Stefan Halper

A U.S. citizen with doctorates from Oxford and Cambridge, Halper served in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations before becoming a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he is a Senior Fellow of the Centre of International Studies. He was also a consultant on Russia and China policy issues to an internal Pentagon think tank known as the Office of Net Assessment, according to public records cited by NBC News. In the 1980s, he was reportedly involved in a spying operation for the Reagan campaign that involved agents passing classified foreign policy documents from the Carter White House to the Republican candidate's team. Halper reportedly flew Trump foreign policy aide Papadopoulos to London and quizzed him on alleged Russian efforts to boost the Trump campaign and undermine Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton. Page told NBC that he met with Halper and did not find his encounters with the academic concerning. Papadopoulos has not commented publicly on the reports, though sources close to him told the network that Papadopoulos had met with Halper in 2016.