Goodbye Ed – The Fight Continues

-by Sam Jammal
Candidate for Congress

This week our grassroots movement retired Ed Royce. It’s a huge win for our community and country. We have had 24 years of Ed voting to attack immigrants, cut education, attack women’s rights, undermine our health care and do the bidding of the wealthiest special interests.

But while we retired Royce, we have not won the war. This is still a must-win seat for taking back the House.

Everything we believe in is still at risk. As a Californian, there isn’t a day that Donald Trump doesn’t attack our state. Whether its his recent decisions on drilling and cannabis or last month’s tax reform that punished our district and state, the mission remains the same-- put a check on Donald Trump.

For those of you unfamiliar with the 39th district, we are one of the most diverse districts in America-- 35% Latino, 30% Asian American, 2% African American ad 2% Arab American. The average age is 39 and we have three colleges and two community colleges in the district. This is not a district where we ever should have had a Congressman who votes with Trump 97% of the time. Hillary won the seat by 8.6%.

But demographics are not destiny. The Nixon birthplace and library is in our district, so there is symbolic importance for Republicans. Trump supporter after Trump supporter are already lining up to carry the mantle. Republicans will not go down without a fight.

We also have a crowded Democratic primary that raises the question of who are we as Democrats and what type of Democrat can actually win.

I am the progressive in this race-- I have been endorsed by Blue America, Democracy for America and Climate Hawks Vote.

I am only candidate with roots in the district. My parents are first generation immigrants from South America and the Middle East-- yes, I am Latino and Arab, so there isn’t a day Trump isn’t picking on me. My dad worked in fast food and my mother was a teacher’s assistant-- everything was sacrificed so my siblings and I could go to college.

But more than just roots and the same immigrant story as so many in the 39th, I am the only candidate to not self-fund. There are 3 millionaires-- 2 mega millionaires-- in my race. None of whom live in the district.

I still have student loans and, until recently, spent my career in public service. My kitchen table is a lot like the families of those in the 39th where the median income is $81,000-- we have to stretch our dollars as far as they can go just to get by. We are not millionaires and need representation that understands how hard we are being hit by out of pocket health care costs and higher rents.

Understanding these kitchen table issues matters. I served as a Chief of Staff in the House and Counsel in the Senate. I worked for President Obama at the Commerce Department. I was in Washington for the good, the bad and the ugly of the Obama years. I saw our party move away from being the party of the guy or gal worried about those bills at the kitchen table.

I am running because we need to be the party of working families again. And I can tell you one thing-- we do not need more millionaires in DC-- we need more fighters. Too much is at stake to just add to the cocktail party circuit.

Our economy is changing. Cars are starting to drive themselves. Drones will soon be delivering groceries and machines are replacing checkout lanes. Automation and artificial intelligence will disrupt so much of our economy. Now, more than ever, we need to be the party focused on working families and preserving the American Dream. Its hard to understand the effects of a changing economy when you haven’t had to sweat a credit card bill in years.

We cannot be the party where your ability to write yourself a check matters more than experience to do the job. It may feel expedient, but this does not win elections. Roots in the community matter-- especially in communities with functioning Republican machines like the one created by Ed Royce.

I am writing because there has been so much news about Royce’s retirement and pundits have declared victory. The reality is that we still need to win. We win with a candidate that fits our district and will fight for us. And, because so much of what believe in and stand for as Californians is at risk, someone ready to do the job on day one.

I am a progressive and I am ready to flip this seat. I started my career as a civil rights lawyer, worked in the House and Senate in senior roles, served under President Obama and worked in clean energy. On day one, I will be a fighter for progressive values and those kitchen tables in the 39th. Join my campaign at Sam4Congress.

Who Is Wall Street Favoring This Cycle? And Why?

Wall Street doesn’t hand out the big bribes randomly. They pay off the members of Congress who are in position to help them achieve their legislative and regulatory goals, especially crooks who look like up-and-comers. The Open Secrets chart above shows the amounts the Finance Sector bestowed on it’s favorite House members this cycle only. And the cycle is just beginning. There’s no question why Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) top the list. As Speaker and Majority Leader, they ultimately are charged with making sure Wall Street gets what it wants-- and making sure legislation that Wall Street opposes is never debated, voted on and never sees the light of day. #3 is Kevin Brady (R-TX), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which wrote Trump’s and Ryan’s Tax Scam. Actually, the bill was largely written by Wall Street lobbyists working through Brady’s office. Since being elected to the House in 1990, the Finance Sector has shoved $3,538,810 up Brady’s ass. But it wasn’t until 2015 when he became chair of Ways and Means that Wall Street really started buying him off with serious cash. Last cycle alone, his banksters bribes amounted to $1,004,850. This cycle he’s pay-offs are expected to amount to much more.

With the exception of Pat Tiberi (R-OH)-- who chaired two important Ways and Means Committee subcommittees-- numbers 4 through 9 are all pro-bankster members of the House Financial Services Committee, the most corrupt committee in Congress. And among them you will notice 2 very corrupt Blue Dogs, Kirsten Cinema (AZ) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ), each of whom has been very helpful to the Republicans and Wall Street in dismantling Todd-Frank protections. The only other Democrat on the list, Joe Crowley (NY) is Wall Street’s insurance policy, their old amigo and former head ion the New Dems, hand-picked by Pelosi and Hoyer to take over the House Democratic Leadership when the two of them reach their 100th birthdays and finally step down.

Most of these incumbents are in safe seats and don’t need any money to defend themselves in elections. They need money to continue to buy influence and power within their caucuses. Wall Street does step up to the plate, though, when their shills do run into electoral problems. This cycle two loyal servants of the plutocrats-- House Financial Services members Ed Royce (R-CA) and Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)-- are in hot water with their constituents for consistently selling them out and Wall Street has upped the ante for each. Last cycle Royce was given $1,413,474 and Poliquin was given $936,474. This cycle each can expect well over $2,000,000 to try to protect them from surging Democrats in their districts.

CA-39 went heavily against Trump last year-- Hillary won 51.5% to 42.9%. It was Trump’s most dismal performance of many of the 4 Republican-held Orange County districts. This cycle Trump and Ryan are extremely unpopular with CA-39 voters. Suburban voters in states like California got the worst deal from the Tax Scam and, unlike Issa and Rohrabacher in very similar Orange County districts, Royce voted for the bill, showing anyone who didn’t already know it that he always puts party loyalty above the well being of his own constituents. The DCCC has recruited a worthless GOP-lite (former Republican) lottery winner as it’s candidate-- and there are several other multimillionaires who are running-- but a real progressive is in this race too, Sam Jammal, who has taken the fight right to Royce.

