The Halper Memos

Yesterday John Solomon made available the recently declassified asset (Confidential Human Source, or CHS) reports regarding the use of Stefan Halper ("Mitch") in the Crossfire Hurricane (CH) investigation--mostly as it pertained to the Carter Page FISA. Thanks to the actions of disgraced former AG Bluto Barr, this material is essentially only of historical interest at this point. Nevertheless, it may be of interest to readers here for the insights that it offers into how FBI counterintelligence (CI) investigations are run. I say that, knowing that CH is an example of the abuse of the FBI's CI authorities--because what we see in this paperwork is the attempt to make CH *look* normal, even as the investigative guidelines were honored in their breach.

First of all, here's the link to the John Solomon article:

Once-secret FBI informant reports reveal wider-ranging operation to spy on Trump campaign

Goal was to find "anyone" inside GOP campaign tied to Russia who could be get dirt "damaging" to Clinton, newly declassified memos reveal.

Before I go through the actual Halper memos, I'll simply state the big picture that emerges from them. What becomes very apparent is that the background to this series of memos--which begin in mid-August, 2016, shortly after CH was opened--is the Steele dossier. Even though there is discussion of George Papadopoulos as a target--after all, we're supposed to believe that his conversation with Aussie "diplomat" Alexander Downer is what got CH started--the real interest, beyond any doubt, is Carter Page. And that means the Steele dossier, with it's farcical allegations.

Whither Durham's Russia Hoax Investigation?

Yesterday we heard that John Durham's Russia Hoax investigation is:

making "excellent progress"

adding prosecutors to his team.

moving "full speed ahead"

"remains full steam ahead,”

“is definitely still happening,”

Does that explain why Stefan Halper and FBI Agent Stephen Somma are as hard to find as, well, Joseph Mifsud?

That would appear to be the subtext of an excellent article at Fox:

Who's hiding 'Russiagate' informant Stephen Halper, and why?

Questions raised over what became of the subpoena -- and no-show -- of FBI informant Stefan Halper and his handler, Stephen Somma

Halper, of course, is the highly paid, corpulent, CIA/FBI crack(head) operative who was at Ground Zero for all things related to Michael Flynn and Donald Trump--including the setup of Carter Page. Stephen Somma is the New York agent who was both the case agent for the CI investigation of Page as well as the handler for Halper. 

Again: The Important Takeaway From Schrage's Revelations

Margot Cleveland comes down on my side this morning at The Federalist. The tantalizing takeaway in what Steven Schrage has had to say thus far about the Cambridge meeting of Stefan Halper with Carter Page actually has to do with the role of British intelligence operatives in the Russia Hoax. Or, technically, former British intelligence operatives.

Recall that I wrote yesterday:

Finally, regarding the MI6 connection, while Dearlove and Steele are "retired," that doesn't mean that Dearlove might not have served as a high level--but deniable--connection among Five Eyes intel agencies. Note, for example, the way in which Dearlove's presence seemingly energized and directed Halper, in Schrage's telling of the events. That appears to be the truly main point that Shrage is trying to make--the influence of Richard Dearlove on what transpired and developed into the Russia Hoax. And we know that Christopher Steele consulted with Dearlove on this, as well.

What I was briefly referring to in the red highlighted sentence was a WaPo profile of Christopher Steele that contained this, to me, significant passage (below)--which I quoted in Let's Talk About Michael Gaeta. After presenting what appeared to me to be anomalies in the early July, 2016, mission of FBI agent Michael Gaeta, traveling from Rome to London--with the approval of Victoria Nuland--to meet with Steele, I continue:

The Steven Schrage Interview

Below I've transcribed Steven Schrage's interview this morning with Maria Bartiromo, and I've also linked to a video of the interview. As I commented earlier, this is mostly stuff we already knew. What it does, to my way of thinking, is to reinforce the conviction that there really was what I refer to as a "big picture conspiracy" to stop Trump. That's particularly clear when you consider the FBI and the CIA sharing the same source (Halper) who is being paid enormous sums of money through what appears to be a CIA money laundering front agency (Office of Net Assessment - ONA), and the connection to MI6. To me, when all the other details are added in, the evidence that there was a conspiracy in place long before Crossfire Hurricane was ever opened is very strong.

