A longtime aide to “Putin’s Congressman” Dana Rohrabacher died suddenly over the weekend from a head injury.
Paul Behrend was found with severe head trauma by emergency responders near his home Friday night. He was taken to a local hospital where surgeons fought to save him, but he died Saturday, Rohrabacher’s spokesman said.
Following the Daily Beast’s publication of his involvement in the actions of Trump Tower attorney Natalia Wesselnitskaya in the United States, Behrend was a controversial figure in Capitol Hill who lost his job as staff director of the House Foreign Subcommittee.
Rohrbachar’s former congressional spokesman Ken Grupps told The Daily Beast that he died at Behrend’s Hospital. “I actually called Dana and she confirmed it,” he said. “From what I heard, he slipped … hit his head, and died in surgery.”
Grupps said Behrend had no reason to think anything suspicious had happened or had any connection to his contacts with Russia. “No, no, no,” he said.
No one saw Behrend’s son Joseph Behrend’s father fall into the Daily Beast around 10pm on Friday night, but also his older brother Paul, who was rushed to the scene four blocks from the family home when police arrived.
“He was walking side by side in the neighborhood and then he went to the hospital from there,” he said. “Then he passed away on Saturday. Early morning. “
Behrends first made headlines in July 2017, following Weselnitskaya’s explosive June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., and later Trump campaign leader Paul Manafort. The meeting then shed a light on Behrend’s own Russian problems.
A few months before that meeting, in April 2016 Behrend went to Moscow with Rohrabacher. In Russia, they were presented with a document from the Office of the Attorney General labeled “secret”, including the Kremlin war against US sanctions and the pro-Kremlin propaganda film.
When they returned to DC, Rohrabacher quoted the Kremlin as saying that the global Magnitsky law had been delayed.
Behrends worked with Soviet soldiers Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akmetskin – who came to the awkward Trump Tower meeting with Veselnitskaya – to help provide some of the recommendations made in Moscow. Veselnitskaya was later accused by the United States of colluding with Russian authorities to obstruct justice in a U.S. court case.
They came together to organize a subcommittee hearing to call the director of the campaign film and other witnesses who sympathized with President Putin. The inquiry, set to review US sanctions against Russia, was eventually canceled and replaced by a full-fledged panel inquiry into Russia. Rohrabacher still compared President Trump to Putin and submitted evidence that Russia was not behind the assassination of former FSP agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with a radioactive isotope in London.
After the trial, Behrendz, Rohrabacher, Akmetschin and Veselnitskaya had dinner at the Capitol Hill Club, a private members’ club frequented by Republicans.
Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader that day, recorded at a GOP meeting: “I think Putin is paying: Rohrabacher and Trump.” When colleagues laughed, he asked on the tape, “Swear to God.”
These events are described a day later in The Daily Beast and articles Atlantic, A spokesman for the House Foreign Affairs Committee said: “Paul Behrends no longer serves on the board.”
After being fired from the subcommittee role, Behrend continued to work closely with Rohrabachchar, who was then defeated in the mid-2018s. Behrends, who began coaching Rohrabatcher in the 1990s, most recently became a partner in Rohrabatcher’s R&B Strategies.