103 Facts About Dana Rohrabacher

Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher is an American former politician who served in the US House of Representatives from 1989 to 2019.

Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher was born on June 21,1947, in Coronado, California, the son of Doris M and Donald Tyler Rohrabacher.

Dana Rohrabacher graduated from Palos Verdes High School in Palos Verdes Estates, California, attended Los Angeles Harbor College, and earned a bachelor's degree in history at California State University, Long Beach in 1969.

Dana Rohrabacher received his master's degree in American Studies at the University of Southern California.

Dana Rohrabacher was a writer for the Orange County Register.

Dana Rohrabacher served as assistant press secretary to Ronald Reagan during his 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns.

Dana Rohrabacher then worked as a speechwriter and special assistant to President Reagan from 1981 to 1988.

Dana Rohrabacher left the Reagan administration in 1988 to pursue Dan Lungren's recently vacated House seat.

Dana Rohrabacher twice experienced serious primary competition, in 1992 and 1998.

Dana Rohrabacher's campaign denied this, saying that CLF had spent "about $2.4 million and they have an additional $1 million in media buys scheduled" for Dana Rohrabacher.

Dana Rohrabacher was charged with improper use of campaign contributions in connection with a 1995 state assembly election.

Dana Rohrabacher provided some of his campaign funds to his campaign manager, Rhonda Carmony, to promote a decoy Democratic candidate to draw away votes from another Democratic candidate.

On November 4,2005, the Los Angeles Times reported that Dana Rohrabacher was paid $23,000 for a 30-year-old screen play he had written.

Dana Rohrabacher said that the introductions were made in good faith, were nothing that was not done regularly for legitimate causes, and that the introductions had only become an issue because of Joseph Medawar's alleged misdeeds.

In May 2006, Dana Rohrabacher announced through his press secretary that he would return the $23,000.

Dana Rohrabacher commented that he would be holding a hearing with the Sub-Committee on Oversight and Investigations into whether Iraq committed "crimes against humanity" during an attack on Camp Ashraf in April 2011.

Dana Rohrabacher was warned in 2012 in a secure room at the Capitol building by an agent from the FBI that Russian spies may have been trying to recruit him to act on Russia's behalf as an "agent of influence", after he met with a member of the Russian foreign ministry privately in Moscow.

In June 2015, Dana Rohrabacher released a statement accusing former treasurer of his reelection committee, Jack Wu, of embezzling more than $170,000 from his campaign.

Dana Rohrabacher chaired the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science Committee from 1997 until January 2005; he received a two-year waiver to serve beyond the six-year term limit.

Dana Rohrabacher has expressed strong pro-Russia and pro-Putin opinions which have raised questions about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.

Dana Rohrabacher called the Russian banker Aleksandr Torshin, a Putin ally, "sort of the conservatives' favorite Russian".

In February 2013, Dana Rohrabacher gave a speech urging the right to self-determination for the Baloch people in Pakistan at an UNPO conference in London.

The talking points paper used at the Trump Tower meeting on June 9,2016 by Natalia Veselnitskaya was very similar to the document Dana Rohrabacher had obtained from Chaika in April.

Dana Rohrabacher is known for his longtime friendship with Putin and for his defense of "the Russian point of view".

Dana Rohrabacher reportedly wanted Bill Browder, the American-born investor who had lobbied for the act's passage after what he claims was the illegal appropriation of his hedge fund's assets and the subsequent murder of his Russian lawyer, to testify.

Dana Rohrabacher planned to subject him to what was described as a "show trial".

Dana Rohrabacher had previously met at least twice with Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet spy "who met with President Trump's son, son-in-law and campaign manager in June 2016", to discuss Russian sanctions.

Dana Rohrabacher added that interference by the Russian intelligence services' in the 2016 US election was the same as the National Security Agency bugging German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone.

In July 2017, Dana Rohrabacher voted to impose sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

On 16 August 2017, Dana Rohrabacher visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and told him that Trump would pardon him on the condition that he would agree to say that Russia was not involved in the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leaks.

Trump and Dana Rohrabacher subsequently said they had never spoken about the offer, and Dana Rohrabacher said he had made the offer on his own initiative.

On November 21,2017, The New York Times reported that Dana Rohrabacher had come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee for his close ties to the Kremlin.

Dana Rohrabacher said: "'The fact that Jeff Sessions has not quit is a disloyalty to this president and to the country, the fact is, if he disagrees with what the president wants him to do, he should resign'".

In February 2020, Dana Rohrabacher told Yahoo News that his goal during his 2017 meeting with Julian Assange was to find evidence for a widely debunked conspiracy theory that WikiLeaks' real source was not Russian intelligence agents for the DNC emails but former DNC staffer Seth Rich.

Stephanie Grisham, a White House spokesperson for President Trump, stated that Trump barely knew Dana Rohrabacher and had not spoken with Dana Rohrabacher "'on this subject or almost any subject'".

On February 19,2020, Edward Fitzgerald, Julian Assange's attorney, asserted at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London that Dana Rohrabacher had been sent on behalf of President Trump in August 2017 to offer Assange a pardon from Trump if Assange could release material to show that Russian intelligence was not involved in the 2016 United States election interference.

In 2006, Dana Rohrabacher chaired the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the US House Committee on International Relations, which investigated whether the Oklahoma City bombers had assistance from foreign sources; the committee determined there was no conclusive evidence of a foreign connection.

Dana Rohrabacher said that the unfair treatment of one innocent suspect is an acceptable "unfortunate consequence" of holding others who would otherwise be free to commit terror acts.

In 2003, Dana Rohrabacher defended the new Afghan constitution against those who saw in it mainly empowerment of warlords, saying:.

Dana Rohrabacher has since become a proponent of withdrawing from Afghanistan.

Dana Rohrabacher voted for McGovern's Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, requiring an exit plan from Afghanistan.

Dana Rohrabacher was against former President Obama's gradual drawdown of troops, instead supporting a full withdrawal.

Dana Rohrabacher worked to bring attention to the systemic corruption in the Karzai government and cut US taxpayers' funding for these wasteful projects and programs, involving corruption within the Hamid Karzai government.

Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, told Security Clearance he was readying to travel with five other Republicans from Dubai to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, when the State Department requested he stay behind.

Dana Rohrabacher was opposed to the involvement of American ground troops in the Yugoslav Wars.

Dana Rohrabacher advocated for the direct bombing of the military on Yugoslav soil, criticizing the ineffectiveness of western forces against the Bosnian Serbs.

In July 1999, Dana Rohrabacher led the House floor in opposition to legislation normalizing trade ties between the United States and China.

In 2011 interviews, Dana Rohrabacher described the Chinese government under the leadership of Hu Jintao as "a gangster regime that murders its own people" and described the Chinese government as Nazis.

In December 2016, after President-elect Trump had a phone call with President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen, Dana Rohrabacher said the call "showed the dictators in Beijing that he's not a pushover" and that China "has had an enormously aggressive foreign policy".

Dana Rohrabacher voted in support of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq in 2002, a position that he later said was "a mistake".

Dana Rohrabacher supported removing the People's Mujahedin of Iran from the United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations; it was included on the list from 1997 to 2012.

In May 2011, in the wake of Osama Bin Laden's death, Dana Rohrabacher introduced a bill to stop aid to Pakistan, stating that members of the government and of Pakistan's security force, the ISI, were either sheltering Bin Laden or completely incompetent.

In 2007, Dana Rohrabacher supported Mohiuddin Ahmed, a detainee in the US, who was said to be involved in an attempted coup in Bangladesh, during which several people were murdered.

Dana Rohrabacher was convicted of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first President of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's extradition request was halted as Dana Rohrabacher voiced concern about his legal rights, saying that he should be sent somewhere with no death penalty.

Dana Rohrabacher's support was applauded by both Amnesty International and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Dana Rohrabacher gave a "qualified defense" of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014.

Dana Rohrabacher suggested that the two countries should cooperate in fighting the War on Terror, curbing Iranian influence in the Yemeni Civil War, and securing the Red Sea region.

Dana Rohrabacher said that the discussion was about the possibility of a presidential pardon in exchange for Assange supplying information on the theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee, which were published by WikiLeaks before the 2016 presidential election.

In March 2005, Dana Rohrabacher introduced HR 1061, the American Property Claims Against Ethiopia Act, which would "prohibit United States assistance to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia until the Ethiopian government returns all property of United States citizens".

On March 7,2006, Dana Rohrabacher introduced HR 4895, an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, "to limit the provision of the United States military assistance and the sale, transfer, or licensing of United States military equipment or technology to Ethiopia".

Dana Rohrabacher said that Gorbachev tore down the Berlin Wall because Reagan told him to.

Dana Rohrabacher's entourage included a group of Californian property investors and businessmen, a dealer in rare coins, and CEOs from San Diego biofuels corporation.

Dana Rohrabacher voted to repeal Obamacare, disputed evidence of man-made global warming, was a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, and favored the legalization of cannabis.

Dana Rohrabacher had drawn public criticism for some of his positions.

Dana Rohrabacher had been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.

In 1990, Dana Rohrabacher opposed the National Endowment of the Arts and joined Mel Hancock in demanding its abolition.

