by WorldTribune Staff, May 24, 2018
A Russian intelligence researcher at the University of Cambridge said FBI informant Stefan Halper made false allegations about her interactions with former national security adviser Michael Flynn which touched off widespread speculation about their relationship.
Svetlana Lokhova told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Halper was behind allegations made about her and Flynn during Flynn’s visit to Cambridge in 2014 for a Cambridge Intelligence Seminar (CIS) event. At the time, Flynn was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The New York Times noted, without identifying Halper by name, that the FBI informant “was alarmed” by Flynn’s “apparent closeness with a Russian woman who was also in attendance.” Halper’s complaints prompted a person close to him “to pass on a warning to the American authorities that Flynn could be compromised by Russian intelligence.”
Lokhova posted a link on Twitter to a March 18, 2017 article published by The Wall Street Journal which made the first allegations about her encounter with Flynn.
“The Journal story touched off widespread speculation about Flynn and Lokhova,” the Daily Caller noted. “Lokhova has said that she was widely accused of being a Russian agent and of attempting to trap Flynn in a ‘honey pot’ scheme.”
According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, Flynn’s interactions with Lokhova were reported to American authorities and Flynn should have notified the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) about his contacts with a Russian national.
The DIA’s liaison in London, Dan O’Brien, dismissed the idea that Flynn should have reported his contact with Lokhova. O’Brien, who attended the February 2014 dinner, said “nothing rose to the level” of requiring such a disclosure.
The Journal’s report noted that Flynn sat next to Lokhova at the CIS dinner. At one point, she showed Flynn an “erotic postcard” from 1912 of a young woman with Joseph Stalin. Flynn also mentioned hiring Lokhova as his translator for a trip to Russia he planned to make. He and Lokhova remained in email contact for a short time after the Cambridge event.
“There was no evidence presented that Flynn or Lokhova did anything wrong other than arouse suspicions from a dinner attendee now known to be Halper,” the Daily Caller noted.
Halper’s claim in December 2016 that Russians infiltrated CIS has also been called “absurd” by Christopher Andrew, the official historian for MI5 and head of CIS, the Financial Times reported.
Halper told the Financial Times that he was resigning from CIS because of “unacceptable Russian influence on the group.” The evidence of Russian penetration was scant, with news reports citing a nearly $2,700 contribution to CIS from a Russia-based company called Veruscript.
Halper made contact with Trump campaign advisers Carter Page, George Papadpoulos and Sam Clovis during the campaign allegedly to gather intelligence about their involvement with Russia.
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