Here are a few takeaways:

Note that Schrage believes, based on his contacts with Durham, that this investigation will be continuing.

Note also that Schrage is coming forward to support Flynn "before the hearing," and that he appears to have Durham's blessing in doing so.

Finally, regarding the MI6 connection, while Dearlove and Steele are "retired," that doesn't mean that Dearlove might not have served as a high level--but deniable--connection among Five Eyes intel agencies. Note, for example, the way in which Dearlove's presence seemingly energized and directed Halper, in Schrage's telling of the events. That appears to be the truly main point that Shrage is trying to make--the influence of Richard Dearlove on what transpired and developed into the Russia Hoax. And we know that Christopher Steele consulted with Dearlove on this, as well.

Finally, in his companion article--The Spies Who Hijacked America--Schrage maintains that Halper's FBI handler was Stephen Somma. That's something I'll need to look into. Somma--the case agent for the Carter Page NYO investigation--is said to be in hot water over critical omissions from the Carter Page FISA.

All this maintains my belief that Barr and Durham are determined to get to the bottom of what looks increasingly complex.

Here's a link to a previous post in which I discuss Schrage--and quote extensively from a delicious Mark Steyn article that goes into detail regarding the Cambridge meeting that Schrage is now talking to the world about.

Here's the inteview:

Did Someone Coordinate Stories Among FBI Sources?

Chuck Ross at the Dailer Caller has a very interesting story today: Dossier Author Told John McCain Aide Of Unfounded Michael Flynn Affair Rumor. The real interest in the article is summarized by Ross himself in a tweet:

Christopher Steele told an aide to John McCain [David Kramer] that he believed Michael Flynn had an affair with a Russian woman in the U.K. 

An FBI informant provided a similar allegation to Crossfire Hurricane investigators. They also appeared in the media.

The Steele angle is one revelation from Kramer's just released transcript of his House testimony:

Christopher Steele told a longtime aide to John McCain in 2016 that he believed Michael Flynn was having an extramarital affair with a Russian woman, showing for the first time that the former British spy peddled an unsubstantiated rumor that later appeared in the media and made its way to the FBI. 

Steele shared the allegation with David Kramer, a longtime associate of McCain’s, according to a transcript of Kramer’s House Intelligence Committee testimony released Thursday. 

Kramer met with Steele in London in November 2016 at McCain’s direction to discuss Steele’s work on the Trump dossier. Kramer later gave the salacious document to a reporter from BuzzFeed News.

The other source came to our attention just recently when we examined the now notorious "closing memo/EC" that the elusive Joe Pientka wrote on the Flynn case on January 4, 2017--the one that the "7th Floor" at FBIHQ told Peter Strzok to have Pientka put a hold on.

The Beginning Of Wisdom

When I was first starting out in foreign counterintelligence--FCI, as we called--back in 1982, one of the first things I was told was: The begining of wisdom is distrust of The Agency, meaning, the CIA. The wisdom wasn't presented in quite that form. It was more along the lines of: Don't believe anything they tell you; they always lie. It was good advice then and it's good advice now.

The hot narrative this morning is this one via Undercover Huber:

NEW: The FISA warrant applications on Carter Page directly relied on information sourced to Vyacheslav Trubnikov, former head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence agency and "good friend" of FBI CHS Stefan Halper. 

Note: This is still redacted in the FISA applications. 

—Trubnikov's allegation used in the FISA is of a "dossier [on Clinton] [that] had been compiled by the RIS over many years, dating back to the 1990’s".

—Truvnikov [sic] is described in a footnote, as a "Sub Source" of Steele.

Recap: Steele already told Kathleen Kavalec at the State Dept. in Oct 2016 both that Trubnikov was a "source" of his dossier, and that he was also "involved" in the Collusion conspiracy with Trump and "kompromat". 

A conspiracy that didn't exist of course...  

So yeah, the FBI/DOJ were using unverified information from a "former" Russian head of the new KGB in order to spy on an American citizen [Carter Page], who was actually a CIA asset. Great work everyone!

Caveat: Until these sections of the FISA are fully declassified, you can't confirm this for yourself 100%, so bear that in mind, but I spent a lot of time working this out. Will share more when possible. 

