Judicial Watch Sues Defense Department for Details of Contracts with Anti-Trump Spygate Figure Stefan Halper

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today announced it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense seeking information about the September 2016 contract between the Defense Department and Stefan Halper (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:18-cv-02125)).

Halper is the Cambridge University professor identified as a secret FBI informant used by the Obama administration to spy on the Trump’s presidential campaign. Halper also reportedly has high-level ties to both U.S. and British intelligence.

Government records show that the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), a small Defense Department unit known as the Pentagon’s think tank, paid Halper a total of $1,058,161 for four contracts that lasted from May 30, 2012, to March 29, 2018. More than $400,000 of the payments came between July 2016 and September 2017, after Halper reportedly offered Papadopoulos work and a trip to London to entice him into disclosing information about alleged collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.

The lawsuit was filed after the Defense Department failed to respond to Judicial Watch’s May 15, 2018, FOIA request seeking:

• All records related to the contract awarded by the Department of Defense Washington Headquarters Services Office to Stefan Halper on or about September 26,2016. For purposes of clarification, this award is identified by award ID number HQ003416P0148. This request includes, but is not limited to, the following:
• All records documenting the scope of the work to be completed pursuant to the contract.
• All reports, analysis, abstracts, summaries, or similar records produced pursuant to the contract.
• All related records of communication between any official, employee, or representative of the Department of Defense and Mr. Halper and/or any other individual or entity acting on his behalf.
• All records of communication between any official, employee, or representative of the Department of Defense and any official, employee, or representative of any other branch, department, agency, or office of the federal government regarding, concerning, or related to the award and/or any work product generated pursuant to the award.

This is the second recent Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit against the Defense Department relating to Halper. On August 15, 2018, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit on behalf of former Pentagon analyst and White House National Security Council (NSC) senior director Adam S. Lovinger seeking information about the revocation of Lovinger’s security clearance. Lovinger’s security clearance was pulled after he raised concerns regarding lucrative government contracts awarded to Halper as well as Long Term Strategy Group, a consulting firm owned by Chelsea Clinton’s friend Jacqueline Newmyer Deal (Adam S. Lovinger v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:18-cv-01914)).

“Americans want to know if the Defense Department was working with the corrupt FBI, DOJ and other Obama agencies to spy on Donald Trump,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Our new lawsuit against the Defense Department will help determine to what extent it was helping to finance any Spygate targeting of President Trump.”

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