Senate Panel Subpoenas FBI Informant Stefan Halper

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) speaks in Washington on Sept. 16, 2020. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

A Senate committee chairman issued a subpoena this week to one of the spies the FBI used against Donald Trump’s campaign before the 2016 campaign.

Stefan Halper, 76, was told to appear at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on Oct. 20.

Halper was told he would be answering questions about or related to Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation of Trump’s campaign; an investigation into that investigation by the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General; and the unmasking of U.S. persons or entities affiliated, formally or informally, with the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team, or the Trump administration.

Halper faces penalties if he refuses to appear.

A copy of the subpoena, issued by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), was obtained and published by the Washington Examiner.

A spokesman for the committee didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Neither Halper nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.

Johnson’s committee last month authorized him to subpoena 40 people involved in Crossfire Hurricane.

Johnson and other Republicans have argued that the probe was rife with malfeasance, pointing to the reliance on an unsubstantial dossier that relied on Russians to make outlandish claims about Trump.

Former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page in New York on Aug. 21, 2020. Page was one of two Trump campaign advisers who were targeted by Stefan Halper. Brendon Fallon/The Epoch Times

Democrats opposed the subpoenas and say Republicans should focus on combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Halper, a former University of Cambridge professor, was one of four spies the FBI used to target Trump’s campaign.

Halper was dismissed as an asset in 2011 because of questionable allegiance to people he was spying on and aggressiveness towards FBI agents, according to a 2019 report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General.

He was later brought back and got close to Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser who was illegally spied on by the FBI, as well as George Papadopoulos, another aide.

Halper allegedly told the FBI a false story to smear Michael Flynn, who at the time was a Trump campaign adviser. According to a recently released audio clip, Halper suggested insider knowledge of Flynn’s impending downfall.

Halper has not spoken publicly about his spying activities. According to publicly available information, he has not been questioned by Congress or the inspector general about his spying.

Page told The Epoch Times that he sees a double standard in terms of the amount of information leaked about him and the lack of information that’s been disclosed about Halper.

“What’s particularly terrible about it—and again, I talk about this in some length in my book—it’s the dual standards of justice, right? Where, well, we don’t want to leak anything related to Professor Halper, right? His name is not even in the 480-page Inspector General report, right? But nonetheless, there’s all kinds of false information about me,” he said.

Petr Svab and Jan Jekielek contributed to this report.