A new grotesque money in politics scandal emerged this week inside an Orange County courthouse and links not only Vladimir Putin, the Donald Trump inauguration committee, a con man, Trump Tower Moscow but also our very own Master of Messes: Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher.
Rohrabacher was the self-styled term limits “champion” for his first race in 1988 and stayed in Congress 30 years until this January, after voters booted him, an outcome that robbed me of a 71-year-old scoundrel who regularly filled column inches with nonsense you just can’t makeup.
You may have heard of Putin, the dictator, thug and KGB-trained murderer, enemy of democracy and, of course, booze-chugging pal of the aforementioned ex-congressman, who, yes, made a career screaming about autocrats destroying freedom and capitalism.
Newport Beach fraudster and Russian emigre Yuri Vanetik and his bodyguard have vacationed in Germany and Holland with Rohrabacher, a tragic feat worthy of cleansing hot showers, condolences and a box of Xanax.
Successfully accused in court of defrauding nearly $5 million from investors in scams, Vanetik likes to associate with such swamp drainers as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senator Mitch McConnell, Trump mouthpiece Rudy Giuliani, members of the Republican Party of Orange County and convicted felon Paul Manafort.
You may love or hate Trump but at least he was smart enough to reject Rohrabacher’s desperate pleas for a cabinet position. Though, the president did mislead the public about his own cravings to make hundreds of millions of dollars from a future high-rise in Russia that could only be built with Putin’s approval.
This week inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, Russian-Ukrainian oligarch Pavel Fuks sued Vanetik for allegedly conning him out of $200,000 for non-existent VIP access to Trump’s inauguration-week activities, including the parade, balls and swearing-in ceremony where U.S. Park Service aerial equipment somehow didn’t spot a couple hundred thousand attendees for official photographs.
He also claims he was told he needed to pay $20,000 to meet then-Orange County Congressman Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and an additional $350,000 for a quick pow-wow with the 45th president.
According to the foreign real estate developer’s lawsuit, Rohrabacher was supposed to send his car to take Fuks from his Washington, D.C. hotel to the swearing-in but failed.
The oligarch ended up watching ceremonies on a TV in a bar.
A legitimate explanation for Rohrabacher’s rudeness or laziness or both isn’t clear.
In comparison, he went out of his way to back Russian spy Maria Butina, who was operating on American soil for Putin. After they dined together, he angrily denounced her later arrest, calling it a “bogus” act performed by evil, faceless federal law enforcement agents. His tale wouldn’t have died its embarrassing death if only Butina hadn’t pleaded guilty last year in an illegal campaign to infiltrate conservative political groups like the NRA. She is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence.
While Fuks, who claims he has emails supporting his stance, wants his money back, Vanetik—who has been featured in Forbes—told reporters the lawsuit is a “PR stunt,” an assertion sure to be tested in our federal courthouse in coming months.
As for Rohrabacher—once Orange County’s senior career politician, he quickly moved out of state from Costa Mesa after Harley Rouda slammed him at the ballot box and is trying to sell his influence, if he has any, in lobbying-type efforts.
We’re not sold on the ex-politician’s business endeavor. He’s been living off taxpayers for more than 40 years. Besides, there’s no doubting his true specialty: collecting an impressive, ever-growing list of convicted felon buddies.
Those ranks now include Butina, the spy; influence peddlers Manafort and Jack Abramoff; embezzler Jack Wu; con artist Dave Garofalo, once the mayor of Huntington Beach; dirty ex-sheriff Mike Carona; Hollywood swindler Joseph Medawar; avid Christian conservative and serial child molester Jeffrey Nielsen, his close D.C. aide; FBI-caught bribe-taking politician Pat Nolan and, of course, Rhonda Rohrabacher, his wife who found ways to commit state crimes in a campaign.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
I said long ago that Rohrabacher was a traitor, and traitors should be hung. His worthless pal Chris Epting called the HBPD and Secret Service on me. After they wasted an hour petting my dog, they informed me Epting was on a watch list for threatening Ocean View School Board trustee Gina Clayton Tarvin. Epting and Dana were pals. Two slimeballs.
Epting in my opinion is a real scumbag, calling him a slimeball is actually a compliment. If people knew the real Epting they would agree.
Cool crap!
