A Russian-born British citizen claims in a lawsuit that FBI informant Stefan Halper “embroiled an innocent woman” — her — “in a conspiracy to undo the 2016 presidential election and topple the president of the United States of America.”
Halper, 75, a Cambridge professor and an FBI informant against Trump’s campaign, demanded the claims in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia filed in May by Svetlana Lokhova in a complaint that labels him a “spy” and “rat f—er” be dismissed and his accuser be sanctioned by the judge.
The Great Falls, Virginia, resident worked as an FBI informant in 2016 and had discussions with at least three Trump campaign members: foreign policy aides George Papadopoulos and Carter Page and Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis. The New York Times reported in April that the Justice Department inspector general was looking into his actions to see if he exceeded the scope of his assignment.
Halper and Lokhova know each other through Cambridge University and the Cambridge Intelligence Seminars, which involved gatherings of academics and intelligence officials and were put together by Halper and Sir Richard Dearlove, a former director of MI6 who spent decades with the British spy agency. Christopher Steele, hired by Fusion GPS through the Clinton campaign and the author of the unverified dossier used in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications to target Trump associates, was in MI6 from 1987 until 2009. Dearlove, who left in 2004, called Steele the “go-to person on Russia in the commercial sector” and said his reputation is “superb.”
One 2014 seminar was attended by then-President Barack Obama’s Defense Intelligence Agency Director Mike Flynn, who played a prominent role in Donald Trump’s campaign and was swept up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Lokhova attended as a graduate student and claims Halper used this dinner as a pretext spread rumors to professors and reporters about her.
Lokhova claimed Halper was paid $500,000 by the U.S. government to carry out a variety of actions, including harming her academic career, and asked the court for damages totaling $25.4 million from Halper as well as from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and MSNBC, whom she claimed published Halper’s alleged lies she was a “Russian spy” and “traitor” and had an affair with Flynn following their interaction at the 2014 dinner.
Halper responded in August that Lokhova’s accusations were “spurious,” saying she was trying to use the court to grift people through an online crowdfunding effort. He noted the articles cited in her complaint did not allege a Flynn affair or that she was a Russian spy or traitor. He referred to her accusations about a coup against Trump as “implausible conspiracy theories.” He called the lawsuit against him “meritless and profane” and “bad faith litigation,” so he asked the court to dismiss the case and to impose sanctions against Lokhova as punishment.
Though Halper denied colluding with the FBI to overthrow Trump, he neither confirmed nor denied being a bureau informant. He argued in his motion to dismiss the case that if he was a paid informant for the government or was working as a government contractor, he was immune from a lawsuit like hers.
Halper and Dearlove stepped down from the seminars in 2016 amid reports Russian operatives were attempting to compromise the organization. Halper said he left because of “unacceptable Russian influence on the group.” Today, Dearlove is listed as the chairman and Halper is listed as a partner at the Cambridge Security Initiative, which “provides a unique link between the worlds of business, government, and academia with unrivaled expertise in security and intelligence issues.”
When Halper’s role as an FBI informant was leaked to the media in May 2018, it led to accusations from Trump and Republicans in Congress that the Obama administration used Halper as part of an illegal effort to spy on the Trump campaign, dubbed “Spygate” by allies of the president.
A Defense Department audit earlier this year revealed more than $1 million in contracts awarded to Halper between 2012 and 2018, with the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment unable to provide “sufficient” documentation of whether Halper was doing the research work he’d been hired to do. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is continuing to push for answers.