/ENDS 

You have to read this very carefully. There are a lot of folks out there saying the usual thing: Aha! The FBI was fooled by Russian disinformation! The Russians were feeding disinformation to the FBI by [specify your favored theory].

Nice Margot Cleveland Article On FBI Targeting Of Papadopoulos

I don't want to quote much from Margot Cleveland's article,

Newly Declassified Papadopoulos Transcript Exposes Crossfire Hurricane Corruption

A newly declassified transcript calls into question the entire Crossfire Hurricane investigation: Why was it started, and why did it continue?

because it deserves to be read in full. What I like about it is that it gives an insight into the kind of thinking that was swirling around (think: toilet bowl) in the Crossfire Hurricane team. Either the top levels of the FBI were staffed by complete bozos who could not distinguish what they wanted to be true from their obligation to share relevant information with professionals who might come to a different conclusion, or ... they were totally corrupt.

Here's the short story.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Briefly Noted: Stefan Halper Update

There are a number of blogs out this morning that build of information gleaned from the OIG FISA report to shed interesting new light on the activities of two key intel operatives: Chris Steele and Stefan Halper. What the new information strongly suggests is that there was close coordination between the John Brennan's CIA and the Clinton campaign, using Fusion GPS, the Clinton's oppo research firm that was secretly funded through a DNC connected law firm. Some of this general thrust of new revelations can be seen in Mike Sylwester's article yesterday, Steele's Reports About Putin's Presidential Administration.

Margot Cleveland at The Federalist focuses on Stefan Halper's interaction with Carter Page: Exclusive Carter Page Interview Raises New Questions About ‘Inaccuracy-Laden’ IG Report. Here's what I see as the essence of what Cleveland is saying:

According to the IG report, after the launch of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI tasked Halper as a confidential human source to target Page, George Papadopoulos, and another unnamed, high-ranking Trump campaign official, widely known to be Sam Clovis. 

Halper’s handling agent told the IG it was “serendipitous” that Source 2 — the moniker used for the unnamed Halper — “had contacts with three of their four subjects, including Carter Page.” They “couldn’t believe [their] luck,” the handling agent noted, upon learning that Halper knew Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, and had crossed paths with Page just weeks before. 

After asking Halper about Papadopoulos, whom “he had never heard of,” the case agent told the Office of the Inspector General that Halper “asked whether the team had any interest in an individual named Carter Page.”

Cleveland is rightly skeptical about the serendipitous nature of all this, and asks the obvious questions:

Svetlana Speaks

Svetlana Lokhova runs a pretty lively twitter feed. I like this tweet, among many others:

So who knew Horowitz was such great comedy value? Read the section on Source 2 (Halper) and see how long far you can get without laughing out loud.

— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) December 10, 2019

What can you say? Lie after outrageously laughable lie, and the Horowitz dossier says: No evidence of "improper motivation."

Imagine how creeped out she must be at having been in the same room with Halper, much less having had to deal with him at Cambridge. Hey, maybe this is why the FBI "fired" Halper for cause, for bad behavior, back in 2011:

Go on. Tell us more about Halper’s DC madam. https://t.co/GBrOLAgndr

— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) December 9, 2019

Svetlana Lokhova On Stefan Halper's Spying

Svetlana Lokhova, the Russian born Cambridge historian who was smeared by the very creepy Stefan Halper with regard to Michael Flynn, has two Twitter threads up that provide extensive detail that strongly indicates that Halper was feeding "information" to Steele. Lokhova also illustrates that Halper's reporting was essentially laundered through Steele, almost certainly to make it appear that information was being provided by the former MI6 officer rather than by a CIA/FBI asset who was targeting the Trump campaign and Trump associates before the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was opened. I want to highlight just a few of Lokhova's points from her detail rich threads.

In the first thread, Lokhova begins from a letter that Senator Grassley sent to the DoD IG, Glenn Fine. In the letter Grassley asks for information regarding the "loose accounting" of the Office of Net Assessment (ONA) and, in particular, the dates and amounts of money paid by ONA to Stefan Halper for alleged "reports" Halper was providing to ONA. So, Lokhova writes:

Halper gets first Spygate contract from DoD in Sept 2015, draws expenses in Dec 2015, incl. trip to London. He is claiming he’s going to speak with “former Russian intelligence officers”, likely to manufacture lies about Flynn who previously cooperated with Ru intel under Obama/2

That's very interesting, in that it demonstrates that Halper was being targeted against Trump associates as early as September, 2015. Lokhova is probably correct in assuming that Flynn was the target at this point. By September, 2015, there was almost certainly a CI investigation already open on Flynn, but note: 1) Trump would not have been warned about this--whereas Clinton would have been warned in similar circumstances; 2) the predication for the investigation would have been bogus (nonsense like Flynn attending the RT dinner, etc.); 3) while this was probably part of the Intelligence Community's (and especially John Brennan's) jihad against Flynn, the notion of pursuing someone associated with a presidential campaign in this baseless way should give any reasonable person pause.

But the really interesting question is, who exactly were these "former Russian intelligence officers" that Halper was going to speak with? Cambridge can't be crawling with high level former Russian IOs. One suspects there was only one who would ever be named, and that would be Vyacheslav Trubnikov. Trubnikov co-taught a seminar with Halper and later shows up in Steele's dossier. But Trubnikov is really just a name. Naming him doesn't necessarily even mean that Trubnikov knew how he was being used, nor that Halper ever discussed his real business with Trubnikov.

Lokhova is understandably focused on Halper's Flynn-related smears against her, but she does also raise some fascinating points with regard to Carter Page's role in the Steele dossier. In the past I've pointed out how Page doesn't appear to have generated a huge amount of interest from the Deep State--until he flew to Moscow in mid July, 2016, to deliver a commencement address (was that a setup?). Halper and Page were long time acquaintances. On his return from Moscow Page traveled through the UK, where he met with Halper. Presto! Within days, Steele is suddenly all over Page as the connection between the Trump campaign and "the Russians," and the WSJ contacts Page about his supposed contacts in Moscow with Putin allies. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to suspect that it's Halper feeding both streams of reporting--overt and covert. Moreover, in a WaPo article by Deep State operative/reporter David Ignatius (of Flynn leak fame) the former head of MI6, Richard Dearlove, praises both Steele and Halper, seeming to associate them.

Regarding all this Lokhova makes two observations:

UPDATED: Bongino: Was Stefan Halper Part Of The Steele "Dossier" Team?

Dan Bongino, last Friday, put out a story on his show that has serious support. It's based on information that is now largely public source--he says he heard it before, but now that it's out there he can talk about it openly. Elizabeth Vaughan at Red State has an excellent summary of what Bongino and others (Stephen McIntyre, Sara Carter, ...) have been talking about--Dan Bongino Deconstructs Latest NY Times Attempt to Sterilize IG Report and Makes a Stunning Connection.

The basic idea is simple enough. We'll take it one step at a time.

Stefan Halper is a CIA operative, paid at least in part through money he gets for doing "research" for the Office of Net Assessment (ONA). He flits (if that describes the movements of someone as fat as Halper) back and forth between Cambridge University and the US--conducting intelligence related seminars as an "academic" and doing "research" for ONA. In that capacity he's known to have contacts with Russian emigres in England.

Christopher Steele is reported in the new Glenn Simpson/Peter Fritsch book--Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump--to have received information that found its way into Steele's "dossier" on Trump from 2nd and 3rd hand "sources." That of itself isn't news. I recently raised again the point that the FBI, back in January, 2017, knew that the Steele dossier was bogus because they had interviewed some of Steele's sources, and the different accounts they received didn't hang together. With that in mind, Vaughan calls our attention to Bruce Ohr's testimony:

Of Whistleblowers And The Office Of Net Assessment

During the past month I've twice written about DoD's Office of Net Assessment (ONA). These mentions have been in the overall context of the Michael Flynn aspect of the Russia Hoax. It's long been known that Stefan Halper, the CIA/FBI operative who was used to smear Michael Flynn as a Russian agent with false accusations that Flynn had had an affair with a Russian emigre professor in England, has had a relationship with ONA. Those who follow intel matters have also had ONA on their radar for a number of years. What really shook things loose was the bombshell that Sidney Powell, Flynn's attorney, set off in one of her recent filings, which I quoted in Can't Recommend Highly Enough:

