The Daily Beast today blew the lid off the corrupt actions of Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) during the “Kremlin Summer” of 2016. At the same time Russian agent Natasha Fatale Natalia Veselnitskaya was dangling Russian political intel in the face of a salivating Donnie Trump Jr, she was also pulling the strings of Rohrabacher, a willing dupe of a massive Russian propaganda campaign designed to overturn US sanctions against Russia. And Roharbacher danced to the tune of those balalaikas played by the Kremlin: he “attempted to stage a show trial of anti-Putin campaigner Bill Browder” in the form of a subcommittee hearing, at which a Kremlin-produced propaganda film would be shown. That film was a hit-piece against Browder, whose Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered by the Russian government. (It was Magnitsky’s killing that prompted Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, a key part of our Russian sanctions regime.)
And whom did Rohrabacher ask to appear at the hearing as a witness? None other than Our Favorite Agent, Natalia Veselnitskaya. And who helped Rohrabacher set up the hearing? None other than the other Mystery Guest at the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, Russian agent Rinat Akhmetshin.
Rohrabacher’s office was given the film by the Prosecutor General’s office in Moscow, which is run by Yuri Chaika, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin who is accused of widespread corruption, and Viktor Grin, the deputy general prosecutor who has been sanctioned by the United States as part of the Magnitsky Act.
Followers of the Trump/Russia scandal will immediately recognize that Donnie Jr’s come-to-mama intel meeting was set up by Rob Goldstone’s promise of anti-Clinton material from the Russian “Crown Prosecutor”, which is clearly Brit Goldstone’s reference to this exact same person: Prosecutor General Chaika.
As it turned out, the subcommittee hearing was nixed by Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), but Rohrabacher would not be deterred so easily. Instead, he set up a private screening of the propaganda film at the Newseum on June 13 (just four days after Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin met with Donnie Jr and other Trump campaign officials). Invitations for that screening were sent out by Catherine O’Neill, then an intern on Rohrabacher’s subcommitte, who has now been rewarded for her subservience with a cushy job at the State Department’s Office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. No doubt there she will continue her work undermining human rights in Russia.
Other pro-Russia actions taken by Rohrabacher at the Kremlin’s request include:
- delayed passage of the Global Magnitsky Act by holding it up in committee
- tabled an amendment to remove Magnitsky’s name from the bill’s title
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was caught on tape telling Republican colleagues: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” When some of the lawmakers laughed, he replied: “Swear to God.”
McCarthy later said the comment was meant as a joke.
The Daily Beast story is long, providing many details of the whole sordid affair, but well worth the read.