New FBI Memos on Stefan Halper
Released 2/25/21
Today John Solomon posted FBI reports and interview summaries concerning confidential human source Stefan Halper and his interactions with Carter Page.
I won’t go through every small detail but will summarize the parts I find interesting. (Even if they had been publicly discussed before.)
Halper was tasked to go after Carter Page and George Papadopoulos (aka Crossfire Typhoon).
August 15, 2016: the FBI discusses Carter Page and George Papadopoulos with Halper and request his assistance. This wasn’t just about obtaining information. The FBI documents state:
“The team explained that it would allow the FBI to obtain assessment information on [Papadopoulos] as well as possibly conduct an operation against [Papadopoulos].” At this time however, what was the basis for an “operation” against Papadopoulos? He had a brief conversation with Joseph Mifsud but there were no allegations of wrongdoing. Pretext.
Allegations against Michael Flynn
Halper was also asked about Flynn at this initial meeting in August 2016, and offered that he was suspicious of Flynn’s alleged interactions with Svetlana Lokhova. Claims that Lokhova “latched” onto Flynn and had ties to Russian intelligence. False information fed to the FBI.
The FBI even suggested that Halper meet with Flynn to conduct operations against the Trump campaign.
The FBI was also asking Halper (in August 2016, during the final months of the campaign) about Senator Jeff Sessions and his views on Russia.
Eventually, Halper’s meeting with Carter Page is set up. They wire the place with audio and video.
The new documents close with the transcript of the conversation between Halper and Carter Page. An excerpt where Carter Page brushes off the Trump/Russia/Page conspiracy theories:
It's amazing that with all the lengths they went to ... the most damning piece of evidence they ever came up with was the 20 minute Trump Tower meeting Don Jr. had with the Russian attorney (Natalia Veselnitskaya), who also happened to have dinner the day before and after with FusionGPS co-founder Glenn Simpson (small world huh). The FBI interviewed the translator at the meeting (a Trump hating former Hillary Clinton State Dept. employee) who said nothing was discussed in the meeting related to Clinton or collusion.
So the best they had was FusionGPS managed to slip Russian into Trump Tower for 20 mins. You would think with all they put into this ... they could've come up with something ... anything.
(SPOILER ALERT: That's what they thought too.)
Thanks for summarizing this. I have been following this story for a few years and am amazed at the complexity and depth of it all.