Stefan Halper is a known long-time operative for the CIA/FBI. He was paid exorbitant sums by the FBI/CIA/DOD through the Department of Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment in 2016. His tasks seem to have included slandering Mr. Flynn with accusations of having an affair with a young professor (a British national of Russian descent) Flynn met at an official dinner at Cambridge University when he was head of DIA in 2014. Flynn has requested the records of Col. James Baker because he was Halper’s ‘handler’ in the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon, and ONA Director Baker regularly lunched with Washington Post Reporter David Ignatius. Baker is believed to be the person who illegally leaked the transcript of Mr. Flynn’s calls to Ignatius. The defense has requested the phone records of James Clapper to confirm his contacts with Washington Post reporter Ignatius—especially on January 10, 2017, when Clapper told Ignatius in words to the effect of ‘take the kill shot on Flynn.’ It cannot escape mention that the press has long had transcripts of the Kislyak calls that the government has denied to the defense.

The Col. James Baker in question here is James H. Baker--not the James A. Baker who was General Counsel for the FBI under disgraced former FBI Director James Comey. In the linked blog I provide a link to an article by Margot Cleveland that provides all the detail you could desire regarding the whole sordid plot to smear and frame both Flynn and the Russian professor--Svetlana Lokhova. You've no doubt read about it, but Cleveland's article is a handy reference. I concluded my blog:

So, David Ignatius at WaPo has been completely exposed [by Sidney Powell] as a Deep State operative. Next question: Who are the other journos who will be exposed? We need to know all of that.

ADDENDUM: Nothing could be more clear at this point than this: The Russia Hoax never could have happened without massive, near total, complicity on the part of the MSM with the Deep State of federal Intel-related agencies. NYT, WaPo, CNN, DoS, CIA, FBI, DoJ, NSC--that's a beginning of your Russia Hoax alphabet soup. And of course we can now add in SSCI and assorted other Congressional actors as well as the top levels of the military--especially including McMaster.

Hatchet job? Barr needs a chain saw.

More recently in Looks Like Durham's Doing A Deep Dive On The Deep State I looked at reports that John Durham's interest in Stefan Halper has apparently led him to target ONA:

OIG's Interlocking Reports

Brian Cates at Epoch Times has a simply outstanding article out that examines the OIG's very recent (11/19/19) report on the FBI's management of its Confidential Human Source program. Cates' article is titled Why DOJ Inspector General Horowitz Had to Produce Two Reports, which gives a clear indication of where he's going: the relationship between the CHS report and the forthcoming FISA report--due out 12/9/19. Before we get into that, lets review a few background matters, which will help guide our way forward.

First, commenter Forbes recently referred to the forthcoming OIG FISA report as "more an audit than an investigation." I demurred--to an extent, adding that Forbes was on to something. That something is that OIG investigations are often confused with criminal investigations by prosecutors--which they are not. So, for reference, here is how OIG describes its work:

The OIG has jurisdiction to review the programs and personnel of the FBI, ATF, BOP, DEA, USAO, USMS, and all other organizations within the Department, as well as contractors of the Department and organizations receiving grant money from the Department. The OIG fulfills this mission, in part, through auditing and inspecting Department programs and issuing reports of its findings. Below please find the OIG’s audits, evaluations, inspections, and reviews.

I won't get into the distinctions, but rest assured they are real. However, to provide two very relevant examples, the CHS report is classed as an audit: Audit of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s Management of its Confidential Human Source Validation Processes. In this case, OIG audited the FBI for compliance with applicable guidelines. Here are the findings of that audit, short and not so sweet:

We found that the FBI's vetting process for CHSs,
known as validation, did not comply with the Attorney
General Guidelines. We also found deficiencies in the
FBl's long-term CHS validation reports which are relied
upon by FBI and Department of Justice (Department or
DOJ) officials in determining the continued use of a
CHS. Further, the FBI inadequately staffed and trained
personnel conducting long-term validations and lacked
an automated process to monitor its long-term CHSs.

Ouch.

Looks Like Durham's Doing A Deep Dive On The Deep State

Sara Carter is reporting this afternoon that Barr's Russia Hoax prosecutor of choice, John Durham is questioning personnel at the Office of Net Assessment about Stefan Halper (Carter misspells Halper's first name). The ONA is about as Deep State as it comes. Here's Wikipedia's description:

The United States Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment (ONA) was created in 1973 by Richard Nixon to serve as the Pentagon's "internal think tank" that "looks 20 to 30 years into the military's future, often with the assistance of outside contractors, and produces reports on the results of its research". The Director of Net Assessment is the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on net assessment.

