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Did Russia Try to Recruit a U.S. Representative?

Rejected submission by butthurt at 2017-05-20 11:57:54 from the just kidding dept.
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[House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy] made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Washington Post [washingtonpost.com]

A transcript [washingtonpost.com] (Javascript required) is available to the public but the recording itself is not.

"It was a bad attempt at a joke," McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters Wednesday evening, moments after The Washington Post published an account of the remark based on a recording of a June 2016 meeting of GOP leaders. "That's all there is to it. Nobody believes it to be true."

Among those willing to give the Californian a pass was another GOP figure whom McCarthy identified as possibly being on Putin's payroll: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.

[...]

"You have to be very careful when you're using humor," Rohrabacher said in a short interview Wednesday evening. [...]

Seattle Press-Intelligencer [seattlepi.com]

In a secure room at the Capitol, an F.B.I. agent told Mr. Rohrabacher in 2012 that Russian spies were trying to recruit him as an “agent of influence” — someone the Russian government might be able to use to steer Washington policy making, former officials said.

New York Times [nytimes.com]

additional coverage:

related stories:
Acting FBI Director Contradicts White House, Will Maintain Russia Probe [soylentnews.org]
Trump Aide Monitored by FBI, DOJ During Campaign [soylentnews.org]
President Trump Accuses Obama of Wiretapping Trump Tower [soylentnews.org]
Washington State Will Resist Federal Crackdown on Cannabis [soylentnews.org]
US Intelligence: Putin Sought to Help Trump in Election [soylentnews.org]
Chairman of Trump's Presidential Campaign Resigns Amid Pro-Russia Lobbying Scandal [soylentnews.org]


Original Submission