Once-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find "Anyone in the Trump campaign" with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt "Damaging to Hillary Clinton." The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper - codenamed "Mitch" - provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election.
Among the revelations, the memos make clear that: Almost immediately after the FBI opened a Russia collusion probe on July 31, 2016 narrowly focused on the foreign lobbying of a single Trump campaign aide named George Papadopoulos, agents pressed Halper for information on more than a half dozen other figures, including future Attorney General Jeff Sessions, foreign policy adviser Sam Clovis, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, economic adviser Peter Navarro, future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign adviser Carter Page.
The Halper documents reveal a large, unfocused FBI search with little substantiation of alleged wrongdoing, and significant evidence that undermined the core allegations, experts told Just the News.
The informant documents chronicle the efforts by the FBI to direct Halper as a confidential human source from August 2016 through early 2017.
The memos show that the FBI instructed Halper in August 2016 not to focus on Papadopoulos first, but rather on Page, whom the FBI described as an "opportune target.
The memos showed Halper followed FBI instruction and helped the FBI make recordings that clearly captured Page - unaware he was talking to an FBI informant - denying the key allegations against him.
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.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Once-secret FBI informant reports reveal wider-ranging operation to spy on Trump campaign
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