Apparently ONA was used to launder payments to high level, or supposedly high level, CIA operatives. Like Stefan Halper, who was paid over a million dollars by the Obama administration through ONA for doing only God knows what.

This could signal a major expansion of Durham's investigation, as Carter suggests: Durham Probe Expands to Pentagon Office That Contracted FBI Spy Stephan Halper, although "FBI spy" is probably not the most accurate characterization. I suspect Halper was more or less on loan to the FBI. Here's what Carter's sources have told her:

Justice Department prosecutor U.S. Attorney John Durham is questioning personnel connected to the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, which awarded multiple contracts to FBI informant Stephan Halper. Halper, who was informing the bureau on Trump campaign advisors, is a central figure in the FBI’s original investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, SaraACarter.com has learned.

These latest developments reveal the expansive nature of what is now a Justice Department criminal probe into the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign. ... 

Multiple sources confirmed to this news site that Durham has spoken extensively with sources working in the Office of Net Assessment, as well as outside contractors, that were paid through Pentagon office. 

Senator Chuck Grassley is also in on the action. Grassley now heads the Senate Finance Committee, which has learned that--get ready for this--ONA kept sloppy records about their payments. As if a money laundering operation for CIA sources would keep in depth and accurate records! That would violate deniability, which is a far higher bureaucratic principle than the Constitutional principle of Legislative oversight. Carter reports:

Can't Recommend Highly Enough

Read Margot Cleveland at The Federalist this morning:

SCOOP: CIA, FBI Informant Was Washington Post Source For Russiagate Smears

These close connections between the Washington Post’s David Ignatius and people connected to U.S. and U.K. intelligence raise grave concerns about the deep state using media to push propaganda.

The sub-title tells the overall story. More specifically, it's all about the John Brennan's plot to frame Michael Flynn by falsely accusing him of having an affair with a supposed Russian "honeypot," Svetlana Lokhova, in Cambridge. Stefan Halper and Christopher Andrew--so-called "academics" but really professional informants and intel operatives--figure in bigly, as you'll know from Lee Smith's book and previous reporting.

Cleveland provides one of the key paragraph's from Sidney Powell's most recent filing (she's due with another later today) in nicely formatted form:

Stefan Halper is a known long-time operative for the CIA/FBI. He was paid exorbitant sums by the FBI/CIA/DOD through the Department of Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment in 2016. His tasks seem to have included slandering Mr. Flynn with accusations of having an affair with a young professor (a British national of Russian descent) Flynn met at an official dinner at Cambridge University when he was head of DIA in 2014. Flynn has requested the records of Col. James Baker because he was Halper’s ‘handler’ in the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon, and ONA Director Baker regularly lunched with Washington Post Reporter David Ignatius. Baker is believed to be the person who illegally leaked the transcript of Mr. Flynn’s calls to Ignatius. The defense has requested the phone records of James Clapper to confirm his contacts with Washington Post reporter Ignatius—especially on January 10, 2017, when Clapper told Ignatius in words to the effect of ‘take the kill shot on Flynn.’ It cannot escape mention that the press has long had transcripts of the Kislyak calls that the government has denied to the defense.

There's a lot of detail. Cleveland does a great job portraying all the perps as the complete shits that they are.

Gosh, no wonder Barr wants to do a 'hatchet job' on these disgusting excuses for human beings. I suspect if Barr has his way Halper will get what he deserves--good and hard.

So, David Ignatius at WaPo has been completely exposed as a Deep State operative. Next question: Who are the other journos who will be exposed? We need to know all of that.

ADDENDUM: Nothing could be more clear at this point than this: The Russia Hoax never could have happened without massive, near total, complicity on the part of the MSM with the Deep State of federal Intel-related agencies. NYT, WaPo, CNN, DoS, CIA, FBI, DoJ, NSC--that's a beginning of your Russia Hoax alphabet soup. And of course we can now add in SSCI and assorted other Congressional actors as well as the top levels of the military--especially including McMaster.

Hatchet job? Barr needs a chain saw.

