MS NOW host Rachel Maddow on Monday highlighted a bombshell new ProPublica report revealing Donald Trump Jr.’s small May wedding events in the Bahamas were attended and secretly financed by Umar Kremlev — a wealthy Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin.

“I mean, even if you weren’t the president’s son, you’d think that somebody would advise you not to do this,” Maddow said Monday during an interview with ProPublica reporter Brett Murphy. “But as the president’s son, it’s just, it’s unthinkable. But that’s our life now.”

The report published Monday shows Kremlev footed hundreds of thousands of dollars in wedding expenses, citing records and interviews with three people familiar with the event, including private island rentals and a fireworks show for the intimate, 50-odd-person affair.

“In response to ProPublica’s reporting, Don Jr. and his wife put out a statement suggesting that there was no scandal here, because their dear friend Umar didn’t pay for the wedding itself,” Maddow said Monday. “They just had him pay for the weekend after the wedding.”

The “Rachel Maddow Show” host continued, “But here’s something notable about that wedding weekend, which ProPublica teases out: The happy couple have repeatedly talked about the small, intimate, close-friends-only nature of this celebration.”

Kremlev speaks “limited” English, however, and reportedly “puzzled” guests in attendance.

“Don Jr. said on his podcast, quote, ‘It was really small, like, just really close friends,’” noted Maddow. “ProPublica reports that, quote, ‘Some longtime friends of Trump Jr. told associates they were disappointed not to be invited.’ So not even all of his close friends got to be there.”

President Donald Trump on Monday said it was “not a big deal” that Kremlev financed part of his son’s wedding, despite the Senate Intelligence Committee previously concluding Russia worked to help Trump win the 2016 election.

Maddow noted that Trump Jr. had only “recently” met Kremlev, who was reportedly in China earlier this year as part of a delegation accompanying Putin, was awarded the so-called Order of Friendship by Putin, and has formal sanctions imposed against him by Ukraine.

The ProPublica report further notes Putin installed Kremlev to run the national lottery and that the oligarch’s scandal-plagued International Boxing Association was financed at least until a few years ago by Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy company.

“You might be saying, ‘So what if the sitting American president’s eldest son has a bunch of new Russian friends who want to pay for his wedding party with money that may or may not have come from the Russian government’s gas company?’” Maddow joked Monday.

She continued, “Isn’t it nice to have generous friends?”

Watch the full “Rachel Maddow Show” segment on MS NOW’s YouTube account.

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