R&B Strategies

Rohrabacher launches lobbying firm Also lobbying for Lazareva is R&B Strategies, a firm Rohrabacher founded with Paul Behrends shortly after leaving office. Behrends was a top aide for Rohrabacher and staff director with the House Foreign Affairs Committee until Royce fired him in 2017 over growing concerns about Behrends’ ties to Russia. The scandal led to Rohrabacher being dubbed “Putin’s favorite Congress member” — a label that contributed to Rohrabacher’s 2018 loss for re-election in the coastal Orange County 48th District. The seat went to Rep. Harley Rouda, ending Rohrabacher’s 15 terms in congress. In the months after his loss, Rohrabacher’s campaign paid law firm Crowell & Moring $25,934 in legal fees. Two weeks after the last payment, in April, his company R&B Strategies got its first client: Crowell & Moring. The law firm has now paid R&B Strategies $105,000 this year for work on behalf of KGL Investment. In addition to lobbying for Lazareva, Rohrabacher’s firm also recently registered to lobby for Roaming Networks, which provides cell tower and other technology in Serbia and other Eastern European countries.