“This election,” Sam told us, “is going to be driven by two questions-- who we are as Americans and whether the American Dream is still possible. I believe we are a country where our government is not just the playground for the wealthy and special interests. As the son of working class, immigrant parents, I believe we are still a country where the voices of working and middle class Americans can be heard and policies are put in place the help people not just get by, but get ahead. The only way to preserve this is to make sure Democrats nominate candidates that fit and fight for the communities they seek to represent. More so, we also must retire incumbents like Ed Royce whose entire career voting record reads like a Christmas list that a banker would ask Santa Claus for. We can no longer afford this type of representative here in the 39th-- especially as we see Trump attempt to sell our government to his family and friends.”

Maine’s second district was Bernie country last year. Hard-pressed voters there wanted change and they reacted badly to the status quo candidates. When they had to choose between Hillary, the candidate of the status quo, and Trump, who was professing-- falsely as it turned out-- to bring change, they picked Trump. Many of them are very sorry now and neither Trump nor Paul Ryan has a favorable job approval rating in ME-02. Although Pelosi and the wealthy establishment in the state have their own out-of-touch richie-rich candidate, a working class champion, Lewiston state Rep. Jared Golden-- the Majority Whip of the state House-- is looking like he is the best opportunity to offer Mainers a real alternative to Poliquin and his Wall Street financiers and allies.

Yesterday we interrupted Golden’s Christmas celebrations to ask him about what he hopes to accomplish in the tax sphere when he retires Poliquin next November. He told us that “Poliquin is out-of-touch with Maine values and he toes the line for Wall Street. President Trump, said that those using the carried interest loophole were ‘getting away with murder,’ and promised to eliminate it, but couldn’t get House Republicans like Bruce Poliquin to fall in line. So instead the GOP tax law allows the carried interest loophole to stay in place, which is great for Bruce and his fat cat Wall Street donors. So they keep getting away with murder and we keep footing the bill. My tax reform priority in Congress would be to flip the GOP tax law on its head and give 83% of the tax cut to the hardworking men and women whose wages haven’t grown in years, instead of giving it to the top 1%.”

The Catholic Church Begs Mimi Walters And Ed Royce For Compassion

Earlier today, we looked at how Trump and Ryan are leading a war against Jesus' message to mankind. It looks like every Catholic pastor in CA-39 and CA-45 (mostly Orange County) is concerned about the same thing-- except they're focusing on Republican members of Congress Ed Royce and Mimi Walters, both lockstep rubber-stamps for Trump and Ryan. The Orange County Register piece over the weekend was devastating. All the pastors signed a letter to Walters and a letter to Royce about DREAMers-- and the letters were followed by Sunday sermons along the same lines. The sermons will be ongoing throughout Advent.

The bishops of the Diocese of Orange are calling on their clergy and parishioners to pray for the young undocumented immigrants, and to advocate for them with their elected leaders.

Catholic leaders see an urgency in finding a permanent solution to the plight of young people brought to the country illegally as children. Their temporary legal status through President Obama’s DACA program is being phased out under the Trump administration.

Led by bishops in Orange County, San Bernardino and the San Gabriel region, 26 pastors urged Walters (R-Laguna Beach) and Royce (R-Fullerton)-- both Catholics-- “to actively support” passage of legislation that would allow the children to have a path to citizenship.

“It is essential to move beyond general statements of support,” read the Dec. 1 open letter, signed by the pastors and Rev. Kevin Vann, bishop of Orange, Gerald Barnes, bishop of San Bernardino, and David O’Connell, auxiliary bishop in the San Gabriel region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The letter requests a meeting with the Republican leaders. It is the first time in recent memory that bishops and all pastors of an Orange County congressional district have called on legislators for action.

“It’s a somewhat unique letter,” said Greg Walgenbach, director of the Office of Life, Justice and Peace for the Diocese of Orange.

Walters, who has expressed sympathy toward DACA recipients, has seen an uptick in rallies calling for her to support one of the bills floating in Congress on the issue. Her vote is considered by some a key Republican swing vote.

Earlier this week, Walters signed a letter calling on Congress to pass legislation before the end of the year to protect those under DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

“I appreciate the passion that some members of the church have shown on this issue, and I share their urgency,” Walters said in an e-mail Friday to the Southern California News Group. “Caring for all of God’s children is at the core of our Catholic faith.

“DACA recipients enrich our community and are building their American dream,” she said. “That is why I signed a letter this week calling on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that would allow DACA recipients to remain the United States, and continue their great contributions to Orange County.”

Royce could not be reached for comment Friday. He has previously said he supports legal residency but opposes including a path to citizenship.

Royce has been a target for years of immigrant-rights advocates, who regularly rally outside his Brea office. In 2013, some 1,500 Catholics prayed outside his closed office for the congressman to “have a change of heart” and support undocumented immigrants seeking citizenship.

As Catholics gather this month to celebrate the Christmas season, Orange County’s top bishops are calling on their pastors and congregants to pray for DACA youth and other immigrants.

A second letter, sent to parishes Friday, includes an Advent prayer which in part says: “Grant, O Lord, unto the leaders of the United States the wisdom and teachable spirit to recognize the good gifts that we receive from DACA youth and other immigrant Dreamers, the conviction to respect their life and dignity, and the courage to pass legislation to protect their stay here and offer a path to eventual citizenship.”

The same letter asks Catholics to contact their representatives, and includes a sample message. That letter was shared on the website of a national Catholic nonprofit that advocates for low-income immigrants and is headed by Bishop Vann.

Katie Porter is one of the two progressives taking on Mimi Walters. Katie told us "It's been three months since Donald Trump announced he would end protections for Dreamers and my Republican opponent Mimi Walters has continued to do nothing but offer empty platitudes. It's unacceptable. I have spent my career fighting for people who don’t have a voice in our system, and I intend to do the same in Congress by standing up for immigrant families. We must pass a clean Dream Act Now."

The other excellent progressive Democratic candidate running for the seat Mimi Walters is occupying is Kia Hamadanchy. Just a few hours ago he told us that "Right here in California’s 45th district, we have DREAMers who are doing nothing but chasing the American Dream-- whether it is as a student at UC Irvine or as an employee of a small business or tech startup. Mimi Walter’s inaction on behalf of her constituents has been so terrible that it took urging from every Catholic leader in the district to get her moving. That’s not leadership. It’s time for a Representative in CA-45 who actually cares about the people here and will really fight to protect our DREAMers."

Sam Jammal is the one non-multimillionaire running for the Orange County seat occupied by Ed Joyce. Recently Frank Schaeffer went to meet him and made this clip [below] about the race and about Sam-- a very different kind of person than Ed Royce. This morning Sam addressed the GOP's DREAMers problem. "DACA really comes down to what's right and what is wrong. It's a moral question. The right thing to do is give young people-- who only know this country and are doing everything right-- the chance at the American Dream. The wrong thing to do is fall in line with Trump and hardline anti-immigrant voices. Once again Ed is on the wrong side of the issue. Instead of focusing on what we can do to integrate immigrants and build up communities, he prefers to divide families and work against young people who are doing everything right, but have a President and politics seeking to do them wrong. Ed just doesn't share our values here in the 39th. We believe in the American Dream and are a welcoming community."