Great article. Rohrabacher is a scumbag. Now, where’s the article about Hillary’s Russian connections and the Chinese connection with Joe Biden’s son since you mentioned McCarthy, McConnell, Trump, Guiliani, Manafort, et al? Otherwise, this reads like a GOP hit piece…
How about Supreme Court Justice Kennedy’s son working for Deutchebank during scandalous tRumph dealings with the bank, and then Kennedy retiring from SC conveniently, if you want to throw diversions.
Well…..it looks that way because….they are conniving Republicans.
Aw c’mon JM! We gotta get our shots in now before the GOP takes its final plunge in 2020. Time’s a wastin’
Garbage on Parade hit list sounds cool to me
The author of this opinion piece obviously engages in Selective Exposure. The DNC’s Racist Organized Crime Syndication and the Crookiticians within it are his Gods…and the author is the epitome of a Useful Idiot…
They won’t. Goes against their agenda. Clintons made millions selling access to the whitehouse. No mention.
OMG! LOVE, LOVE YOUR WRITING!
It’s Uneducated Useful American Idiots that keeps the DNC’s Organized Crime Syndication in business. Stay STUPID, they are counting on you to remain uneducated and uninformed…
One could say that the author of this article is biased. I prefer to say that he’s someone who tells it as it is, without any pretense.
Rohrabacher is a through and through scumbag, a traitor and would, if anyone cared to investigate him properly, quite likely end up cell mates with Paul Manafort. Hence none of the items listed in this article come as a surprise, which is not to say that they weren’t worth listing.
lock everyone up and get the money we need for our State!!!
They regularly feature Moxley’s investigation’s work in OC Weekly. I live in Rohrabacher’s old district and, yes, he’s a slimey POS.
How about Supreme Court Justice Kennedy’s son working for Deutchebank during scandalous tRumph dealings with the bank, and then Kennedy retiring from SC conveniently, if you want to throw diversions.
Lick my nuts
You all realize we have a major problem coming next year. Trump you know the POS seating in our Whitehouse currently said to his idiot supporters yesterday that there is zero chance he’ll loose his reelection campaign next year. This is a problem because he said basically the same shit 3 years ago and even though he lost the popular vote he won. And the main reason he won is because of Sanders, Sanders being on the ballet caused Clinton’s votes to be watered down in enough states to guarantee a trump victory. Also we don’t need any god damn protest voters next us democrats need to stop acting like idiots and vote for the one Democrat with the nomination. God help us if Trump win next year.
Thanks for exposing the rotten Trump-GOP-Putin continuum!
Are you seriously that STUPID? Try educating yourself on SPYGATE.
5 Investigations, including the last one by Dirty Cop and Dishonest Sleazy Attorney Mueller and his 18 Angry DemonRats, and in 2 years and wasting 35 million dollars of Tax Payers monies, and yet no Trump Russia connection was made, except for the manufatured one by the Arab AneriCON Man Enemy Obama’s Administration, yet you still remain oblivious to the obvious? It’s no wonder the DNC’s Organized Crime Syndication stays in business!
Great article, thank you for exposing Dana for what he is. Dana has had a long history of corruption and scandals while he was in office. He was a hero to the right wing nuts in his district. In the last election he supported a right wing racist named Gracey who was running for school board. Of Course she didn’t win but not she is now harassing the school board over sex-ed. She thinks it should not be taught in school……..the irony is that she got pregnant in high school…….maybe she should of taken sex ed classes herself. You guys should do an article on her.
Jim N. thanks for remembering Dana (and other GOP) endorsement of Gracey Van der wack a doodle doo. A high school drop out for a school board position. Cool. And you are correct that Gracey Van der Mark is laser targeted on the sex life of teens. She is particularly obsessed with their butts. And how they masturbate (that one makes a sick kind of sense. She fraternizes with Proud Boys. And they monitor each others masturbation) Do not forget that she also wanted to burn Cosmo and Teen Vogue in a beach bonfire protest. One reason she gave on social media had to do with…butts. Again! Always with the teen butts. What business is it of hers? Butt out of the students’ butts, lady! Don’t you have an imaginary “small business” to run, anyway? OC Weekly can you please do a piece on, “Informed Parents of California”. They have a Huntington Beach tentacle and Gracey is a facebook admin. It’s a low country boil of all kinds of crazy. Seriously. Have a look see! It does not disappoint.