FBI told the OIG it was snooping on Page and Papadopoulos because of their contacts with #Russia. (Thread 👇) theepochtimes.com/fbi-targeted-t…
The informant has been identified by @EpochTimes and others as Cambridge professor #StephanHalper.
#IGHorowitz made the revelations in a Dec. 9 report on his review of a #FISA warrant taken out by the FBI against Page and other aspects of the related FBI investigation.
As opposed to criminal investigations, counterintelligence investigations don’t require any allegation of a crime.
The #FISA warrant on Page was obtained in Oct 2016, was renewed 3 times, and lasted well into 2017.
@FBI ditched him in 2011 for “aggressiveness toward handling agents as a result of what [Halper] perceived as not enough compensation” and “questionable allegiance to the [intelligence] targets.”
His new handler, who later joined the #CrossfireHurricane team, called Halper “mercurial” but said he was kicked out because the previous handler was “not the right match” for Halper.
The agent said it was a coincidence that Halper happened to have met with Page…
“The Crossfire Hurricane team ‘couldn’t believe [their] luck’ that Source 2 had contacts with three of their four subjects,” the agent said.
Halper talked to both multiple times.
But the denials were excluded from the @CarterWPage #FISA warrant.
Another two informants were supposed to talk to Papadopoulos too, but “those attempted contacts did not lead to any operational activity,” the OIG report says.
They were only given unclassified “counterintelligence awareness” briefings.
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