As last week got underway, ProPublica reported that that Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, had “secretly bankrolled” part of Donald 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. 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. Such questions were among the reasons Democrats on the House Oversight Committee immediately launched an investigation.

But what about Republicans? Were they prepared to defend this?

During a Senate hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel claimed last week that he had never heard of the controversy. Around the same time, during a White House press briefing, Attorney General Todd Blanche assured reporters that the president “doesn’t know” Kremlev, suggesting that Blanche and Trump had at least one conversation about the burgeoning controversy, though the attorney general claimed he had no additional information.

Hours later, Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio refused to discuss the matter during a CNN interview, except to say, “Look, you compare Don Jr. to Hunter Biden, and you have one that’s a complete drug-addicted degenerate compared to a great human being.” (One assumes he meant that Trump Jr. was the “great human being.”)

But at least some people in GOP circles have expressed a willingness to acknowledge the reality of the story. The Hill reported:

Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) on Friday ripped President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. for letting a Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance his wedding after-party in the Bahamas this year.

Curtis called the generous gift “corruption” and pledged to say more about it in coming days.

“A Russian oligarch paid for a lavish wedding after-party for Donald Trump Jr., which to me just stinks. It’s corruption, I don’t like it,” Curtis said in a video posted to social media. The Utah Republican added, “You’ll hear more from me later on. This is a big deal.”

Two days later, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana conceded during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the circumstances surrounding the wedding controversy look “really bad.”

As for the groom’s father, the president 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.”

A day before the president’s comments, Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, wrote to Patel to demand scrutiny of what transpired. “If accurate,” Himes wrote, the reporting “presents significant counterintelligence concerns that must be thoroughly investigated by the FBI.”

Patel has not yet responded. Watch this space.

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