Document: Halper was ‘source’ used to frame Flynn

FPI / February 28, 2021

Stefan Halper, a paid FBI informant, delivered gossip alleging an inappropriate encounter between Michael Flynn and a Russian-born scholar which the FBI used as part of its scheme to frame Flynn in the Trump-Russia collusion saga, a newly declassified document shows.

Halper's gossip of Flynn's hooking up with Svetlana Lokhova was picked up in 2017 by several corporate media outlets. It turned out not to be true, but furthered the "collusion" narrative which Democrats and the leftist media used as a cudgel to batter President Donald Trump for four years.

After the new document appeared, Lokhova tweeted: “Here it is. In black and white. After four years of cover up, FBI and CIA’s dirty operative’s Halper lies about me seducing U.S. National Security Advisor have finally been released to the public.”

The Department of Justice had previously released a January 2017 FBI document that closed the Flynn investigation as it related to Russia. The electronic communication told of Halper’s supposed dirt on Flynn and the fact that none of it turned out to be true. The document did not identify Halper by name, only referring to a confidential human source (CHS).

Just the News reported on the newly declassified FBI document on Thursday. The document reveals the name of Lokhova, which was redacted from the previous document released by the DOJ.

John Solomon of Just the News noted that the Halper reports reveal a "wider-ranging operation" to spy on the Trump campaign with the goal of finding "anyone" inside the campaign with ties to Russia who could be get dirt "damaging" to Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.

"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," Solomon wrote. "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."

In the newly released document, with Lokhova's name redacted, the FBI clearly describes a 2014 dinner at Cambridge, where Lokhova studied Russian history and Flynn, then-director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, spoke.

It is also clear the CHS is Halper, at the time a Cambridge professor. The FBI document tells of other known missions for the spy, such as reaching out to Trump campaign official Sam Clovis. The document also mentions agent Stephen M. Somma, Halper’s handler.

Here is how the FBI related Mr. Halper’s account: “The CHS told the team that after CR [Crossfire Razor, Mr. Flynn’s code name] spoke and socialized with … at dinner and over drinks … got CR a cab to take CR to the train station to bring him/her to London. The CHS stated that a woman, Svetlana Lokhova, surprised everyone and got into the CR’s cab and joined CR on the train ride to London. The CHS recalled that Lokhova ‘latched’ on to CR when he was at … The CHS believes that Lokhova’s father may be a Russian oligarch living in London. The CHS could not provide further information on CR and Lokhova’s trip.”

Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell and Lokhova have told The Washington Times the Halper story is fiction: First, Halper did not attend the dinner, so he could not have been an eyewitness. Lokhova had only a brief conversation with Flynn. And they left the dinner separately, he with a U.S. Embassy minder.

The FBI’s January closing memo said it found nothing derogatory about either Flynn or Lokhova, meaning there was no evidence of inappropriate Russian contacts.

Special counsel Robert Mueller reported in March 2019 that his investigation did not establish there was a Trump campaign-Kremlin conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election.

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