‘Spygate’ figure Stefan Halper wanted to be Trump’s secretary of state, recording suggests

A newly released audio recording of Cambridge professor Stefan Halper revealed that the “Spygate” figure harbored ambitions of being President Trump’s secretary of state even after serving as an FBI informant against Trump’s campaign.

The revelation was made by former State Department official Steven Schrage on Sunday, who shared a recorded conversation he claims was between himself and Halper on Jan. 10, 2017, showing the FBI informant hoped to join the highest levels of the Trump administration after Trump’s surprise victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Schrage, who claims to have spoken with U.S. Attorney John Durham in his inquiry of the Russia investigation and who has broken his yearslong silence during back-to-back interviews with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News, also said Halper later told him that the professor had been offered the ambassadorship to the Philippines under Trump.

“But you have no desire to go back in, unless there’s something, there’s nothing that would appeal to

you?” Schrage said during the purported January 2017 discussion, which he told Bartiromo he was recording as part of his Ph.D. dissertation discussions with the Cambridge professor.

“They’ve already given it away," Halper said. "They’ve already given it away: secretary of state.”

Schrage then asked if that would be Halper’s “dream job.”

“Um, it be a good job to have. I’d enjoy it, yeah,” Halper said. “I would be happy with deputy [secretary of state], as well.”

A report on the FBI's Russia investigation released by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in December said the bureau concealed significant information provided by Halper, a confidential human source who was dubbed "Source 2." Halper, 75, a Virginia resident and Cambridge professor, worked as an FBI informant in 2016 and recorded discussions with at least three Trump 2016 campaign members: campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, campaign associate Carter Page, and campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis. While Halper worked for the FBI, he received thousands of dollars from the Pentagon ostensibly for academic research.

When Halper’s role as an FBI informant was leaked to the media in May 2018, it led to accusations from Trump and Republicans that the Obama administration used Halper as part of an illegal effort to spy on the Trump campaign, dubbed “Spygate” and later “Obamagate” by allies of the president. The recorded...

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