There’s an interesting lawsuit playing out involving a woman named Svetlana Lokhova and Steven Halper.

Halper was one of the “informants” that the FBI ran against Trump campaign associates, including Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, and Sam Clovis. In fact, it was Halper who invited George Papadopoulos to London in the first place, where he would then ask Papadopoulos if he knew “about the hacking the emails from Russia.” This would be what Papadopoulos repeated to an Australian diplomat, helping to form the shaky genesis of the Trump-Russia investigation (further pushed by the Steele Dossier).

If it sounds like the FBI purposely lied to someone in order to later use it as an excuse to investigate the Trump campaign, that’s probably because that is what appears to have happened. The investigation into all this is ongoing under the leadership of current AG Bill Barr and John Durham.

In regards to Lokhova, she is suing Halper for defamation over his alleged planting of false stories in the media accusing her of having an affair with Gen. Michael Flynn and working for the Russian government. These contacts were said to have happened in 2014 and made media reports after Flynn became part of the Trump team. Lokhova claims there was no affair at all and that such claims of her being a Russian agent turned her into a pariah. In reality, she’s simply a British citizen and there’s been no evidence offered to the contrary.

Now, Halper is asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed, not because he’s admitting to being a government agent, but because if he were one, he’d supposedly have immunity.

Stefan Halper has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by @RealSLokhova

Halper asserts that if he was an FBI asset (though he does not admit this), he is subject to immunity as a government agent.

Full memo here:https://t.co/GlOtsjNU9h pic.twitter.com/c62A8lwwod

— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) August 13, 2019

This is wanting to have it both ways. You don’t get to have a lawsuit dismissed by claiming immunity if you won’t actually admit that you possess such immunity. In reality, we all know Halper is/was a government agent because we can find him under contract with the FBI and CIA through various government queries. Those contracts weren’t for him to paint James Comey’s private bathroom. We also know his behavior in regards to targeting Trump associates was not of his own doing. In hindsight, none of his approaches made any sense. Why would anyone want Carter Page to write an academic paper? And why would a nobody like Papadopoulos be offered expenses and payment to attend a security conference?

Regardless, it has not been officially confirmed who he was working for. Asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit without an admission that proves his immunity is laughable. Furthermore, that still wouldn’t settle anything, as immunity is not blanket. Was he on an operation when he targeted Flynn and Lokhova? Who was behind it? Was it within legal bounds (i.e. was the CIA targeting Flynn)?

These are all questions that need to be answered and Halper certainly shouldn’t be allowed to skirt liability via unproven claims of immunity. He clearly wants to avoid any real discovery here and if the judge entertains this nonsense, it will just give a further green light for un-elected bureaucrats in the intelligence community to run wild.

I’ve got a new twitter! Please help by following @bonchieredstate.