Recently declassified FBI documents reveal that Stefan Halper, a confidential informant central to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, was paid over $1.1 million by the FBI over a 30-year period, despite internal findings that he provided inaccurate information, including a discredited account involving former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
The documents—nearly 700 pages in total—were declassified by order of President Donald Trump and delivered by FBI Director Kash Patel to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.
They offer the most detailed account to date of Halper’s involvement in the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016.
Halper, a former Pentagon consultant and academic, was identified as a key source for both the FBI and former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, whose involvement helped initiate the probe.
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According to the documents, Halper was the origin of a now-debunked allegation that Flynn left a 2014 dinner with Russian academic Svetlana Lokhova.
The FBI later determined the story was “not plausible” and “not accurate.”
Despite those findings, Halper continued to be used as a source.
A March 2017 memo from the FBI’s Validation Management Unit (VMU) stated: “VMU assesses it is likely HALPER is suitable for continued operation, based on his or her authenticity, reliability, and control.” That assessment omitted concerns about the false account related to Flynn.
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FBI records show Halper was paid $70,000 between August 2016 and February 2017 and received a total of $1,181,064.44 from 1991 through early 2017.
“NEWLY DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS SHOW INFORMANT STEFAN HALPER WAS MOTIVATED IN PART BY MONETARY COMPENSATION!” @damonroberts reports on the Russiagate documents. “The FBI paid their informant $1.2 million over three decades”@KDJRadioShow @lfs6b @slickricksports @rickdelgadorad pic.twitter.com/1SolOTb3Nb
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) April 11, 2025
Separate records show Halper also received more than $1 million from the Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment from 2012 to 2016.
That office was disbanded in March under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The FBI acknowledged Halper’s motivations included both “monetary compensation” and “patriotism/ideology.”
Though he was once closed as a source for violating instructions, he was reactivated in 2011 and eventually labeled an “integral part” of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
Halper was codenamed “Mitch” and provided information on two FBI initiatives, one of which involved Trump campaign associates and alleged ties to Russia.
Internal FBI memos indicate there was no corroboration for Halper’s claims, yet the bureau continued to fund and rely on him.
Halper’s claims about Flynn were used to justify opening a counterintelligence investigation into him in August 2016.
A separate January 2017 document showed that the FBI could not verify any derogatory information about Lokhova and received no corroboration from intelligence agencies for Halper’s story.
The records also show that Halper helped the FBI record conversations with Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, in which Page denied all major allegations against him.
These recordings were not shared with the FISA court before it approved surveillance of Page.
The declassification effort follows previous attempts by President Trump to release these documents at the end of his first term.
Those efforts were blocked at the time by Trump’s own Justice Department.
Special Counsel John Durham later concluded that the FBI did not have any actual evidence of collusion when it opened Crossfire Hurricane.
His report stated that the FBI failed to corroborate any allegations in the Steele dossier and ignored clear signs that the investigation was flawed from the start.
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