FBI Informant Outed (Trump Called Spy and Mole) re: Russian Campaign Interference

Stefan Halper, Ret. Cambridge Professor, FBI Informant 

(Not a Mole or Spy Against Trump) 

Halper's base of operations for years 

between Republican appointments

Very long post, but very worthwhile:

Story from the Washington Post here by Robert Costa, Carol Leonnig, Shane Harris, and contributors: Devlin Barrett, Tom Hamburger, Ellen Nakashima, and Matt Zapotosky (Tuesday, May 22, 2018).

INTRODUCTION TO THIS STORY: The FBI informant (that Trump calls a spy and planted mole in his 2016 campaign) has been officially named (outed by name and who past very long history of Republican ties, connections, and administration positions dating back to Richard Nixon days until the present).

His name is Stefan A. Halper, age 73, is the FBI source who assisted the Russia investigation and is at the center of a standoff between congressional Republicans and the DOJ. He is a well-connected veteran of past GOP administrations (Nixon to Bush) who has convened senior intelligence officials for seminars at the University of Cambridge in England.

Critical insert: Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, recommended appointing Stefan Halper, an academic and suspected FBI informant on the Trump campaign, to a senior role in the Trump administration, Axios has learned.

Behind the scenes: During the 2016 presidential transition Navarro recommended Halper, among other people, for ambassador roles in Asia. A White House official said Halper visited the Eisenhower Executive Office Building last August for a meeting about China.

In the summer and fall of 2016, Halper, then an emeritus professor at Cambridge, contacted three Trump campaign advisers for brief talks and meetings that largely centered on foreign policy, The Washington Post reported last week. At some point that year, he began working as a secret informant for the FBI as it investigated Russia’s interference in the campaign, according to multiple people familiar with his activities.

The Post had previously confirmed Halper’s identity but did not report his name following warnings from U.S. intelligence officials that exposing him could endanger him or his contacts.

Now that he has been identified as the FBI’s informant by multiple news organizations, including the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine and Axios, The Post has decided to publish his name.

Halper, 73, declined to comment. The FBI declined to comment.

Halper’s contacts with Trump advisers around the start of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation have come under scrutiny in recent weeks by House allies of President Trump. Late last month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) issued a subpoena to the DOJ requesting all documents related to the FBI informant. 

In recent days, Trump has seized on the reports about Halper’s role in the Russia probe, suggesting in tweets that the FBI improperly spied on his campaign. 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.

Halper’s connections to the intelligence world have been present throughout his career and at Cambridge, where he ran an intelligence seminar that brought together past and present intelligence officials.

In 2014, Halper, along with Richard Dearlove, the former head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, sponsored a session of the seminar that drew Michael Flynn, then director of the DIA, who would go on to serve as Trump’s first national security adviser.

Halper taught international affairs and American studies at Cambridge from 2001 until 2015, when he stepped down with the honorary title of emeritus senior fellow of the Centre of International Studies, according to a spokesman for the university.

Since 2012, Halper has had contracts with the Defense Department, working for a Pentagon think tank called the Office of Net Assessment. According to federal records, ONA has paid Halper more than $1 million for research and development in the social sciences and humanities. The funds did not go solely to Halper, who hired other academics and experts to conduct research and prepare reports, according to U.S. government officials.

Halper’s first wife was the daughter of the prominent former CIA analyst Ray S. Cline, who worked alongside President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and mentored Halper, introducing him to associates in the intelligence and political worlds, according to numerous people familiar with their relationship.

After earning his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1971, Halper quickly ascended, serving on the White House domestic policy council for President Richard M. Nixon and then in the OMB before being tapped as an assistant to President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff.

Noteworthy: According to a document from Ford’s presidential library, part of Halper’s job was assessing domestic political candidates, such as Jimmy Carter, for high-ranking staffers in the West Wing.

Halper later worked for Sen. William Roth (R-DE) before joining the George H.W. Bush campaign in 1980 as national policy development director and then working for the Reagan-Bush campaign as national director of policy coordination. 

In the Reagan administration, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs, according to his biography.

