WaEx: When Attorney General William Barr stated “spying did occur” against the 2016 Trump campaign, most attention was focused on the FBI’s surveillance of former junior foreign policy aide Carter Page.
But the spying Barr was thinking of, and which he said may or may not have been legally authorized, is more likely to be that carried out by Stefan Halper, a former Republican operative and White House aide who became a foreign policy academic with close ties to both American and British intelligence.
One could be forgiven for believing Halper was a creation of the spy novelist John Le Carré. A Cambridge don and White House veteran of the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, he has long operated in the gray area between academe and espionage. Gregarious, rumpled, and with an ample girth, Halper, now 74, was known as “Stef” to his friends and students, whom he would regale with tales of Washington intrigue.
While the FBI describes Halper as its “informant,” he did far more than report things he became privy to in the course of his normal life. Rather, he actively courted at least three Trump campaign officials, offering to pay for travel and misrepresenting himself as eager to work for Trump.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Halper was asked by the FBI to gather information on Page and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide with a junior but more central role than Page, and he met with Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis.
As Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into alleged FISA abuse nears its conclusion in either May or June, new reports have emerged indicating that Halper has been looked at as part of that probe.
Halper graduated from Stanford in 1967 and received a Ph.D. from Oxford in 1971 and Cambridge in 2004. He was the director of American studies in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge, where he taught classes and also delivered papers at institutions around the world, including Chatham House in London, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in D.C., and the U.S. Naval War College. Halper is now the emeritus senior fellow of the Centre of International Studies.
At Cambridge, he worked for years alongside Sir Richard Dearlove, who had spent decades with MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, the equivalent of the CIA, and was its director from 1999 to 2004. more here
h/t Blank.
HALPER: “IT SAYS ALL YOU CAN EAT”
HO LEE FUK: “BUT YOU BIN HERE 4 HOUR!”
Halper’s activities may be central to the question of whether the spying on DJT was legally “predicated” or was the work of rogue law-breaking actors in the intelligence “community” – specifically Brennan.
I hope his security is being well looked after.
P.S. (Edit) – The spying was, of course, illegal.
Not being a lawyer, here’s my question, Uncle Al.
Are fictitiously-based FISA warrants “legal predication,” if people downstream acted on them in good faith?
Halper might end up a fall guy when the tree of culpable people above him lead all the way to McCain, Hillary, Obama or others.
http://geocaching.co.uk/blog/pink-floyd-go-geocaching-sort/
.
Black Holes and the Sky
http://i64.tinypic.com/2jb1es6.gif
1994 – The Division Bell – 2004-05-01 2:44
01 – Cluster One.mp3
02 – What Do You Want From Me.mp3
03 – Poles Apart.mp3
04 – Marooned.mp3
05 – A Great Day For Freedom.mp3
06 – Wearing The Inside Out.mp3
07 – Take It Back.mp3
08 – Coming Back To Life.mp3
09 – Keep Talking.mp3
10 – Lost For Words.mp3
11 – High Hopes.mp3
“Halper has retreated into the shadows, refusing all unknown callers to his rural home in Great Falls, Va.”
Retreated into the shadows…nice. What is he, a vampire?
Get this sulking teenage girl out of his rural home and put him under the lights.
@Jimmy – Not being a lawyer myself, I can’t claim any authority about that. However, in criminal cases if a search warrant was obtained through perjury or fraud then any evidence collected by its execution is inadmissible in court, or at least that was the case until recent history. IIRC, SCOTUS got squishy about that a while back.
One thing to keep in mind is that even with the wide illegal surveillance net, they really got nothin’ on DJT.
John Le Carre’ novels are somewhat dated & lame … but to suggest Steven Halper as antagonist is a bit of a stretch
The ball, as they say, is in motion…
@ Uncle Al and Jimmy – you may not BE loy-yas but you sure do sound like GOOD IOTW loy-yas!
@Anon – the ball is going to pick up…enjoy.
http://digg.com/video/avalanche-rips-down-mountain
Some additional info on OLD Cambridge Spies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Five
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/03/07/cambridge-spies-old-boys-turn/
DEEEEEEEEEEEEP. STAAAAAAAAAAAAATES.
FCKU THE BRITS! Let THEM, you know, take over…
Bobby Sands Lives.
@Jimmy April 11, 2019 at 8:35 pm
> if people downstream acted on them in good faith?
Pro tip, @Jimmy: Always remember you’re “asking for a friend”.
Otherwise, “How middling a fish do you have to be to not get away with ‘I was only following orders'” looks suspicious.