GOP lawmaker says FBI seeking interview about Assange meeting

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) says the FBI and Senate Intelligence Committee are seeking to interview him about his August meeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Rohrabacher met with Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London to discuss the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which Assange believes was an “inside job.” 

American intelligence authorities, however, believe that Assange acted on behalf of Russian operatives to release the hacked Democratic emails.

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The GOP congressman had said that “other parties” were hoping to connect him with President Trump to discuss the DNC hack and provide information from Assange.

Rohrabacher told the newspaper that efforts to connect Assange with Trump have been stonewalled by White House chief of staff John Kelly. 

Rohrabacher had said in August that the information shared with him by Assange would “outrage” Americans if shared publicly.

“When the American people realize that this is a con job and a power grab they’ll be upset,” he told Sean Hannity at the time.

The New York Times reported that Rohrabacher, the chairman for the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, also met earlier this year with Alexander Torshin, a top Russian financial official.