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. 

UPDATED: Stephen Somma, The Carter Page FISA, And The NYO

NYO stands for New York Office--that's how we referred to the New York Field Division of the FBI when I worked there. Recent revelations are showing us a lot more about the interaction between the NYO and FBIHQ in the Crossfire Hurricane Russia Hoax. Those revelations center around Stephen A. Somma, aka "Case Agent 1" in the Horowitz Dossier.

Commenter Mike Sylwester pointed me to this article by Chuck Ross--FBI Agent Faulted In FISA Report For ‘Significant’ Errors Has Finally Been Identified--which works off a NYT article. The FBI agent is, of course, Stephen Somma. The NYT article appears to be attempting to push blame for the fraudulent Carter Page FISA applications on to Somma, rather than operatives at FBIHQ. This is done partly by equating what Somma did with those applications--omitting key exculpatory information about Page, for example--with the actions of the FBI in its hunt for the mole that later turned out to be FBI agent Robert Hanssen. In the Hanssen case, the FBI--convinced that one of their own couldn't possibly be a spy--focused on innocent CIA officer Brian Kelly and ignored all evidence that point toward Hanssen. In fairness to the NYT, their narrative receives significant report from the wording of the Horowitz Dossier with regard to Somma--who was also the case agent for Stefan Halper.

Chuck Ross provides a convenient summary of Somma's actions, as revealed in the Horowitz Dossier: