Newly Declassified Documents Reveal Extensive Spying By Source With Cato Institute Connections

Stefan A. Halper

I have previously pointed out that Stefan A. Halper, an FBI spy who approached three Trump advisers during the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, also has long-term connections to the Koch-funded Cato Institute.

Newly released documents show that Halper's spying was much more extensive than originally reported.

From JustTheNews.com:

Once-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find "anyone in the Trump campaign" with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt "damaging to Hillary Clinton."

The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper — codenamed "Mitch" — provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election...

Almost immediately after the FBI opened a Russia collusion probe on July 31, 2016 narrowly focused on the foreign lobbying of a single Trump campaign aide named George Papadopoulos, agents pressed Halper for information on more than a half dozen other figures, including future Attorney General Jeff Sessions, foreign policy adviser Sam Clovis, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, economic adviser Peter Navarro, future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign adviser Carter Page...

Just the News obtained the new informant documents — previously classified at the "secret" level — after Trump ordered hundreds of Russia collusion probe documents declassified during his final 24 hours in office last month. The informant documents chronicle the efforts by the FBI to direct Halper as a confidential human source from August 2016 through early 2017...

Halper, a respected American academic who frequented Europe, wrote studies for the Pentagon and roamed freely among the GOP establishment for decades...

Over the years, current FBI Director Chris Wray and fired former Director James Comey have suggested the FBI's activities in the Russia probe were not spying. But the Halper memos clearly show the FBI employed many of the tradecraft tools of espionage, from recording and monitoring Halper's conversations with Trump figures to providing him questions, background information and even a believable cover story to justify his frequent contacts inside the campaign: he was seeking a job on team Trump.

The released documents provide no insight into the extent of Halper's spying for the FBI or if he ever targeted anyone at Cato.

-RW