What The CIA & FBI Are Hiding

[Wake-up!]

By Thomas J. Baker*
The Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2018
*Mr. Baker is a retired FBI special agent and legal attaché.

Did the Central Intelligence Agency lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation down a rabbit hole in the counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign?

Although the FBI's case officially began July 31, 2016, there had been investigative activity before that date. John Brennan's CIA might have directed activity in Britain, which could be a problem because of longstanding agreements that the U.S. will not conduct intelligence operations there. It would explain why the FBI continues to stonewall Congress as to the inquiry's origin.

Further, what we know about the case's origin does not meet the threshold required by the attorney general guidelines for opening a counterintelligence case. That standard requires "predicate information," or "articulable facts."

From what has been made public, all that passes for predicate information in this matter originated in Britain. Stefan Halper, an American who ran the Centre of International Studies at Cambridge, had been a CIA source in the past. Recent press reports describe him as an FBI informant. Joseph Mifsud, another U.K.-based academic with ties to Western intelligence, met with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos on April 26, 2016. Mr. Mifsud reportedly mentioned "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Then, on May 10, Mr. Papadopoulos met with Australian Ambassador Alexander Downer in London, to whom he relayed the claim about "dirt" on Mrs. Clinton.

Peter Strzok, the FBI's deputy assistant director, went to London Aug. 2, 2016, two days after the case was opened, ostensibly to interview Mr. Downer about his conversation with Mr. Papadopoulos. But what about the earlier investigative activity? The FBI would not usually maintain an informant in England. It is far likelier that in the spring of 2016 Mr. Halper was providing information to British intelligence or directly to the CIA, where Mr. Brennan was already pushing the collusion narrative.

James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, has acknowledged that "intelligence agencies" were looking into the collusion allegations in spring 2016. The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported that British intelligence had been suspicious about contacts between associates of Mr. Trump's campaign and possible Russian agents. That prompted Robert Hannigan, then head of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, to pass information to Mr. Brennan. With only these suspicions, Mr. Brennan pressured the FBI into launching its counterintelligence probe.

The FBI lacked any real predicate. But in the post-9/11 world, a referral from the CIA would cause some in the FBI to believe they had to act—particularly as the agency's information originated with America's closest ally. Shortly after the case opened that summer, Mr. Brennan gave a briefing to then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, telling him that the CIA had referred the matter to the FBI—an obvious effort to pressure the bureau to get moving on the collusion case.

As the FBI's investigation progressed, it would use a surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a former member of Mr. Trump's campaign, who had been in contact with Mr. Halper. A dossier prepared for the Clinton campaign by Christopher Steele, formerly of Britain's MI6, was used to obtain the warrant.

The existence of the investigation was withheld from the congressional "gang of eight" because of its "sensitivity," former FBI Director James Comey later said. The FBI continues to withhold the full details of the origin story from Congress. Their rationale is the "protection of sources," as the origin lies with our best international partner.

Although Mr. Brennan has exposed himself as a biased actor, the CIA has escaped criticism for using only thinly sourced information from British intelligence to snooker the FBI. Most damaging is the possibility that the CIA violated agreements with Britain by spying there rather than asking MI5 or MI6 to do so. And that may be what is really being withheld from Congress.