The shadowy academic who helped the FBI ensnare Trump operatives in its ill-fated “Crossfire Hurricane” operation appears to be still eligible for federal contracts despite a watchdog’s finding that he pocketed over $1 million with little or no accountability, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Stefan Halper, who wore a wire to gather information from Carter Page and George Papadopoulos that led to FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, has been paid by the Pentagon’s secretive Office of Net Assessment for dubious work. A 2019 Department of Defense inspector general review of the office uncovered a stunning lack of oversight for $1.05 million awarded in four contracts to Halper, and just last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley accused the ONA of being a “slush fund” for “political research projects.”
“Since 2019, I’ve repeatedly asked for a full accounting of Stefan Halper’s contracts,” the Iowa Republican said. “Either they never had one or they’ve decided to obstruct Congress.”
The ONA is supposed to produce an annual report on the capabilities of the U.S. military and its adversaries. But critics have long said it is used to fund an array of sketchy operations, and the lack of transparency only adds fuel to those claims. A new audit of the ONA, released on Jan. 25, blamed a lack of contract administration and oversight for the ONA “inappropriately approving invoices” totaling $9.8 million.
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Referring to Halper as “Professor Stefan Halper,” the latest report notes that the inspector general found “weaknesses” in ONA oversight in contracts awarded to Halper between May 30, 2012, and Sept. 26, 2016, totaling over $1 million. The report cites Halper’s “incomplete contracting files, limited procedures to ensure the contractor performed the work in accordance with the contract, and incomplete records for contractor travel.” More specifically, Halper lacked receipts for his travel, routinely inserted names of people as sources he did not interview, and falsified footnotes.
However, some names Halper cited as sources for his contract work were of people he met with, and they may raise eyebrows with anyone following the debunked Trump-Russia collusion story and the effort by Special Counsel John Durham to determine how it started. Russian intelligence officer Vyacheslav Trubnikov shows up in Halper’s reports and was also cited as one of Christopher Steele’s sources in the Hillary Clinton-funded and discredited dossier used to fan the collusion hoax.
Trubnikov and Halper co-authored a pro-Russia report for ONA titled “Dynamics of Russian and European engagement in the next 10-20 years.” Their close working relationship on the project likely provided Halper with access to highly sensitive information, a former high-ranking senior Department of Defense official familiar with Halper’s Pentagon contracts told the Washington Examiner.
“Halper committed the crime of contract fraud,” the former official said. “The only reason Halper is still allowed to operate is because he has blackmail material on DoD officials courtesy of the Russians via Trubnikov.
“There would be some very embarrassed people in the government if Halper spilled the beans, and Halper uses that to stay on the receiving end of U.S. taxpayer-funded DoD contracts,” the former official continued. “That’s Halper’s get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Trubnikov is a former head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, but likely still active, the former official said, adding that ONA Director James H. Baker and his deputy, Andrew May, would certainly know this.
“There are no former SVR officials,” the former official said. “They are all required to serve the Kremlin until death do they part.”
In June 2020, Grassley, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to Baker, demanding to know if Halper’s report using Trubnikov as a source could be “tainted with inaccurate or misleading information …”
“Possibly,” Baker replied, adding that Halper did not disclose any “relationship with Minister Trubnikov to any ONA official to the best of our knowledge.”
Now, as Durham drills down on the earliest origins of the dossier and its use in Crossfire Hurricane, the use of paid confidential human sources by the FBI is under particular scrutiny.
Halper was a confidential human source, or CHS, for the FBI assigned to a handler named Stephen Somma during the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. He worked both sides of the Atlantic, attending academic seminars, wearing a wire to ensnare Page, Papadopoulos, and other supporters of the Trump campaign cited in the findings of the Department of Justice’s inspector general report on FISA abuse.
Despite his shoddy compliance record and involvement with a troubled FBI operation, Halper is not listed on the System for Award Management, which specifically lists exclusion records for individuals or entities barred from doing business with the U.S. government.
The SAM.GOV website specifically notes that exclusion or suspension is imposed when necessary to protect the taxpayer from fraud. Suspensions can be immediate, and debarment is usually for three years.
“If your entity or any of its principals are subject to an active exclusion, it means your entity is currently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, or declared ineligible for the award of contracts by any federal agency,” it states.
Sean Bigley, an attorney who specializes in national security, said Halper’s absence from the database of excluded contractors would mean he could, “in theory,” still work for the government.
“I say ‘in theory’ because I suppose it is always possible he’s in some nonpublic database of which I’m unaware,” Bigley said. “But I think that’s highly unlikely, and it would seem to defeat the purpose of this website.”
A spokeswoman from the General Services Administration, which oversees SAM, confirmed that anyone not listed as excluded can apply to do business as a contractor.
In a search of the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System, Stefan Halper was listed with no exclusions as of Feb. 14.
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Kim Wheeler, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense’s inspector general, declined to clarify Halper’s status.
“We reviewed your questions and, as a matter of practice, would not comment on these matters,” Wheeler told the Washington Examiner.
The Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency also declined to answer questions about Halper’s eligibility for federal contracts.
Halper’s attorney, Robert Luskin, did not respond to questions.
