The spying scandal

The latest scandal to hit the DC swamp is how the CIA, FBI, and NSA teamed up on President Obama’s orders to place some spies in the Trump campaign. I watched an interview with two long-time members of the intelligence committee who affirmed that any time three intelligence organizations coordinate their efforts, it is ALWAYS at the direction of the president.

So Trump has now directed the Department of Justice to investigate this. If the charges are corroborated, it will be a scandal bigger than Watergate. At the center of the controversy is Stefan A. Halper, who was an experienced infiltrator in such cases, having done the same thing to the Jimmy Carter campaign in 1980. Back then he did it on behalf of the Republican Party that was being backed by the CIA. This time it was on behalf of the Democratic Party that was being backed by the CIA, FBI, and NSA.

On May 21, 2018 President Trump met with FBI director Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein from the Department of Justice, directing them to investigate this infiltration/spying information.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/donald-trump-rod-rosenstein-christopher-wray-meeting-justice-department-presidential-campaign/

Stefan Halper is not new to this type of spying activity. He was caught doing the same thing in 1980 when the CIA was trying to help the Reagan-Bush campaign by spying on the Carter campaign. Bush, of course, had been the director of the CIA in the 1970’s, and Reagan’s campaign manager was later appointed as director of the CIA (1981-1987).

The role of George Bush, Sr in the Halper scandal was probably quite considerable.

At any rate, Stefan Halper is again at the center of a similar scandal. The NY Times writes:

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/07/us/reagan-aides-describe-operation-to-gather-inside-data-on-carter.html

An operation to collect inside information on Carter Administration foreign policy was run in Ronald Reagan's campaign headquarters in the 1980 Presidential campaign, according to present and former Reagan Administration officials.

Those sources said they did not know exactly what information the operation produced or whether it was anything beyond the usual grab bag of rumors and published news reports. But they said it involved a number of retired Central Intelligence Agency officials and was highly secretive.

The sources identified Stefan A. Halper, a campaign aide involved in providing 24-hour news updates and policy ideas to the traveling Reagan party, as the person in charge. Mr. Halper, until recently deputy director of the State Department's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs and now chairman of the Palmer National Bank in Washington, was out of town today and could not be reached. But Ray S. Cline, his father-in-law, a former senior Central Intelligence official, rejected the account as a ''romantic fallacy.''

The Reagan campaign team used the term ''October surprise'' to refer to the possibility that President Carter might take some dramatic action with regard to the hostage situation in Iran or some other action to try to turn the tide of the election….

Mr. Casey, the Director of Central Intelligence, who was Mr. Reagan's campaign director, said in an interview Tuesday that such a surprise was of special concern to Reagan strategists….

Mr. Bush was Director of Central Intelligence under President Ford, and former Bush aides said today that many former C.I.A. officials had offered their help in the Bush campaign.

It appears that the job of draining the swamp is quite stinky. Expect more stink to rise as time goes on.