Nigel Farage - Russian Asset

Broadcaster LBC has, it seems, acknowledged that it has a problem with host Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his propensity to talk well, but lie badly. As Adam Bienkov revealed recently at Business Insider, there is growing pressure to send Farage the same way as pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins - down the road in short order. And that pressure just became more intense after recent Stateside revelations.

Squeaky Kompromat finger up the bum time

“LBC is facing growing pressure to end its relationship with Nigel Farage after it was forced to retract a series of false and misleading claims he made on air … The former UKIP leader hosts a regular evening show on the talk radio station but has become an increasing source of controversy after making a series of false and controversial statements” told the article. And there was more.

“Last week LBC was forced to issue a "clarification" after Farage falsely quoted a section from Article 50 - the legislation that will guide Britain's exit from the EU … The incident caused a backlash on social media with Farage's fellow host James O'Brien joining in to retweet a tweet stating ‘why LBC would [give him a] platform is beyond understanding’”. O’Brien, it should be noted, Tweeted out a link to Bienkov’s article.

But some at LBC are cool with the idea of Mr Thirsty being on the roster: Iain Dale told “The great thing about @LBC is that it provides voices across the spectrum, from @Nigel_Farage to @AlexSalmond. Long may that continue”. The problem there, though, is that the only foreign Government to which Salmond gives any attention is that in Scotland. Not so Farage, as those revelations indicate.

Anglo-French PR man Mike Hind Tweeted out Bill Browder’s observation “Great reporting by @RosieGray on how Putin flipped Congressman Dana Rohrabacher into a Russian asset inside Congress” by noting that Rohrabacher is pals with Farage.

The Atlantic article contained some disturbing passages. On a recent trip by the Congressman to Moscow, the US was “‘really concerned’ about whom Rohrabacher was meeting with, another source with knowledge of the trip said. ‘They were under the impression they were FSB agents’”. Worse, “One of the sources familiar with the trip said that neither Rohrabacher nor [his aide Paul] Behrends appeared to take the warning seriously and said it was Behrends who was setting up the meetings”.

And, as to a document handed to Rohrabacher at one of those meetings, the FT claimed “the person who gave Rohrabacher the document was Viktor Grin, a top aide to Yuri Chaika, the Russian prosecutor general with whom Veselnitskaya, the lawyer in the Trump Tower meeting, told the Wall Street Journal she was in contact”. Ri-i-i-i-ght.

Oh, and “According to a senior House GOP aide, Rohrabacher earlier this year asked to travel to Moscow in the weeks following the Trump inauguration, and [House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed] Royce told him no in a conversation on the House floor”.

Dane Rohrabacher, known for obvious reasons as “Putin’s favourite Congressman”, is the man in the shot of Farage on that fishing trip. As I said at the time, Mr Thirsty could be close to seeing the house falling in. For LBC, the more pressing question is not whether they want a liar on the payroll, but whether Russian assets are worth the candle.