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Former OC Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Admits He Was At Capitol Riot

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Former longtime U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who represented coastal Orange County for 30 years, has admitted that he was at the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

GOP Elections
UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 14: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., leaves the House Republican leadership election in Longworth Building on November 14, 2018. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

The 73-year-old Republican, a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, told the Portland Press Herald Monday that he took part in a march outside the Capitol, but never entered the building itself.

The admission comes after he was captured on video on the west side of the Capitol building, according to the Press Herald.

"I marched to protest, and I thought the election was fraudulent and it should be investigated, and I wanted to express that and be supportive of that demand," Rohrabacher told the Press Herald. "But I was not there to make a scene and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do."

Rohrabacher, first elected in 1988, served 15 terms in the U.S. House before he lost his 48th Congressional District seat, a onetime Republican stronghold, in a close race in 2018 to Democrat Harley Rouda.

The district includes Seal Beach, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo.

Rohrabacher and his family moved to Maine in 2019, according to the Press Herald. In recent years, he faced scrutiny over his relationship to Russia.

Pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 while the House and Senate was meeting to certify the Electoral College results. The rioters entered the House and Senate chambers and broke into several offices. One of the rioters, a woman from San Diego, was shot and killed by Capitol police, and two others died of medical emergencies.

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