Does Putin Have A Spy Inside Congress? Does Orange County Deserve This?

That was some Daily Beast post yesterday about Comrade Rohrabacher! I wonder if it means he'll retire? It would even be funnier if California's jungle primary results in the progressive in the race, Laura Oatman having to face one of the New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Harley Rouda or Hans Keirstead. Sam Stein's and Nico Hines' exclusive report doesn't beat around the bush, reporting that "House Republican leaders have taken the extraordinary step of curtailing... Rohrabacher’s ability to conduct official business out of fear that he is too compromised by his ties to Russia." Over the summer Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ed Royce, with an OK from Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, had "placed heightened restrictions on the trips abroad that he can take with committee money as well as the hearings he can hold through the subcommittee on Europe that he chairs."

When the California congressman made a trip this summer to see Assange, who is holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, he had to do it on his own dime. A congressional source told The Daily Beast that Rohrabacher had requested committee funding for the trip but was denied. The congressman’s staff confirmed that he ended up using his own money though said he had planned to as it was a side trip from his wedding anniversary celebration on the Iberian Peninsula. Still, they admitted he was facing new restrictions.

“His committee travel and hearing requests were curtailed following news accounts of his outside-the-box interest in Russia,” Rohrabacher’s communications director, Ken Grubbs confirmed to the Daily Beast.

Congressional leaders are often loathe to interject in each other’s jurisdictions, let alone level such an intra-party admonishment. But anxiety over Rohrabacher and his favorable disposition to Moscow has been brewing within GOP circles for months, if not years.

Rohrabacher has long called for closer relations between the U.S. and Russia, to the point that the FBI warned him that he was being potentially recruited as a Russian spy. But it was his use of congressional resources in pursuit of those better relations that led GOP leadership to act.

Last summer, Rohrabacher planned to use his subcommittee to hold what critics saw as a show trial of Bill Browder, an American-born Putin critic who was the driving force behind a U.S. law, the Magnitsky Act, sanctioning Russian officials for human rights violations. Rohrabacher had planned to confront the former businessman with a feature-length pro-Kremlin propaganda movie that sets out to destroy his reputation. Rohrabacher had been given the propaganda film by one of Putin’s top officials at a secret meeting in Russia.

Rohrabacher also had wanted to call at least two witnesses linked to the Russian authorities. Those witnesses including the director of the propaganda film and the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was at the notorious Trump Tower meeting with members of Donald Trump’s family and campaign.

Ultimately, the plans were scrapped when House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) got wind of them. But Rohrabacher’s Capitol Hill office still promoted the movie at an event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. He and his chief of staff Paul Behrends, along with Veselnitskaya, a close associate of Putin’s Prosecutor General, and Rinat Akhmetshin, an ex-Soviet military intelligence officer, had dinner at the Capitol Hill Club, a private members’ establishment for Republicans later that evening.

...In the past Rohrabacher has used subcommittee hearings to approvingly compare Putin to Trump, introduce pro-Russian conspiracy theories into the congressional record, and allow pro-Russian voices to cast doubt on the work of America’s intelligence agencies. Since his botched effort to host the anti-Browder film, however, Rohrabacher has not requested a controversial subcommittee hearing.

"He had thought of another trip to Russia," Grubbs said, "but did not formally propose it owing to scheduling issues." He was approved for a codel to Spain however.

Sources say that this may be a convenient coincidence, as members of the foreign affairs committee have been alerted to deny his requests if they appear to be thinly-veiled efforts to give a microphone to pro-Russian interests and voices.

Ted Lieu is charged by congressional Democrats with helping to flip 4 Orange County House seats from red to blue, including CA-48 (Rohrabacher's). He mentioned this morning that "You know it's bad when even Republican leadership recognizes that one of their Members likely had inappropriate dealings with the Kremlin. Keep in mind, this is the same leadership that refuses to hold Donald Trump accountable in any way despite mountains of evidence that his campaign acted inappropriately with Russia. I imagine if something like this came out about a Democrat in Congress heads would be exploding over at Fox News."

The progressive fighting repeal and replace Rohrabacher is Laura Oatman. She pointed out "Rohrabacher continues to expand his connections with Russia-- but now the GOP is making him do it on his own dime-- unwilling to seem supportive of his extraordinary involvement in all things Russian. The cutting of the purse strings for travel and other expenses is the latest in a long string of public embarrassments for Rohrabacher. Alarm over his close ties to Russia go back to 2012, when he was warned by the F.B.I. that Russia was actively trying to recruit him. Dana has had more meetings with Julian Assange than he has had open town halls in Orange County. His time 'representing' the changing face of Orange County is long overdue."

Michael Kotick, a 34 year old former Nestle executive and author of Create Brand Attraction: A New Strategy That Uses the Laws of Human Attraction to Decode Marketing in a Digital and Social Media Age, is another one of the Democrats running for the Orange County seat Rohrabacher is still occupying. He made a good point about Rohrabacher's most recent dilemma: "With the behavior of the Republicans in Congress and in the White House it seems like anything goes. So it says a lot when they 'ground' Dana Rohrabacher for bad behavior."

Even Dubya Recognizes A Dangerous Charlatan When He Sees One! Trump's Stature

Sam Jammal had a fantastic idea about how to use George W. Bush's denunciation of Trumpism against Ed Royce, the rubber stamp Orange County incumbent whose seat he's contesting. And I think most any Democratic challenger could use the same idea. I know Sam well enough to know he wouldn't even mind.

So here's the full text of the speech that someone wrote for Bush to read yesterday. It was such a relief for Washington Post conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin who was hired to give a right-wing perspective on the universe and spends all her time lately denouncing Señor Trumpanzee. Yesterday she blared, proudly, This is what a president sounds like! Yeah, yeah... "Former president George W. Bush gave a speech today-- a bookend, if you will, to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) address early in the week upon accepting the Liberty Medal. Bush spoke in a tone and with substance so different from what we have become acclimatized to hearing that his address has provoked a huge, bipartisan thumbs-up, as though the country collectively could say, 'Oh, that is what a president is supposed to sound like!'"

Bush surely had President Trump in mind when he addressed conspiracy theories, nativism, incivility and more, but I think it’s safe to say his intended audience was the moribund GOP. We have now seen the party he used to lead decline into passivity and pure partisanship, again and again enabling Trump rather than rallying to American principles and looking to the c0mmon good. We’ve seen Republicans eschew governance in favor of divisive sloganeering. One president like Trump is bad enough; the acceptance of his inhumanity by one of the major parties is a tragedy and national emergency.

...Every Republican who endorsed Trump, turns a blind eye to his unfitness, or excuses his heinous language and conduct should feel shame upon hearing those words.

Bush’s recommendation is simple but hardly simplistic: “We need to recall and recover our own identity. Americans have a great advantage: To renew our country, we only need to remember our values.” He’s talking to you, Republicans, who’ve forgotten what he rightly calls the American creed:

Our identity as a nation-- unlike many other nations-- is not determined by geography or ethnicity, by soil or blood. Being an American involves the embrace of high ideals and civic responsibility. We become the heirs of Thomas Jefferson by accepting the ideal of human dignity found in the Declaration of Independence. We become the heirs of James Madison by understanding the genius and values of the U.S. Constitution. We become the heirs of Martin Luther King, Jr., by recognizing one another not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

This means that people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.

There is nothing in his four basic recommendations-- hardening our defenses against external threats to democracy, maintaining U.S. leadership in the world, strengthening democratic citizenship and “call[ing] on the major institutions of our democracy, public and private, to consciously and urgently attend to the problem of declining trust”-- that Democrats of good faith should dispute. They’ll have differences in specifics (When should we intervene internationally? Which electoral reforms do we need?) but that is understandable and healthy.

What is critical is that Bush has identified precisely the issues that must be addressed if we are to stave off Trump and Trumpism. Democrats, including ex-presidents, would be foolish not to embrace Bush’s agenda and where possible work together. After all, we are all Americans who embrace the “ideal of human dignity found in the Declaration of Independence . . .  [and] the genius and values of the U.S. Constitution” as well as the commitment to equal rights and justice for all Americans. It’s the current president who doesn’t get it, but there is a solution (several, actually) for that as well.

Bush sees Trump as a threat to American democracy. Why do so many Republicans in Congress claim to not see that threat? Bush says "bigotry seems emboldened." How come he sees it but California congressional Republicans like Ed Royce, Darrell Issa, David Valadao, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight, Jeff Denham and Dana Rohrabacher don't. Why is that? Why?

UPDATE: Bannon Denigrates Bush-- California Republicans Cheer

Friday night, Bannon gave the keynote address at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim. He depicted Bush as bumbling and inept, faulting him for presiding over a "destructive" presidency during his time in the White House. Bannon said Bush had embarrassed himself and didn’t know what he was talking about.

Has Trumpanzee Come Up With A Nasty, Disrespectful Name For Hassan Rouhani Or Ali Khamenei Yet?

Pelosi hasn't exactly declared impeachment "off the table" again-- she's dying to but she wouldn't last 5 minutes as Democratic Leader if she did-- but she has made it clear she's not interested in talking about impeachment, certainly not before the midterms. Maybe she and her Beltway advisors think it's bad strategy. But California billionaire Tom Steyer, who wants to run for governor or senator or something, thinks it's the right thing to do. So right, in fact, that Alexander Burns reported in the NY Times Wednesday that Steyer, the biggest single donor to the Democratic Party of late (over $91 million in 2016 alone), is demanding that candidates pledge to support removing Trump from office. (If Steyer were serious he would ask Trump-friendly Blue Dog Dan Lipinski to take the pledge and then finance a SuperPAC IE for the progressive opposing Lipinski, Marie Newman.) Steyer sent a letter to the DCCC, the DSCC and every incumbent Democrat making the case for impeachment.

Meanwhile, Trump's sociopathic behavior gets worse by the day. He signed executive orders to destroy the Affordable Care Act and to end the nuclear treaty with Iran yesterday, while telling prostrate and half-destroyed Puerto Rico he wants to withdraw FEMA. The L.A. Times reported that he's ignoring his advisors and getting his advise from Fox News hosts, especially Sean Hannity. His inner fascist is getting more and more free range as he pays less and less attention to his chief of staff, John Kelly. So-- remember this was on Wednesday-- they wrote "Advisors more aligned with the Republican establishment have prevailed on Trump to avoid some decisions that could have rattled foreign allies. For example, according to a second person close to the White House, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to maintain those ties, early on Trump was talked out of withdrawing from the six-party Iran nuclear deal, an issue he will revisit this week, and dissuaded from moving the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a provocative act that would put Mideast peace talks at risk."

Well, today Trump is revisiting the Iran treaty, with potentially disastrous consequences. Reuters reported yesterday that State Rex Tillerson has spoken with senior officials of Britain, China, France and Russia in recent days to discuss Trumpanzee’s planned announcement on Iran today, the State Department said without giving details.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Trumpanzee’s expected move to "de-certify" the international nuclear deal with Iran is driving a wedge between Europe and the United States and bringing Europeans closer to Russia and China: "It’s imperative that Europe sticks together on this issue. We also have to tell the Americans that their behavior on the Iran issue will drive us Europeans into a common position with Russia and China against the USA."

Senior U.S. officials, European allies and prominent U.S. lawmakers have told Trump that refusing to certify the deal would leave the U.S. isolated, concede the diplomatic high ground to Tehran, and ultimately risk the unraveling of the agreement.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has repeatedly certified that Iran is adhering to restrictions on its nuclear energy program mandated by the deal to help ensure it cannot be put to developing atomic bombs.

Signed by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, the European Union and Iran, the deal lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear work.

Germany has close economic and business ties with Russia, although relations have soured since Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region. Berlin is also working to expand ties with China.

...Gabriel on Monday urged the White House not to jeopardize the nuclear agreement, saying such a move would worsen instability in the Middle East and could make it more difficult to halt nuclear arms programs in other countries.

Few members of Congress are looking forward to this. The Hill reported yesterday that "Republicans in Congress will face a wrenching choice if President Trump follows through on decertifying the Iran nuclear deal. Decertification would unlock a fast-track procedure for Congress to reimpose sanctions, leaving Republicans with two unappealing options. Snap back the sanctions, and Iran likely walks, killing an agreement that top administration officials say is in the national interest. Do nothing, and the deal likely stands, preserving a pact that Republicans have lambasted for years. For now, it appears that Republicans have little appetite for reviving the sanctions. Yet the pressure from hard-liners to act will be intense."

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, signaled the GOP’s likely approach on Wednesday. He said the U.S. should demand Iranian compliance with the agreement but also impose new sanctions for activities outside the scope of the deal.

“As flawed as the deal is, I believe we must now enforce the hell out of it,” Royce said at the top of a hearing. “Let’s work with allies to make certain that international inspectors have better access to possible nuclear sites, and we should address the fundamental sunset shortcoming, as our allies have recognized. This committee will do its part tomorrow by marking-up the Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act.”

Asked after the hearing whether he thinks Congress will reimpose the nuclear sanctions, Royce pointed back to his opening statement.

Trump faces a Sunday deadline to tell Congress whether Iran remains in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and whether the agreement remains in the national interest of the United States.

Trump has certified the deal twice before. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have said Iran is complying. Mattis testified to Congress that staying in the deal is in the United States’ national interest.

But Trump is widely expected to announce this week that he disagrees and is decertifying the deal.

Congress created the certification deadline in the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA). That law established a 60-day window for Congress to quickly snap back sanctions lifted under the deal. In the Senate, that fast-track process means only a simple majority is required to reimpose sanctions, so Democrats would not be able to block it.

...Even some of Congress’s staunchest Iran hawks have thrown cold water on the idea of approving a sanctions bill during the 60-day window.

At a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations last week, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) argued for decertifying the deal, saying the threat of sanctions would force Iran to renegotiate. But he also said 60 days may not be enough time for that type of “coercive diplomacy” to work.

“I have no intention right now to introduce snap back sanctions legislation on Oct. 16,” Cotton said. “If it’s obvious by the end of that 60-day period that the course of action I’ve recommended will not work, then perhaps we will have to reimpose sanctions then. But I’m also willing to give the administration and our allies in Europe and the Middle East more time than just 60 days to try to get a better deal.”

Democrats are predicting Republicans won’t snap back sanctions.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said he doesn’t think Congress will reimpose sanctions because Iran would keep the money it’s already gotten from the deal.

“I don’t think they want to take back the car and let the dealer keep our money, too,” Sherman said.

Still, Iran hawks are railing against the deal ahead of the certification deadline.

“With Iran financing terror, overthrowing foreign governments, illegally test firing intercontinental ballistic missiles, chanting death to America, calling Israel the little Satan, America the great Satan, I would say that it was the wrong answer for us to be propping up the wrong regime with a jackpot of sanctions relief,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said.

“We should be ... turning this into a reasonable deal, not one that’s very one-sided and one where we got ridiculously played at the table,” Zeldin said.

Kia Hamadanchy is an Iranian-American candidate for Congress in Orange County. We asked him for his perspective on this mess. "Pulling out of the Iran Deal would be a complete and utter disaster," he told us. "It continues to represent the best course of action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to prevent a war. The Israeli military and intelligence establishment are in complete agreement and those who feel differently are the same ones who led us to war with Iraq under false pretenses. If we pull out of this deal it will be the United States not Iran that our European allies blame and it will prove impossible to fake any sort of action against their nuclear program.  Secretary of State recently referred to Donald Trump as a moron. Only a moron would pull out of this deal and it is now up to Congress to make sure it remains in place."

UPDATE: Trump-- Crazier And Less Fit Than You Thought?

Sam Jammal is the Orange County progressive Democrat running for the seat Royce is still occupying. After Trump made his crazy and untruthful statement about Iran today, he told us that "We must be a country where our word means something. Its not about the Iranians-- this is about our other global partners, whom we will need if Iran violates the deal or North Korea decides to continue its current path. We can't run away from the global community, which is why Congress plays an especially important role given Trump's chaotic and dangerous approach to foreign affairs. Right now, Trump is making it seem as though our agreements are worth nothing more than Trump Vodka or Trump Steaks. Ed Royce needs to be about more than words. He needs to show action that constrains Trump. For example, where is Ed on Trump's lack of enforcement of Russia sanctions? Even on Iran, I am skeptical that this isn't more of Ed saying something reasonable but turning a blind eye toward extreme actions."

There's A Serious Culture Of Corruption At The Intersection of Wall Street And The House Financial Services Committee

Republicans and "Democrats" from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party are drawn to the House Financiall Services Committee like flies to shit. It's the congressional honeypot through which millions and millions of dollars in bribes moves from Wall Street into the political system every year. The banksters and their lobbyists pay big money to the members of the committee for their... cooperation. Most of it goes to the corrupt Republicans but some of it goes to the corrupt Democrats who beg to be on the committee as well. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) is the chair and the only member of the House who has taken more in direct bribes from Wall Street than ole Jeb-- $7,851,498-- is Speaker and former Banking Committee Chair Paul Ryan ($12,130,498). The other biggest criminals on Financial Services are Ed Royce (R-CA-$7,335,907), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY- $5,802,677), Jim Himes (New Dem-CT- $5,798,121), Steve Stivers (R-OH- $4,596,677), Patrick McHenry (R-NC- $4,476,742), Ed Perlmutter (New Dem- CO- $3,591,708), Brad Sherman (D-CA- $3,544,653) and Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY- $3,233,288). That's since 1990. Last cycle the biggest bribes to committee members went to this dozen gaggle of arch-criminals:

• Ed Royce (R-CA)- $1,407,949
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $1,381,400
• Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)- $1,285,895
• Steve Stivers (R-OH)- $1,166,020
• Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)- $1,059,132
• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ)- $1,003,940
• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)- $980,035
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- $935,569
• Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)- $929,124
• Lee Zeldin (R-NY)- $919,241
• Sean Duffy (R-WI)- $878,176
• French Hill (R-AR)- $862,962

And which committee members have put their asses up for rent the most so far this cycle? The half dozen worst on the committee, at least so far (they're just getting started):

• Ann Wagner (R-MO)- $694,400
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $555,056
• Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)- $475,358
• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ)- $471,096
• Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)- $457,850
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- $442,558

Should every single one of them be thrown in prison? Yes. Key thrown away? I'll hold the keys. Are there any honest members of the Financial Services Committee, people drawn to it to actually do good? Yes, like 3. The most recent Dems to grease there way on are as crooked as the Republicans, starting with "ex"-Republican (now Blue Dog) Charlie Crist as well as Blue Dog Vicente Gonzalez (TX).

When the Democrats win back Congress in 2018, Maxine Waters, the banksters worst nightmare, will take over as chair. How will she be as chair of the committee? Well... she just introduced a new bill to break up big banks that abuse their customers. Think of Wells Fargo as a perfect example. There's no way Señor Drain the Swamp would ever sign it if it-- the Megabank Accountability and Consequences Act-- ever got out of committee and onto the floor and through the House and Senate, but, in never-never-land, her bill would give federal banking regulators the power to break up big banks that have records of customer abuse. Waters has her eyes on Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Bank of America as the potential targets. "Rampant violations of consumer protections by megabanks," she said, "are just as consequential to a megabank’s safety and soundness as capital levels or other indicators of bank health. My bill ... will require federal prudential banking regulators to fully exercise their authorities and shut down megabanks that repeatedly show indifference toward consumer protection. It’s time to hold these financial institutions accountable and put people over profits."

The only Dems on the committee to co-sponsor were Keith Ellison (MN), Al Green (TX) and Mike Capuano (MA). No Kyrsten Sinema? No Jim Himes? No Charlie Crist? No Josh Gottheimer? Well, you can knock me over with a feather! Other co-sponsors (not on the greed and selfishness committee) include Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). I reached out to Pramila to get her always -valuable perspective:

We need to protect American consumers from predatory megabanks. By selling working families bad deals, these banks have been preying on innocent families for far too long. Operating a bank and serving the public is a privilege, not a right. When banks like Wells Fargo consistently flout the law, inflicting serious pain on the American people, there must be consequences. The Megabank Accountability and Consequences Act will allow us to bring accountability to megabanks that repeatedly ignore consumer protection. Supporting this bill is about standing with the people whose credit scores have been ruined, whose cars have been repossessed and whose homes have been foreclosed on because of predatory behavior from megabanks.

Since one of the megacrooks for the megabanks is Ed Royce of Orange County, I asked the progressive Democrat running against him, Sam Jammal, how he would differ from Royce when it comes to bank regulation. "I would start by actually doing the job on behalf of families in the 39th district,"he told us today, "not Wall Street. Ed has a long career of being a yes man for whatever the big banks want. He was an advocate for bailing out Wall Street and opposes any new regulations aimed to stop another financial crises. In many ways, he has made a career in the aftermath of Dodd-Frank to undercut enforcement and rules meant to prevent another crisis. That doesn't work for families who lost their homes in the Great Recession, seniors who lost their 401(k)s or small businesses who don't otherwise have a voice in DC when pitted against the big banks. Ed has a long career of sounding reasonable, but consistently voting to consolidate the power of the largest interests. This doesn't work for our families. We need to vote him out and have someone focus on helping families, not the big banks."

South of Royce's district, but still in Orange County, Mimi Walters represents, but doesn't live in, CA-45. Kia Hamadanchy, who worked on banking issues in the Senate at one time, is running for the seat Walters is occupying. He's aware she functions as a rubber-stamp for Trump and Ryan. "Mimi Walters has shown time and time again," he told us, "that she doesn't care about the interests of consumers and if she had it her way they would be deprived their day in court when they are ripped off by institutions like Wells Fargo. She's also for removing every rule we have in place to protect from the unchecked greed and worst impulses of Wall Street. That would take us right back to the Wild West environment with out banking system that was the cause of the financial. I believe that it is critical that not only do we need to keep these rules in place, but that we need to take additional steps to protect the safety and soundness of financial system and further protect consumers."

Future Financial Services Committee bribe takers?

The GOP Ramps Up Their War Against Consumer Protections While Everyone Is Looking At The Horrors Of Trump And TrumpCare

The vote in the House Tuesday evening was 231-190. Every Republican but Walter Jones of North Carolina voted to hamper the ability of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect bank customers from the kinds of systemic abuse and predatory behavior that led directly to Bush's Great Recession and destroyed the financial stability of millions of American families. Every single Democrat-- even the worst paid-off Blue Dogs and New Dems-- opposed bankster-pawn Keith Rothfus' bill.

What the Republicans are doing is stripping the rights of consumers to use class action lawsuits to protect themselves from the big banks. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyists who wrote Rothfus' bill for him, were dancing for joy. They are furious that over 34 million bank customers received $1 billion in payments from lawsuits over the past 5 years and want to destroy the Bureau.

Here in California, several progressive Democrats running for congressional seats alerted voters in their districts that their own congressmen had betrayed their interests once again. The architect of the CFPB was Elizabeth Warren, who noted that the rule the Republicans just voted to repeal "allows working families to hold big banks accountable when they’re cheated and help discourage the kinds of surprise fees that consumers hate." The Orange County candidate who has worked with her on this issues is Katie Porter, who is running for the seat held by rubber stamp Republican Mimi Walters. This issue is part of Porter's field of expertise and we asked her for a reaction last night. This is what she told us:

As the Senate voted to take away health care for millions, Congresswoman Mimi Walters and the House GOP were taking away justice for all consumers. Today, they rewrote the rules in order to protect Wall Street banks that cheat consumers, no matter how outrageous the banks' conduct. "Mandatory predispute arbitration" agreements ban consumers from telling their stories to judges, instead forcing them into an arbitration process that exists only to protect the big banks from being held accountable.

I've fought against arbitration in my decades of work as a consumer advocate. That's a fundamental difference in this race. I have stood up to powerful financial institutions that break the law and hurt families. In Congress, Mimi Walters has done the opposite. She is as consistent of an ally for big banks, as she is for President Trump's agenda. Wall Street banks can count on Walters' support 100% of the time. Our district needs a congresswoman who will stand up to powerful interests, and that's my pledge to Californians.

Ironically, Porter isn't the only stalwart progressive in the CA-45 race who worked on this issue. Kia Hamadanchy worked on the staff of another top Democrat concerned with Republican collusion with Wall Street predators, Sherrod Brown. Hamadanchy told us that "Once again Mimi Walters has put the interests of her donors and those in Wall Street who have ripped off consumers time and time again above the people of Orange County. If this rule is repealed it would mean that a bank like Wells Fargo could avoid being held accountable for its actions despite a clear evidence of a pattern and practice of wrongdoing. Every American deserves their day in court when they are taken advantage of by the financial services industry and its not surprising that Mimi Walters doesn't agree. Time and time again she continues to vote against the interests of her constituents and in November 2018 she is going to see where that gets her."

North of CA-45, we get to Wall Street puppet Ed Royce's congressional district. Since 1990 Royce, who is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, has taken an astounding $7,116,597 in legalistic bribes from the Financial Sector. The only current members of the House to have taken bigger bribes than Royce are Paul Ryan ($9,781,835) and House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling ($7,468,190). All three should be rotting in prison.

The DCCC is trying to run some qualification-less "ex"-Republican lottery winner and self-funder, Gil Cisneros, against Royce. Fortunately there's an eminently qualified progressive determined to take on Royce instead, Sam Jammal. Yesterday he pointed out that "If you're wronged, Americans believe you should be able to have your day in court. It's a fundamental check on absuses by the most powerful. This apparently doesn't apply to the biggest banks. It's hard to tell who Ed Royce really represents. Common sense would say that consumers should know their rights and have options to preserve those rights. But, if that is upsetting to his big donors, it looks like Ed is perfectly fine forgetting about consumers in Buena Park or small businesses in Walnut. We need our voices heard again in Washington."

No one ever doubted CA-25 Rep, Steve Knight, would vote to repeal the amendment protecting financial consumers. He's perversely dependable in that sense-- the perfect little rubber-stamp for Ryan and Trump. His progressive opponent, Katie Hill told us "This is yet another example of Steve Knight putting special interests-- in this case big banks-- ahead of working Americans. I personally know so many people in the 25th district who have been taken advantage of or harmed by Wall Street in some way or another. This simple rule would give every day people some small protection and a way of banding together to fight back-- but Steve Knight and other Republicans are too concerned with protecting the profits of their own financial backers. We need representatives in Congress who will once again return power to the people."

Some good news in regard to the Republican war against consumer protections-- yesterday Allied Progress launched the CFPB Action Tracker, a new interactive website that tracks, state-by-state, the CFPB's enforcement actions against big banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions that have preyed on consumers. The website is a great resource for elected officials and organization in the states, allowing them to see what the CFPB has done to benefit local consumers and arming them with important information in the fight to protect the CFPB from attacks by Wall Street special interests and their allies in Congress, like Ed Royce, Paul; Ryan, Jeb Hensarling and Mimi Walters.

Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress: "The Consumer Bureau has played a pivotal role in bringing justice to consumers over the past six years. They have cracked down on big banks, payday lenders, and other financial bad actors and put an end to the irresponsible practices that caused the great recession that cost so many Americans their jobs, their homes, and their savings. Lawmakers in the pockets of big banks have spread misinformation in their efforts to eliminate the Consumer Bureau, but the truth is in the data. Our new interactive Consumer Bureau Action Tracker shows just how much the Bureau has put back into the pockets of Americans. In just six years, the Consumer Bureau has taken $12 billion from predatory financial institutions and returned it to the more than 29 million Americans they ripped off."

The DCCC, of course, is doing nothing about targeting Rothfus and his traditionally blue district (PA-12) north and east of Pittsburgh. The second biggest veterans' district in the country, it was John Murtha's seat forever but has been abandoned to the Republicans by a DCCC eager to woo white collar suburbanites while ignoring the legitimate interests of blue collar workers. Hillary did worse than Obama had both times he ran and she was crushed by Trump, 58.7% to 37.9%. But a progressive veteran who was knocking on doors for Bernie last year, Tom Prigg, has every intention of replacing Rothfus in 2018... running on a progressive platform geared for the people in his district.

This morning Prigg told us that "It's absolutely unacceptable for our Congress to, once again, expose the American people to the unfair banking practices exercised that led to the 2008 housing crash. During that time, America saw the loss of ten million American homes-- that’s five-times more than during the Great Depression. It is bad enough that none of the perpetrators of this crash faced criminal charges; but now our representatives are trying remove any possible class-action litigation to protect the public. The dissolution of this agency is a direct attack on the American public. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in just 5 ½ years of its existence, has awarded five billion dollars in lawsuits against unfair banking practices for twenty-nine million Americans. Not only are those impressive numbers for such a young agency, it’s also a testament to how important this agency is for the American public. It’s this type of irresponsible behavior and special-interest policy making that we can no longer accept. I will never let the American people, and our families, take the fall for irresponsible banking practices like we saw ten years ago. We must vote out politicians who’ll sacrifice the security of American citizens in favor of greed. This is one of the reasons why I’m running against the author of this bill, Keith Rothfus."

Expect to hear more from Tom Prigg here at DWT.

Is Orange County Congressman And Trumpist Dana Rohrabacher An Actual Paid Kremlin Operative? Or Is He Doing This All For Free?

In the wee hours Wednesday, Nico Hines broke an explosive story at the Daily Beast about Orange County crackpot Dana Rohrabacher. The title sounds unbelievable and unplausible-- unless you've followed Dana Rohrabacher's political career: GOP Lawmaker Got Direction From Moscow, Took It Back to D.C..

A low-level Reagan staffer, Rohrabacher first won what was then a deep red district in 1988. By 1989 people in his district and on Capitol Hill had already started realizing that he had a screw loose. He skipped freshman orientation so he could go to Afghanistan and play dress-up with the Taliban. He's gotten crazier and crazier over the years-- and his district isn't quite so red as it used to be. In fact, the DCCC is targeting it because Hillary narrowly beat Trump there last year-- 47.9% to 46.2%. We'll come back to that in a moment. First though, this is what Hines reported about Rohrabacher's latest foray into foreign affairs:

Members of the team of Russians who secured a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner also attempted to stage a show trial of anti-Putin campaigner Bill Browder on Capitol Hill.

The trial, which would have come in the form of a congressional hearing, was scheduled for mid-June 2016 by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), a long-standing Russia ally who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe. During the hearing, Rohrabacher had planned to 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.

Ultimately, the hearing was canceled when senior Republicans intervened and agreed to allow a hearing on Russia at the full committee level with a Moscow-sympathetic witness, according to multiple congressional aides.

An email reviewed by the Daily Beast shows that before that June 14 hearing, Rohrabacher’s staff received pro-Kremlin briefings against Browder, once Russia’s biggest foreign investor, and his tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky from a lawyer who was working with Veselnitskaya.

Although House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) had prohibited Rohrabacher from showing the Russian propaganda film in Congress, Rohrabacher’s Capitol Hill office still actively promoted a screening of the movie that was held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on June 13, 2016. Veselnitskaya was one of those handling the movie’s worldwide promotion.

Invitations to attend the movie screening were sent from the subcommittee office by Catharine O’Neill, a Republican intern on Rohrabacher’s committee. Her email promised that the movie would convince viewers that Magnitsky, who was murdered in a Russian prison cell, was no hero.

The invite, reviewed by the Daily Beast, claimed that the film “explodes the common view that Mr. Magnitsky was a whistleblower” and lavishes praise on the “rebel director” Andrei Nekrasov.

...Rohrabacher’s office was given the film by the Prosecutor General’s office in Moscow, which is run by Yuri Chaika, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin who is accused of widespread corruption, and Viktor Grin, the deputy general prosecutor who has been sanctioned by the United States as part of the Magnitsky Act.

That same Prosecutor General’s office also was listed as being behind the “very high level and sensitive information” that was offered to Donald Trump Jr. in an email prior to his now infamous meeting with Russian officials at Trump Tower on June 9-- just days before the congressional hearing. Veselnitskaya attended that meeting with Trump Jr. She also happens to have worked as a prosecutor in the Moscow region and is a close personal friend of Chaika.

The Daily Beast reviewed a copy of a document that was passed to Rohrabacher in Moscow in April 2016. The document, marked “confidential,” was given to Rohrabacher and Behrends. It lays out an alternate reality in which the U.S.-- and the rest of the world-- has been duped by a fake $230 million scandal that resulted in sanctions being imposed on 44 Russians linked to murder, corruption, or cover-ups.

The document, which was handed over by an official from the Prosecutor General’s office to Rohrabacher along with means of viewing the Russian propaganda movie, suggested that U.S. “political situation may change the current climate” and claimed that it was the ideal moment to foment a challenge to the Western narrative on Putin’s kleptocracy. A subcommittee hearing that would re-examine the sanctions placed on Russia, the paper claimed, would be appreciated in Moscow.

“Changing attitudes to the Magnitsky story in the Congress… could have a very favorable response from the Russian side,” the document said.

What the U.S. would get in exchange for holding a subcommittee hearing was not laid out in detail. But the document promised to help iron out “key controversial issues and disagreements with the United States.”

...When Rohrabacher returned to the United States, he delayed the passage of the Global Magnitsky Act by holding it up in committee and tabled an amendment to remove Magnitsky’s name from its title, citing several of the claims found in the Russian document.

Next, Rohrabacher and Behrends, with the help of Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet army veteran and lobbyist who was also present at the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, put together a subcommittee event with witnesses including Veselnitskaya and Nekrasov, the director of the movie.

When Royce, the chair of the foreign relations committee, got wind of the hearing, he nixed Rohrabacher’s plan and offered instead to hold a full committee hearing on Russia relations. House aides conceded that he did so, in part, to avoid Rohrabacher staging an event that could have embarrassed the Republican Party-- and Congress.

During Royce’s hearing, Rohrabacher approvingly compared Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin. The congressman also submitted, for the congressional record, testimony that claimed Russia had not been behind the radioactive poisoning of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Rohrabacher, Behrends, Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya, and Matlock had dinner together later that night at the Capitol Hill Club, a private members’ establishment for Republicans. The evening was organized by Lanny Wiles, a veteran GOP operative.

