The House Foreign Affairs Committee has restricted Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., putting limits on his use of committee money to take overseas trips and on hearings that his subcommittee can hold, according to The Daily Beast.
House Republican leaders fear that Rohrabacher's ties to Russia compromise him, the Daily Beast reported.
"His committee travel and hearing requests were curtailed following news accounts of his outside-the-box interest in Russia," said Ken Grubbs, Rohrabacher's communications director.
Rohrabacher visited with Assange at the Ecuador embassy in London this summer, but had to pay for the trip himself because his request for funding for the trip was denied, according to the Daily Beast.
In 2016, Rohrabacher wanted to host a "show trial" of Russia critic, investor Bill Browder, as well as show a Kremlin propaganda movie that would target Browder's reputation.
Browder is an investor who led a campaign to punish Russian human rights abusers, and who pushed for the 2012 Magnitsky Act, in the wake of the death of Browder's lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, who was investigating Russian corruption, according to The New York Times.
"I'm not going to dispute the fact that the full committee has taken a very hands-on approach with the subcommittee," a Republican source in the House of Representatives told the Daily Beast.
The congressman has used subcommittee hearings to favorably compare Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Donald Trump, to introduce pro-Russian conspiracy theories into the congressional record, and to allow pro-Russian speakers to raise questions about the work of American intelligence, according to the Daily Beast.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.