Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said takes Russian payments along with Trump in a leaked recording, was warned by the FBI in 2012 that Russian agents were cultivating him as an “agent of influence,” Raw Story reports.

McCarthy, who follows his accusation with “swear to god,” in the recording, now says he was joking.

Rohrabacher, who once fought alongside Afghanistan’s mujahideen against the Russians, has more recently promoted Russia as a natural ally against Islamic extremism.

He told the New York Times that the FBI agent was concerned over his relationship with a member of the Russian Foreign Ministry he met in Moscow.

“They were telling me he had something to do with some kind of Russian intelligence,” Rohrabacher said.

Law enforcement officials said they think Rohrabacher wasn’t actively colluding with the Russians, but was targeted as an unaware stooge, and no evidence exists of payments to him.

Rohrabacher has questioned the hypocrisy of American shock at Russian meddling in our elections:

“Did they try to influence our election? We have tried to influence their elections, and everybody’s elections,” Rohrabacher said in March. “The American people are being fed information that would lead them to believe that we need to be in a warlike stance when it comes to Russia.”

image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr)