'Putin's favorite congressman' gets slapped with travel restrictions over fears he's compromised by Russia

Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who has been regularly lampooned as "Putin's favorite congressman," has seen his travel and hearing requests get drastically curtailed over fears that he has been compromised by Russian intelligence agencies.

The Daily Beast reports that Rohrabacher had to pay for his own recent trip to London to meet with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after his request to have taxpayers foot the bill was denied by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The committee placed new restrictions on Rohrabacher's travel in the wake of his willingness to push pro-Kremlin propaganda at official congressional hearings, as well as his public embrace of Assange.

"His committee travel and hearing requests were curtailed following news accounts of his outside-the-box interest in Russia," the congressman's spokesperson explained to the Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast reported earlier this year that Rohrabacher was given instructions by Russian intelligence officials on how to alter sanctions legislation and to set up "a virtual show trial on Capitol Hill" last June, right at around the time that Donald Trump Jr. and key members of the Trump campaign met with Russian nationals who claimed to be representatives of the Russian government’s efforts to undermine the candidacy of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Rohrabacher’s original plan was to have a show trial in Congress of anti-Putin campaigner Bill Browder in which he would "confront Browder with a feature-length pro-Kremlin propaganda movie that viciously attacks him—as well as at least two witnesses linked to the Russian authorities, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya."