Kremlin was so enamored with 'Putin's favorite congressman' Rohrabacher they gave him his own code name
U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher shakes hands with a supporter wearing Guy Fawkes mask, photo by Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)'s ties to the Kremlin are so pervasive that in 2012, the FBI warned him that they regarded him as a valuable source of intelligence that was worthy of a code name.


According to a report in The New York Times, warnings about his code name came a year prior to Rohrabacher taking the helm of the House's Foreign Affairs subcommittee in charge of Russia policy.

Though his relationship with the Kremlin was well-known enough to cause House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to joke that "There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump" in June 2016, it didn't come under serious scrutiny until Donald Trump became president, the Times' report notes.

Rohrabacher, the report claims, is now the subject of bipartisan pushes to reduce the power the 15-term congressman has over the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats that he chairs.