Portly, Well-Paid Spy Who Infiltrated Trump Campaign Source Of WaPo Disinformation On Flynn: Report

A 74-year-old spy who made headlines last year for infiltrating the 2016 Trump campaign was the source of disinformation that made its way to the Washington Post‘s David Ignatius regarding former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to The Federalist.

Stefan Halper, who was paid over $1 million by the Obama administration – was enlisted by the FBI to befriend and spy on three members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election.

And according to a recent court filing by Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, Halper, the CIA, the FBI, and a Defense official used Russian-born academic Svetlana Lokhova to smear Flynn by feeding Ignatius information suggesting she was a Russian honeypot.

38-year-old Svetlana Lokhova met Flynn at the February 2014 Cambridge dinner organized by Sir Richard Dearlove – a former head of MI6 who was launching an organization called the Cambridge Security Initiative, according to the BBC. Also part of the organizing group was Halper.

“General Flynn was the guest of honor and he sat on one side of the table in the middle. I sat on the opposite side of the table to Flynn next to Richard Dearlove because I was the only woman at dinner, and it’s a British custom that the only woman gets to sit next to the host,” Lokhova told Fox News, who added that she has never been alone with Flynn. On the contrary, the unplanned encounter was professional and mildly productive. 

Ignatius, meanwhile, has somewhat of a reputation for being a favored media mouthpiece for the ‘deep state’.

When @IgnatiusPost speaks, Langley’s 7th floor lips are moving. Zero disrespect, just a fact.

They are taking traitor Trump out now.

— John Schindler (@20committee) January 13, 2017

Via The Federalist:

In last week’s court filing, Powell highlighted how the CIA, FBI, Halper, and possibly James Baker used the unnamed and unaware Lokhova and the complicit Ignatius to destroy Flynn. This James Baker is not the one who worked under James Comey at the FBI, but a James Baker in the Department of Defense Office of National Assessment.

Powell wrote:

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.

Lokhova has known of Halper’s role in targeting Flynn since Halper was outed as a CIA and FBI informant in May 2018. She then sued Halper and several media outlets for defamation after they falsely repeated Halper’s lies that she was a Russian spy engaged in an intrigue with Flynn.

***

Lokhova detailed the smear campaign in April, suing Halper and several media outlets for defamation. She also detailed what happened in a massive Twitter thread which you can read by clicking one of the tweets below:

They have ‘interesting’ friends and sources. (2) pic.twitter.com/u9BQX9z25D

— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

Meanwhile, read the rest of The Federalist‘s report here.