Stefan Halper (Credit: Wikipedia)
A key FBI informant in the widely-debunked Russia collusion case was paid nearly $1.2 million over three decades, was motivated in part by “monetary compensation,” and continued snitching even after agents concluded he told them an inaccurate story about future Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, newly declassified documents show.
The nearly 700 pages of once-secret documents, obtained by Just the News, were recently turned over by FBI Director Kash Patel to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan after President Donald Trump ordered them declassified at the start of his second administration.
They provide the most extensive portrait yet of former FBI informant Stefan Halper, a Pentagon consultant and academic who, along with retired British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, was used by bureau agents to build the Crossfire Hurricane case against Trump and his advisers during the end of the 2016 election and the beginning of Trump’s first term in office.
The memos confirm Halper was the source of one of the most sensational bogus claims to land in the FBI’s probe in summer 2016: that Flynn had left a 2014 foreign meeting alone with Russia scholar Svetlana Lokhova when he was a three-star general leading the Defense Intelligence Agency.
FBI agents ultimately deemed Halper’s account to be “not plausible” and “not accurate”, but the bureau proceeded to investigate Flynn, kept paying Halper and continued to vouch for his veracity as a confidential human source codenamed “Mitch,” the memos show.
For instance, a March 2017 memo showed the FBI’s Validation Management Unit wrote that it “assesses it is likely HALPER is suitable for continued operation, based on his or her authenticity, reliability, and control.”
That memo makes no mention in its unredacted portions of the concerns about the account Halper gave about Flynn and Lokhova, which were confirmed in a memo from William Barnett, the FBI agent who handled the retired Flynn’s case in 2016 and 2017.
Paid more than $1 million
The new FBI records also show Halper was paid $70,000 by the FBI between August 2016 and the start of February 2017 — a time period spanning his activation as an informant targeting the Trump campaign and then the 2016 election and Trump’s inauguration. The FBI records also showed that the bureau had paid Halper “$1,181,064.44” from 1991 into early 2017.
You can read the FBI’s declassified records on Halper here:
Stefan Halper – Crossfire Hurricane Declassified Binder
Halper did not respond to a request for comment which Just the News made through his lawyer, Robert Luskin.
The “Crossfire Hurricane Redacted Binder” submitted to Congress and obtained by Just the News includes, among other things, slightly less-redacted versions of the tasking orders and debriefings of the two main confidential human sources, Halper and Steele. The new documents are certain to raise continued concerns in Congress about the FBI’s management and validation of informants, an issue that has been repeatedly flagged by the Justice Department’s watchdog.
FBI vouches for Halper after he fed false info on Flynn
The FBI’s Validation Management Unit (VMU) conducted a Human Source Validation Report (HSVR) on Halper in early 2017 — and although the declassified document remains heavily redacted, it reveals new information about the FBI’s continued expression of trust in Halper.
The VMU’s review from May 2013 to March 2017 and recommended that the FBI continue using Halper as a source despite FBI agents working the Flynn case determining that he had provided them incorrect information. It is not known whether Halper knew the information was bogus at the time.
“VMU recommends FBI New York continue to operate HALPER. VMU assesses it is likely HALPER will continue to contribute to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program,” the FBI unit wrote. “While there have been serious handling issues noted in previous HSVRs, VMU did not locate similar issues during this period of review. VMU assesses HALPER has provided valuable information for FBI NY based on his or her unique access.”
The FBI document said Halper was primarily involved in reporting on “Counterintelligence” and secondarily involved in reporting on “Russia.”
“HALPER, code name MITCH, is being utilized to provide information on two initiatives dealing with Russia,” the FBI record states, although one of the initiatives remains entirely redacted.
The other initiative was that Halper “has also provided information pertaining to the U.S. election involving Donald Trump’s close associates and their potential ties to the Russian government.”
Vox parroted this explanation, saying the Trump administration told “a tale of politically motivated persecution of Trump. The argument rests on the distinction between an FBI counterintelligence investigation – an inquiry into a foreign power’s efforts to spy on the US government – and an FBI criminal investigation, which is an effort to investigate whether any federal laws were broken.”
The FBI unit said: “VMU assesses it is likely HALPER is suitable for continued operation, based on his or her authenticity, reliability, and control.” The sections of Halper’s alleged authenticity, reliability, and control remain heavily redacted.
The bureau unit also contended that “during the period of review, VMU found no derogatory issues regarding MITCH’s reliability.”
But the FBI unit also admitted: “VMU notes there is no corroboration concerning MITCH’s reporting. Due to the singular nature of his or her access, VMU was unable to locate corroboration concerning MITCH’s reporting.”
Sections on collection requirements, threat issues, and key intelligence questions related to Halper all remain blacked out from public view.