Kelly won’t let Rohrabacher talk to Trump: report

White House chief of staff John Kelly is blocking a pro-Russia congressman from meeting with President Trump, according to a new report.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) told Business Insider on Tuesday that Kelly and other top Trump aides are actively blocking him from meeting with the president to discuss information from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that Assange claims proves Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 election.

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“The White House staff and other top people in the administration are trying to protect the president from himself,” Rohrabacher said, according to Business Insider. “That’s what they think and in fact they are usurping his authority to make decisions — the important decisions — himself.”

The California Republican, who reportedly has ties to Assange, added that “a coalition of people in the White House” were blocking his attempts to speak to Trump. He said, however, that “there are others involved who are talking to Trump” about the Wikileaks founder.

Rohrabacher noted that he isn’t currently speaking to Assange directly, but rather through intermediaries similar to how he is getting information to Trump.

“I have not spoken to [Assange] directly, but we’re going through a period of time where a lot’s getting done one person removed in a lot of different ways,” he said.

Rohrabacher became the first U.S. lawmaker to meet with Assange in August at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he is holed up.

“Our three-hour meeting covered a wide array of issues, including the WikiLeaks exposure of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] emails during last year’s presidential election,” Rohrabacher said at the time. “Julian emphatically stated that the Russians were not involved in the hacking or disclosure of those emails.”

“Julian also indicated that he is open to further discussions regarding specific information about the DNC email incident that is currently unknown to the public,” he added.