The person President Donald Trump accused of being a spy implanted by the FBI into his presidential campaign was in fact a longtime U.S. intelligence resource who had worked in several Republican administrations, including for Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
The man’s name is Stefan A. Halper, and according to the Washington Post, “There is no evidence to suggest Halper was inserted into the Trump campaign, but he did engage in a pattern of seeking out and meeting three Trump advisers.”
Maybe Trump owes Halper an apology, because not only is the Cambridge University professor not an FBI spy, his identity was revealed at the urging of the president, and this has threatened his safety. By “outing” a confidential U.S. intelligence source Trump and his allies have also threatened the safety of other U.S. intelligence assets and even put U.S. intelligence operations at risk.
Since 2012, Halper has had contracts with the United States Defense Department, and has worked for a Washington think tank called the Office of Net Assessment, which has ties to the Pentagon.
In 2014, Halper, along with the former head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, hosted a seminar attended by General Michael Flynn who was at that time the director of the United States Defense Intelligence Agency.,
In the summer and fall of 2016, Halper contacted three Trump campaign advisers for brief talks and meetings that largely centered on foreign policy. At some point Halpern began working as a secret informant for the FBI as it investigated Russia’s interference in the campaign, according to the Post.
Halper’s background is not without controversy. During the 1980 presidential campaign Halper was accused of using former CIA agents to run an operation against Jimmy Carter to help Reagan win.
Halper was identified as the FBI’s informant by the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine and Axios before the Washington Post ran a story with details about Halper’s background and history.
According to the Axios story, “President Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, recommended appointing Halper, an academic and suspected FBI informant on the Trump campaign, to a senior role in the Trump administration.”
By the time the Department of Justice concludes its investigation into the FBI “spy” Donald Trump will once again look very foolish. He made outrageous and baseless claims on Twitter, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein agreed to honor Trump’s “demand” that the DOJ investigate. What the DOJ will learn is that there was no spy implanted by the FBI into Trump’s campaign, and that the person in question has a long history working as an operative in Republican campaigns.
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