GOP rep was warned in 2012 that Russian spies were recruiting him: report

A Republican lawmaker was formally warned by the FBI that the Russian government was actively seeking to recruit him, The New York Times reported Friday.

According to the report, in 2012 authorities warned Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) about being recruited by the Russians as an “agent of influence.”

Rohrabacher told the Times on Thursday that his meeting with the FBI had focused on his contact with a member of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

{mosads}“They were telling me he had something to do with some kind of Russian intelligence,” the lawmaker recalled. He added that the FBI agent told him that Moscow “looked at me as someone who could be influenced.”

Rohrabacher has had a long track record of opposing an aggressive geopolitical stance toward Russia. He has previously opposed anti-Russian sanctions and claims to have lost a drunken arm-wrestling match with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Rohrabacher entered the media spotlight in recent days following a report by The Washington Post that detailed the contents of an audio recording of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) telling a gathering of House Republican leaders that “there’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and [President] Trump.”

McCarthy on Wednesday downplayed his statement, claiming that he was simply trying to make a joke.