Michael Flynn, Turkey, And His Serious Judgment Issues

Commenter Mike Sylwester points out an article by J. E. Dyer that appeared just yesterday: Serious question about a Flynn set-up, after Thursday’s Flynn/Manafort two-fer in the collapsing Spygate edifice. I had read the article yesterday and was turning it over in my mind. I'm sure it's been noticed that I'm not totally sympathetic toward Michael Flynn. Dyer's article may serve as a vehicle for explaining my attitude.

The relevant section of the long article--for our purposes--is the last section: "An unexplored aspect of a Flynn set-up". Dyer admits that the thesis she presents is still in its developmental stages, but she wanted to get it out because of the rapidly evolving status of the Mueller case against Flynn.

You can read the whole thing for the details. Basically, Dyer draws attention to Flynn's contract with a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, for the purpose of "repairing Turkey’s image in the United States." Of course you're asking, Ekim Who? Should I know this guy? The answer is, If you're Michael Flynn, former head of DIA, yes, you should either know who he is or find out who he is, PDQ:

... he’s a Dutch citizen of Turkish origin with an array of connections that include Stefan Halper, Joseph Mifsud, George Soros, and senior U.S. officials ...

Dyer points out that Flynn's company, Flynn Intel Group, entered into this contract, perhaps not so coincidentally, in August, 2016--just as the race to election day was getting under way in earnest. Flynn had been in the running for the Vice Presidential nomination and had played a very prominent role at the Republican convention. He continued as a foreign policy adviser. What Dyer finds odd about this is simply this: Why hire the Flynn Intel Group for this job of "repairing Turkey's image in the US?"

What's The Bigger Picture On "Azra Turk"?

Sorry, this may be a bit disjointed--there are a lot of moving pieces.

In my first post regarding the FBI's revelation (through the NYT) that - Oh, did we mention that we actually did spy on the Trump campaign, just like Bill Barr said? - I briefly made two points: 

The first point was the importance of the date that the two FBI assets--the "flirty" Azra Turk (possibly an undercover agent - UCA), posing as Stefan Halper's assistant, and Halper himself--made contact with George Papadopoulos in London: September, 2016. The date is important because it means this contact was putatively legal, pursuant to an open and authorized Full Investigation: Crossfire Hurricane, opened on July 31, 2016. Of course, we know that Halper was making approaches to Trump campaign associates months before that, but I confidently expect that that will be covered by the revelation of a Preliminary Investigation of some sort. You can see from this why Barr keeps mentioning the "predication" for these "investigations." It's key.

The second point I made was that the most important purpose of this leak is probably to give the appearance that FBI targeting of the Trump campaign didn't really begin until they had open investigations going. This is probably another in a long line of falsehoods, and it's what I want to explore a bit more.

When did the FBI begin targeting Trump?

First Take On Azra Turk

So the interwebs are ablaze with the news that the FBI is admitting, via the NYT, that they sent either an agent or an asset of some sort to pose as Stefan Halper's female assistant in London, while meeting with George Papadopoulos. The woman went under the name Azra Turk and the meeting took place in September, 2016.

What's going on here? Sure looks like damage control, right? Several things may be involved.

For starters, the date is very important. September, 2016, places this meeting after the official opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the Full Enterprise Counterintelligence Investigation into "four Americans" in the Trump campaign. Crossfire Hurrican was opened on July 31, 2016. Therefore, targeting Papadopoulos with the "flirty" Azra Turk in September makes it legal, since there was an open investigation. That's very much the focus of the article.

There also appears to be a diversion angle at work. The NYT article places the focus on Azra Turk rather than Halper. It seems the FBI wants us to forget about Halper and his interactions with Papadopoulos and Carter Page before the Crossfire Hurricane opening. Presumably, there will be an explanation forthcoming for that interaction--such as, that there was a preliminary investigation going on, or that Halper met Page and Papadopoulos on his own or as part of something else that was happening in London. Again, they want us to focus on what happened after the Crossfire Hurricane opening, not on anything before. And the reason may be that reports say IG Horowitz is really focusing hard on Halper.

