“I now know who the spy is. I know now know who the FBI was running in the Trump campaign. I don’t think I’m gonna give you the name of the spy, but I’m gonna tell you everything the spy has done” began a monologue from Rush Limbaugh earlier this week.
Limbaugh was referencing a bombshell Wall Street Journal report from Kimberly Strassel, which reported that the FBI had an inside source within the Trump campaign, and this was before they began working with the anti-Trump dossier author, former British spy Christopher Steele. All the details we have as for who the spy could be is that they have connections to the CIA, FBI, DOJ, and is the U.S. citizen, but also has connections to foreign intelligence.
Strassel did say she had a good idea who the “inside source” was, but couldn’t confirm it, so didn’t include it in her piece.
El Rushbo thinks he has an idea. According to his theory, it has to do with George Papadopoulos, who the New York Times credits with sparking the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Donald Trump (that has since been replaced by the Robert Mueller special counsel).
As you may remember, the story is that Papadopoulos drunkenly blabbed to an Australian diplomat about having Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails from the Russians (he didn’t), and then Downer reported him to the FBI.
The FBI never confirmed this account – and prior to this, the Times had reported that it was Carter Page which sparked the FBI’s interest in the Trump campaign. As it became clear the dossier used to justify spying on Page was partisan opposition research, the Times changed the narrative.
As Rush Limbaugh reminds us:
Before that happened (Papadapoulos drunken “confession” to an Australian diplomat), another operative had informed Papadopoulos that the Russians had Hillary Clinton emails. Papadopoulos did not independently know this. He was told this by a Russian spy or a person connected to the Russians whose name is Mifsud. Mifsud operates with the person thought to be the FBI’s informant on the Trump campaign and the Australia ambassador.
So some months before Papadopoulos was offered this research paper and speech by the informant, he was paid three grand for it and his plane ticket to Europe, sometime before that this Mifsud guy happened to see — Papadopoulos was set up and targeted. And he was told, “By the way, Russians have 3,000 or a bunch of Hillary emails, thousands of Hillary emails.” Papadopoulos keeps it close to the vest, doesn’t say anything about it, but thinks it’s really cool that somebody is letting him in on things.
In other words, Papadopoulos, reputedly the source and the reason, the second explanation for the investigation, only knew supposedly the Russians do have Hillary. We don’t even know that that’s true. But they planted that news with him to set him up. Folks, this is entrapment like you cannot believe.
While I agree with Rush’s theory that Papadopoulos was set up with Mifsud, who planted him with misinformation, Mifsud can’t be the “inside source,” because he doesn’t have U.S. citizenship.
A more likely candidate would be Stefan Halper. On September 13, 2016, Papadopoulos accepted a meeting with Stefan Halper, a man with known connections to the CIA and British intelligence. Halper is a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen. According to Papadopoulos, Halper said to him at the meeting “George, you know about hacking the emails from Russia, right?”
How could Halper have possibly known (the lie) that Papadopoulos had potential access to Hillary’s hacked emails, allegedly stolen by the Russians? The only person Papadopoulos ever repeated it to was Downer – and that was when he was intoxicated. Halper Halper had previously invited Carter Page to attend a July 2016 symposium, and requested (and was granted many) meetings with other Trump campaign members.
And that’s interesting – because in November 2016 he was quoted as stating that he believes that Hillary Clinton would be the best choice for President. Why was he meeting with members of the Trump campaign then, if not to gather intelligence?
Do you agree with Limbaugh’s theory? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