After the 1980 race, Halper was caught up in a scandal concerning alleged political spying. Aides to Reagan, including Halper, were accused of having spied on Carter’s campaign and obtaining private documents that Carter was using to prepare for a debate. Some Reagan White House officials later alleged that Halper had used former CIA agents to run an operation against Carter. Halper called the reports at the time “absolutely false” and has long denied the accusations.

Between 2000 and 2001, Halper contributed more than $85,000 to George W. Bush’s first presidential bid and the RNC according to campaign finance records.

Most friends describe him as a moderate Republican who is hawkish on China and deeply committed to U.S. institutions, having worked for years inside and around the federal government.

Late in his career, Halper emerged as a vocal critic of President George W. Bush’s interventionist foreign policy. During classes at Cambridge, he often raised questions about Bush’s decisions and embraced a traditional Republican approach to foreign policy that emphasized long-standing Western alliances and limited foreign intervention, as witnessed by a Post reporter who studied under Halper in 2009. A book he co-wrote with Jonathan Clarke, “America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order,” was critical of the Bush administration’s approach to the Iraq War.

Halper has spent considerable time focused on China over the past decade, publishing “The Beijing Consensus: Legitimizing Authoritarianism in our Time” in 2010 that warned of China’s attempts to build an economic and industrial presence in Africa and elsewhere as a threat to global stability.

“Stef” — as Halper is called by people who know him — was also widely known at Cambridge as a gregarious gatherer of students and academics at his apartment in the city, along with his wife.

He frequently hosted dinners with visiting students and scholars from around the world where — over wine and cheese from the local market — he would share colorful stories about his work for American presidents and the U.S. government and stir debates about the issues of the day.

My 2 Cents: We do not know Halper’s view of this “outing” of him by name and background – that does not matter now, he is out for the world to know – whether that is good or bad or neutral remains to be seen – only time will tell.

But if bad or worse, then only two can be blamed for anything happens to Mr. Halper, and I hate to blame, but in this case it falls squarely on Rep. Nunes and Donald J. Trump for pushing the issue – may not be as bad the Valerie Plame (CIA outed under Geo. W. Bush’s watch) but the truth of the matter we just do not know at this point – hopefully nothing bad will happen to Mr. Halper.

The info in this report is amazing from a lot of angles – the least of which is that Halper is a lifelong Republican and served in many GOP administrations as listed above, including until 1974, when he moved to the office of the White House chief of staff as assistant to the chief of staff where he had responsibility for a range of domestic and international issues. During this time, Halper worked as an assistant for three chiefs of staff, Alexander Haig, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney. He held those positions until January 20, 1977.

So, my best sincere advice to rightwing nuts namely via FOX and Talk Radio and fancy Congressional speeches and PR stunts is simple: STFU, and choke on your own vile about a “Trump campaign spy or plant or mole” working against Trump – that false and 100% outrageous.

Hope you enjoy this amazing Washington post piece – I have not edited it one bit – although I have highlighted key parts for emphasis and to get reader’s attention – points I believe are extremely critical.

Thanks for stopping by.

Added and related four tidbits about Mr. Halper from here:  

1. The fact that we know his name at all: Halper is in the news because Trump and his allies in Congress have made his activities a target in their attempts to investigate (and, you could argue, undermine) the Russia investigation of Trump's campaign. Halper, The Post reports, met with three Trump campaign aides during 2016. At some point during that year, he began providing information to the FBI.

2. Trump official pushed Halper for a job in the Trump administration: That Halper would be considered for a job in a Republican administration isn't surprising. He worked in the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan administrations and on a George H.W. Bush campaign.

3. This isn't the first political-spy drama Halper has been at the center of: The Post reports that during Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, Halper and other aides were accused of spying on President Jimmy Carter's campaign and even taking some of Carter's debate prep documents. Some of Halper's own colleagues later turned on him, alleging that he used former CIA agents to do the spying. Halper has long denied the accusations.

4. He was no fan of George W. Bush: Despite working for Bush's father and donating about $85,000 to Bush's first presidential campaign, Halper soon became a critic of the Iraq War.