It's long been known that Stefan Halper served as a confidential human source (CHS) for the FBI. Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse, while not identifying Halper by name, added many details concerning his extensive role in spying on the Trump campaign: Halper secretly recorded several conversations with Trump campaign advisors Carter Page and George Papadopoulos and, more troublingly, the FBI tasked Halper to tape an extensive conversation with Sam Clovis-a co-chair of the Trump presidential campaign.

The long FBI probe into a purported Russia election collusion was absent of any direct conspiracy evidence against a Trump associate except for the discredited Democratic Party-financed dossier and its impresario, Fusion GPS. For the first time in an official report, there are explanations of why the FBI initially targeted four Trump advisers: retired Army Lt.