This Week: ‘Spygate’ Sham Escalates, A Cohen Ally Cooperates With The Gov’t

The White House and conservative media went into overdrive this week with claims that the FBI planted spies in the Trump campaign. We now know there was an informant, Cambridge University professor Stefan Halper, working with the bureau, but there is no indication that he was “embedded” in the campaign as a “spy” for “political” purposes. Instead, Halper met several times with Trump aides known to be communicating with individuals linked to the Russian government, including Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, and passed the information on to U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump and his supporters are running with the more dramatic version of events, with the President even making an unprecedented “demand” that the Justice Department investigate the matter. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that an ongoing, related DOJ inspector general probe would be expanded in order to do so. Intelligence leaders also held a briefing with top congressional lawmakers and Trump attorney Emmet Flood regarding classified information Republicans have pushed…