The goal of this leak, ultimately, appears to divert attention to just how far back the inception of the Russian Hoax goes. As we've seen, the appearances are that it may have started as early as a few weeks after Trump declared his candidacy in summer, 2015. The Lisa Page/Strzok texts also strongly indicate a very early beginning--a targeting of Trump campaign aides virtually as soon as they came on board with the campaign.

One wonders what AG Barr thinks of this leak. Has he spoken to the esteemed Chris Wray about it?

In any event, the hope has to be that other news organizations will forget the collusion narrative and start competing for scoops.

James Baker: Light On Informants And The "Russia" Investigation

It has long been known that the FBI used informants or assets ("confidential human sources" in bureaucratese) in attempts to "lure" persons associated with the Trump campaign into incriminating statements. These "lures" took place both in the United States and abroad (OCONUS, Outside the Continental US). Interestingly, we know from the text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that the FBI was seeking approval for the use of the "OCONUS lures" already in late 2015, well before Trump had won the GOP nomination and also before Carter Page and George Papadopoulos had joined the Trump campaign. Nevertheless, as soon as Page and Papadopoulos joined the campaign in late March or April, 2016, the FBI swung into action with their informants to target these two. All this is now well known, and it seems notable that the FBI's interest was already focused on Republicans rather than Democrats with ties to Russia and Ukraine.

This knowledge takes on greater importance going forward when we examine the new information to be gleaned from a NYT article yesterdays (h/t/ CTH), in which we learn, all the way at the end, that IG Michael Horowitz has launched an investigation into one of those FBI informants, Stefan Halper:

Is The Deep State Feeling The Heat?

Bad as it may have been, the worst of the Russia Hoax was not the abuse of the FISA electronic surveillance regime for political purposes. Nor is the worst even the patent involvement of our intelligence agencies--and in particular the FBI and CIA--in electoral politics. No, the worst aspect of the Russia Hoax is that our intelligence agencies, including elements of DoJ and the State Department cooperating with the Clinton campaign, enlisted the intelligence services of foreign powers--first in their effort to defeat the candidacy of Donald Trump and, when that effort failed, turning their efforts to what can only be described as an attempted coup against the elected President of the United States. Shockingly, these later stages of the Russia Hoax have included members of the Legislative Branch who, in the face of clear evidence that the true collusion with foreign powers was that of the Clinton campaign, have worked to delay and to ultimately obstruct Congressional oversight and investigation of the entire Russia Hoax. So reckless was this conspiracy that the players have not hesitated to cynically stir up public hysteria against Russia, a foreign power which, while often hostile to US interests, had no role in colluding with the Trump campaign.

Shortly before the Midterm elections, in the face of determined stonewalling of Congressional oversight by DoJ and the FBI, the President played what has always been his trump (!) card--he ordered the declassification of most of the documents that are central to the Russia Hoax. Led by DAG Rosenstein, the forces of the Deep State were able to delay the release of the documents, but President Trump made it clear that he favors declassification--and sooner, rather than later. Two weeks later, an uneasy stalemate persists. DoJ and Team Mueller have claimed that release of the documents would constitute "obstruction"--a patently bogus claim, but Trump has extracted the resignation of Jeff Sessions and his replacement with Matthew Whitaker as the Acting AG, who also replaces Rosenstein as the supervisor of Team Mueller. The anti-Trump forces are currently attempting to stymie Trump's latest move with attacks on the Whitaker appointment, while declassification hangs fire. And Democrats, newly empowered by their capture of the House, are threatening to tie Trump up with investigations of his finances, on the pretext of the Russia Hoax.

Nevertheless, there is maneuvering going on behind the scenes, and evidence that the Deep State forces of both the US and the UK are feeling Trump's pressure. The Daily Telegraph, in a surprisingly little remarked upon article, informed the world that MI6 is battling Donald Trump to stop him from releasing documents linked to the "Russia probe".

The article itself is an interesting mix of special pleading and disinformation, clearly reflecting the views and interests of the British Deep State. For starters, it's long been clear that the "Russia probe" is really the "Trump probe"--any purported focus on Russia amounts to no more than the hope that, if enough mud (Russia Hoax material) is thrown at the wall (Trump), some of it may stick. For the rest, the article coyly offers a glimpse of what we all know to be true--the British were deeply involved in the Russia Hoax almost from the start--while attempting to maintain deniability with transparent euphemisms. For example, we read that