White House once touted FBI informant's support for Trump's trade agenda

Before President Donald Trump tagged him a "spy" who had "infiltrated" his campaign, Stefan Halper had a different relationship with the White House: helping advance Trump's trade agenda with China.

In recent weeks, Halper has found himself at the center of the media cycle after reports that the FBI used him as an informant to contact several members of the Trump campaign as part of its investigation into whether the campaign was coordinating with Russia on its election interference efforts.

Story Continued Below

But months before Halper’s name surfaced in the press, the White House was citing him to promote its agenda. In a White House press release from August 14, 2017, titled "Praise for President Donald J. Trump’s Memorandum on Chinese Trade Practices," Halper is a featured voice in support of Trump's call for an investigation of China's theft of intellectual property — a move critics worried would damage relations between the two nations.

Nestled between quotes from a scholar from the conservativeHudson Institute and former congressman Randy Forbes, Halper — identified as a professor from the University of Cambridge— issued a glowing assessment of Trump's decision.

The most reliable politics newsletter.

Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox.

Email

By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

"Since China joined the [World Trade Organization] in 2001, 2.4 million U.S. jobs have been lost and 60,000 U.S. manufacturing firms have been forced out of business. Entire regions of the country have been hollowed out," he said, according to the White House press release. "Intellectual property theft — 70% by China — now costs the U.S. some $600 billion a year. A thorough review of this problem, and a rebalancing of the trade relationship, is urgent. The Administration is to be commended for initiating that today.”

It's unclear how Halper, whose identity as an FBI informant was nine months from being revealed, came to be included among the academics and policy experts on the list. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

But his inclusion on the list came just two weeks after an email exchange with one of the Trump campaign officials he had reportedly contacted in his role as an informant: Carter Page.

Page recently tweeted that on July 28, 2017, Halper emailed to ask about his summer plans and to casually discuss the public narrative about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"It seems attention has shifted a bit from the 'collusion' investigation to the 'contretempts' [sic] within the White House and, how — or if — Mr. Scaramucci will be accommodated there," Halper wrote, in an email posted by Page to his Twitter account earlier this month.

Reporters keep asking me about my interactions with Prof. Halper.I found all our interactions to be cordial.Like this email I received about a year after I first met him.He never seemed suspicious.Just a few scholars exchanging ideas.He had interests in policy, and politics. pic.twitter.com/D5SKkvN2Bx

Though there’s been no evidence presented that Halper was part of any broad plot to monitor the Trump campaign for political purposes, Trump has described him as part of a spying campaign ordered by the Obama administration. House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy — one of a small group of lawmakers briefed on the classified operation — recently said the FBI’s actions were appropriate.