In a decisive move, President Donald Trump has disbanded a relatively obscure Pentagon office, known to have paid in excess of $1 million to an FBI informant who infiltrated his campaign during the 2016 investigation into his alleged connections with Russia.
The Department of Defense (DoD) revealed on Thursday, as reported by The Washington Free Beacon, that it is "restructuring" the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), an internal Pentagon think tank that focuses on long-term geopolitical military trends.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated, "As part of the Department's ongoing commitment to strengthening our national defense, the Secretary of Defense has directed the disestablishment of the Office of Net Assessment (ONA) and the development of a plan to rebuild it in alignment with the Department's strategic priorities." Parnell further noted that the office's employees would be "reassigned to mission-critical roles."
The restructuring follows concerns raised by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about ONAs budget and its connections to Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI counterintelligence probe into the 2016 Trump campaigns alleged ties to Russia.
From 2012 to 2017, ONA paid over $1 million to Stefan Halper, a professor and former White House official, who served as an FBI confidential source starting in 2011. In 2016, Halper was assigned by the FBI to engage with multiple Trump campaign aides as part of Crossfire Hurricane.
Halper, under the pretense of his ONA role, approached Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, an early target of the FBI probe. In September 2016, Halper offered Papadopoulos $3,000 to write a report for an ONA assessment about the Middle East. Halper, a long-serving professor at Cambridge University, covered Papadopouloss travel expenses and accommodation in London. During this trip, Halper introduced Papadopoulos to Azra Turk, an undercover FBI agent who Halper claimed was his research assistant.
However, this was a scheme to extract information from Papadopoulos about the campaign. Halper questioned Papadopoulos about Russia and the Trump campaign, as revealed by FBI recordings of the conversations. During these meetings, Papadopoulos denied any connections to the Russian government and claimed ignorance of Russian hacks of the DNC during the summer of 2016. Halper, who served in the Ford and Reagan administrations, boasted about his links to Russian intelligence officers, according to a transcript of the recording.
As part of his work for the ONA, Halper developed a relationship with Vyacheslav Trubnikov, the former head of Russias foreign intelligence service, the SVR.
Federal investigators ultimately found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016. A Department of Justice inspector general report released in 2019 revealed that the FBI reprimanded Halper in 2011 for his "aggressiveness" and "questionable allegiance" to a target of an FBI investigation.
The ONA has refuted claims that it paid Halper in his capacity as an FBI source. However, the office admitted to lax oversight of Halper and other contractors. According to Grassley, the office "could not provide sufficient documentation that Professor Halper conducted all of his work in accordance with applicable laws and regulations."
Grassley applauded Trumps decision on Thursday, stating, "Praise the Lord. This wise move saves American taxpayers over 20 million dollars a year." He added, "After years raising Cain about the Office of Net Assessments failure to strengthen our national defense and its rampant abuse of taxpayer dollars, Im thrilled to hear the news that President Trump is abolishing this wasteful and ineffective office." This move underscores the administration's commitment to fiscal responsibility and national security, hallmarks of conservative governance.
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