Dana Rohrabacher welcomed the announcement, stating that his constituents "don't want federal dollars to go to sacrilegious or obscene art'" and that it would help voters to understand the issue.

In October 1991, Dana Rohrabacher wrote a letter to the civil rights division of the Education Department after seven Filipino students complained to the media that they were denied admission to the University of California, San Diego.

Dana Rohrabacher requested the department conduct a federal civil rights investigation on what seemed to be "a quota based upon race that illegally discriminates against Filipino-Americans and possibly applicants of other races".

Dana Rohrabacher stated that the school ranks all applicants using a grade-based formula.

In November 1997, Dana Rohrabacher was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.

On October 8,1998, Dana Rohrabacher voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry.

On December 19,1998, Dana Rohrabacher voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton.

Dana Rohrabacher does not believe that global warming is a problem.

On May 4,2017, Dana Rohrabacher voted in favor of repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and passing the American Health Care Act.

Dana Rohrabacher voted for his party's Obamacare replacement bill that included state waivers from rules that prohibit charging higher prices to people with pre-existing conditions.

Dana Rohrabacher was an advocate for the state of California's Proposition 187, which prohibited illegal immigrants from acquiring government services.

In early 2008, Dana Rohrabacher endorsed Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primary, citing his positions on stemming illegal immigration and criticizing John McCain.

Dana Rohrabacher's spokesperson has disputed both statements, averring that it was actually the student who started the confrontation by yelling at the spokesperson and telling her to "butt out".

In September 2017, Dana Rohrabacher supported the Trump administration's rescinding of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, saying that those "in Congress must work to prevent such cynical loopholes from being created again by executive fiat" despite their possible empathy for the immigrants.

Dana Rohrabacher has drawn controversy over his views on LGBT rights.

Dana Rohrabacher opposed same-sex marriage and endorsed Proposition 8, the ballot initiative in 2008 that would have prohibited same-sex marriage in California, during a debate at Orange Coast College, stating he "would suggest not changing the definition of marriage in our society to make a small number of people feel more comfortable".

Dana Rohrabacher voted in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment in both 2004 and 2006, a proposed amendment to the US Constitution that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and forbade states from recognizing or legalizing same-sex marriage.

However, Dana Rohrabacher has appeared to have endorsed the idea of leaving marriage to religious institutions only, stating on Twitter that churches should be solely responsible for conducting marriages but that the government should only recognize them.

Dana Rohrabacher supported the legalization of cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes.

Dana Rohrabacher spoke against the policy of cannabis prohibition as early as May 2013, calling it a "colossal failure" in an op-ed penned for the Orange County Register.

Dana Rohrabacher further outlined his views in a May 2014 op-ed in National Review, arguing that the prohibition of cannabis has incurred a number of undesirable costs upon free society, such as an increase in gang violence, soaring incarceration rates, unconstitutional seizure of private property through civil forfeiture, corruption and militarization of police forces, and negative impacts on minority communities and relationships with Latin-American countries.

Dana Rohrabacher is a strong proponent of states' rights when it comes to cannabis policy.

Additional legislation that Dana Rohrabacher has introduced includes the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act and the Veterans Equal Access Act.

Dana Rohrabacher earned an "A+" rating from NORML for his voting record regarding cannabis-related matters.

Dana Rohrabacher was an opponent of the America Invents Act, a bill that is attempting to change the current Patent System.

Dana Rohrabacher was chairman of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics from 1997 to January 2005 and has been active on space-related issues.

In 2007, Dana Rohrabacher introduced a bill that would direct NASA to develop a strategy "for deflecting and mitigating potentially hazardous near-Earth objects".

Dana Rohrabacher has applauded the Apollo astronauts, calling them unofficial ambassadors.

On July 18,2017, Dana Rohrabacher asked a panel of space experts testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology if civilizations could have existed on Mars in the past.

Dana Rohrabacher voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

On January 6,2021, Dana Rohrabacher was filmed breaching a United States Capitol Police barricade during the January 6 United States Capitol attack, although he was not charged with an offense.

In May 2019, Dana Rohrabacher announced his appointment to the advisory board of BudTrader.

Dana Rohrabacher has been married to his wife, Rhonda Carmony, since 1997.

Dana Rohrabacher was described by the Los Angeles Times as "an avid surfer".

Dana Rohrabacher revealed in May 2016 that he uses a cannabis-infused topical rub to treat his arthritis pain, allowing him to sleep through the night.

In December 2018, a month after losing his bid for re-election, Dana Rohrabacher announced that he intended to move to Maine and to write film scripts.