The following day, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was caught on tape telling Republican colleagues: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” When some of the lawmakers laughed, he replied: “Swear to God.”

...Four years prior to the hearing, Rohrabacher was taken into a quiet room in Congress and warned by FBI agents that Russian intelligence operatives were trying to recruit him as an asset.

If he took the warning seriously, it certainly didn’t stop him from spending time with figures linked closely to the Russian state apparatus.

Earlier this year, Rohrabacher, who says he once arm-wrestled Putin, met Akhmetshin in Berlin. The congressman acknowledged to CNN that he suspected the former member of a Soviet counterintelligence unit might have links to the current Russian security service.

“I would certainly not rule that out,” Rohrabacher said. “[He has] an ulterior motive.”

That meeting in Germany apparently came about through sheer happenstance.

The same cannot be said of Rohrabacher’s congressional delegation trip to Moscow in the spring of 2016.

The itinerary for that three-day trip, reviewed by the Daily Beast, shows that Rohrabacher and Behrends attended a side meeting-- without the other members of the delegation-- with one of Putin’s closest confidants, Vladimir Yakunin.

A former head of the Russian Railways who has been sanctioned by the U.S., Yakunin has routinely accompanied Putin on domestic and international trips over the years. He owns a dacha near the president in an exclusive enclave on the shore of Lake Komsomolskoye.

Rohrabacher said at the time that he had agreed to the meeting at the request of Sergey Kislyak. “The Russian ambassador asked me if I would meet with him in Moscow,” he told BuzzFeed.

Kislyak has since gained notoriety in the U.S. after a series of Trump campaign associates failed to disclose their conversations with a man who has been described as “a top spy and recruiter of spies.”

There were no other meetings with Russian officials scheduled for Rohrabacher and Behrends alone. But after a delegation meeting with Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of Russia’s foreign affairs committee, at the Duma the two of them were asked to stay behind.

Once the other members of the delegation had left the room, Viktor Grin, a top Chaika deputy in the Prosecutor General’s office and one of the 44 Russians enduring a travel ban and asset freezes under U.S. sanctions, appeared with the document outlining Russia’s position on the Magnitsky sanctions. Rohrabacher and Behrends were also given access to the anti-Magnitsky movie.

...When the Royce hearing did roll around, on June 14, one of the members of Congress on the committee was appalled by the litany of Kremlin lines being repeated by Rohrabacher and his friend Ambassador Matlock.

“I thought I’d just heard a presentation from RT,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) told the Daily Beast, referring to the Kremlin-funded English-language TV network.

Connolly said the rest of the committee had come to believe that evidence from a Russian source should be treated with considerable skepticism, as the country’s operatives are experts at disinformation and falsification of evidence.

He was alarmed to discover that Behrends had been taking briefings direct from Russia’s anti-Magnitsky operation.

“If that is corroborated, it is deeply disturbing,” Connolly said. “We are United States congressmen. Our job is to protect the interests of our country and our allies. It is not to collude with, excuse, dismiss, or, even worse, collaborate with a foreign adversary and its minions.”

The southern tip of Ted Lieu's district-- a beautiful piece of Southern California coastline Trump has taken over for one of his horrific golf course resorts for the very wealthy-- is just a few miles from the northern tip of Rohrabacher's district. When Congressmen Lieu and Ruben Gallego took to the floor of the House last week to read Don, Jr.'s e-mails about his meetings with Kremlin spies, Rohrabacher kept interrupting and making a monkey out of himself before the chair told him to pipe down and behave like an adult. On August 1 Ted will be visiting CA-48 to answer residents' questions about healthcare, since-- predictably-- Rohrabacher refuses to hold public meetings with his own constituents.

The district is unlikely to flip in one cycle but if the anti-Trump wave is big enough... anything could happen. Or, in a sane world with a strategic, competent DCCC, they would be working on a 2-cycle flip for 2020. So far there are at least 7 Democratic candidates vying for the opportunity to take on Rohrabacher: Anthony Zarkades, Boyd Roberts, Laura Oatman, Michael Kotick, Omar Siddiqui, Harley Rouda and the DCCC recruit, Hans Keirstead. The two candidates who seem to be getting the most traction so far are Rouda and Keirstead. Yesterday, Harley told us that "At the very least, Dana Rohrabacher was woefully derelict in doing due diligence on who he was talking to. At most, it’s something far more serious. After Dana Rohrabacher was warned by the FBI that Russian intelligence was recruiting him, he should have been on high alert for well-connected Putin allies bearing gifts. Regardless of Dana’s motives, my question is this: How does any of Dana’s pro-Putin funny business help the hardworking people of the 48th district?"

And Keirstead told us that he's "profoundly concerned with Congressman Rohrabacher's continued relationship with suspected Russian intelligence officials. He has made it a priority to entertain the Kremlin's whims and shown that he can be influenced by the Russian government. Now, it's clear that he has attempted to act on that influence. The people of Orange County deserve a representative who is standing up for them-- not one who is focused on defending Russia's interests."

The hat is part of his disguise

UPDATE: Rohrabacher Panics

This morning, The Atlantic is reporting that Rohrabacher's top Russia aide, Paul Behrends, was fired from the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that Rohrabacher chairs.

“Paul Behrends no longer works at the committee,” a House Foreign Affairs Committee spokesperson said on Wednesday evening.

Behrends accompanied Rohrabacher on a 2016 trip to Moscow in which Rohrabacher said he received anti-Magnitsky Act materials from prosecutors. The Magnitsky Act is a 2012 bill that imposes sanctions on Russian officials associated with the 2009 death in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who had been investigating tax fraud. Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney and lobbyist who met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower last year, reportedly brought up the Magintsky Act during the meeting.

Rohrabacher’s meeting in Moscow was an object of concern for embassy officials, who had warned the delegation about FSB presence in Moscow-- warnings Rohrabacher brushed off.

“Paul Behrends has done a terrific job for me and the committee,” Rohrabacher said in a statement on Wednesday. “I have not heard anything to the contrary. I am looking forward to discussing this with the committee leadership. I am sure we will work this out."

Behrends is a controversial figure on the Hill, where he is seen by some who have worked with or around him as egging on Rohrabacher’s pro-Russia instincts.

Behrends worked for Rohrabacher in the 1990s before becoming a lobbyist. He rejoined Rohrabacher’s office in 2014.

One of the sources with knowledge of the events suggested that Behrends was fired from the committee under pressure from House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce.

There has been tension between Royce and Rohrabacher over Rohrabacher’s activities, and Royce scuttled Rohrabacher’s plan last year to screen an anti-Magnitsky film in Congress. Royce also nixed Rohrabacher’s plan to visit Moscow again earlier this year.

Another Hill source said there was talk of a “shakeup” on the subcommittee chaired by Rohrabacher.