Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's spokesman said the lawmaker first believed the call was a prank because it came from the White House switchboard, early on April 1. | Getty Republican known for defending Putin meets Trump at White House The president's decision to host Dana Rohrabacher drew raised eyebrows in D.C.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher woke up before dawn Saturday for a Fox News hit in which he gave a spirited defense of President Donald Trump. Minutes after the California Republican walked off the set, Trump was on the line, inviting him to come by the White House.

The congressman's spokesman said Rohrabacher at first believed the call was a prank because it came from the White House switchboard, early on April 1. But it was the president, an avid TV watcher who often posts tweets or sets up meetings based on what he sees on-screen.


Neither Rohrabacher’s office nor the White House would comment on the agenda for the lawmakers’s meeting Tuesday afternoon. But the president’s decision to host a lawmaker known for defending Russian President Vladimir Putin raised eyebrows in Washington at a time when Trump is fending off questions about his administration’s ties to Moscow.

"The president said he wanted to congratulate him on the appearance, and he should come by soon," Rohrabacher spokesman Ken Grubbs said Tuesday, recounting the conversation Saturday. "And he said to bring your beautiful family with you."

Rohrabacher, who last year said he was considered to be Trump’s secretary of state, used his Fox appearance to back Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama spied on his transition team, an accusation for which Trump has provided no proof. Federal investigators and members on both sides of Congress have disputed the claim.

Rohrabacher said investigations into Trump and Russia should instead focus on Hillary Clinton's meetings with Russians and the Clinton Foundation. Trump, who was in the White House on Saturday morning and was already tweeting based on Fox News programming, later repeated those same points.

Grubbs said Rohrabacher, who didn’t respond to a call seeking comment, didn’t expect to discuss Russia with Trump on Tuesday, and he said the congressman wanted to bring up a number of domestic priorities, which he declined to identify. But with the freewheeling Trump, Grubbs said it remained unclear what would happen.

"Who knows what could come up?" Grubbs said.

Still, the meeting drew interest Tuesday because Rohrabacher has been consistently seen as Putin’s top defender in Congress, and the two have a personal relationship. Last year, Rohrabacher met in Russia with a top Putin ally who was blacklisted by the U.S. government in retribution for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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He also tried to persuade lawmakers to drop the name of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail after accusing Russian officials in a tax fraud scheme, from the title of a global anti-corruption law.

"Dana Rohrabacher is the most compromised member of Congress in relation to Russia," said Bill Browder, president of Hermitage Capital, an asset management company that specializes in Russia. Before he died in 2009, Magnitsky was Browder’s lawyer.

Rohrabacher also has ties to Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder who attempted to serve as a secret emissary between Trump and Russia, The Washington Post reported on Monday. Prince interned for Rohrabacher's office in 1990, and one of Rohrabacher’s top staffers was a Blackwater lobbyist.

Grubbs said he believed the White House meeting had nothing to do with Rohrabacher’s relationship with Prince.