congress to take an interest in the controversy surrounding the Russian oligarch who paid for Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding party. “It’s corruption,” Curtis said in a video posted to social media on Friday, adding: “This is a big deal.”

Earlier this week, the Utahn followed through, sending a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling for an investigation and recommending a subpoena for the president’s oldest son.

“A toaster is a wedding gift,” Curtis added in an online statement. “A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else. Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now. ‘Trust us’ was not enough then, and it is not enough now.”

To my great surprise, the senator actually picked up some support from within his own party in the days that followed. HuffPost reported:

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is retiring, described Donald Trump Jr.’s acceptance of [gifts from Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin] as “colossally bad judgment at best,” per The Associated Press. In a separate interview with The Hill, he added: “If the House flips next year, you know there’s going to be an investigation one way or the other.”

Echoing those sentiments was Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who told The Hill: “I’m with Sen. Curtis. I would support Sen. Curtis’s request.”

What’s more, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the AP, in reference to Curtis, “I’m glad he said what he said.” Earlier this week, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana also conceded during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the circumstances surrounding the wedding controversy looked “really bad.”

I’m not suggesting that five GOP senators taking the matter seriously represents a dramatic shift in Republican politics, but after years of partisan indifference to Trump-related scandals, it’s heartening to see any GOP senators care.

For his part, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer scrambled to carry the White House’s water again, publishing an item via social media chiding “some senators” for wanting to “waste time creating a new Russia hoax and attacking Don Jr.”

The Minnesota congressman added that the president’s son “is a private citizen … so this unwarranted attack will go nowhere.”

There are a handful of important problems with Emmer’s pitiful defense. For one thing, the original Trump/Russia scandal was not a “hoax,” no matter how many times Republicans pretend otherwise. For another, private citizens receive congressional subpoenas all the time — as Emmer ought to know, given his celebration of subpoenas for Hunter Biden in the recent past.

But perhaps most important is the fact that the underlying allegations are hardly an “unwarranted attack.”

ProPublica reported last week that Kremlev had “secretly bankrolled” part of Trump Jr.’s recent wedding, footing the bill for “hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses” and even helping to plan the gathering.

“It’s not clear why Kremlev helped pay for Trump Jr.’s wedding,” ProPublica added. “The men appear to have met only recently.”

It was a tough story to shrug off for reasons that should have been obvious: A Putin-aligned Russian oligarch paid for the wedding party of the sitting American president’s oldest son, and it was an open question as to why that happened and what the Russian might want or expect in return.

If partisans such as Emmer want to present an argument as to why this is unworthy of scrutiny, I’d love to hear it. But so far, GOP leaders haven’t even tried to present such a case.

As for the groom’s father, President Donald Trump addressed the story for the first time on Friday, insisting that the arrangement was “totally allowed.”

As part of the same exchange, Trump said of his oldest son, “As I understand it, he paid him back.” He then hedged a bit on the timing, adding: “I understand that Don’s paying them back.”

There are not yet any details as to whether that has happened, whether it will happen, how much Trump Jr. intends to repay the Russian oligarch or why he would even bother if all of this was “totally allowed.”

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

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