Former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo told Fox News host Laura Ingraham Monday night that he was approached by what he now believes was a deep state mole during the 2016 election, but said he would have to get “clearance” from his attorney before he could say more.
Caputo apparently got the that clearance because on Tuesday, he opened up to Fox Business host Neil Cavuto about the alleged mole who approached him through an intermediary in the first week of May 2016 — months before the FBI has said it began its counterintelligence operation (dubbed Crossfire Hurricane) into the Trump campaign. As Andrew McCarthy noted at National Review on Tuesday, it has become increasingly obvious that the Obama administration formed the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative in the late spring of 2016.
The informant who approached Caputo is in addition to Cambridge Professor Stefan Halper, who was reportedly in communication with at least three campaign officials: Trump campaign adviser Sam Clovis, in addition to Carter Page and foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos.
“I was approached by an intermediary who had been talking to a … former government official who told him that they had Hillary Clinton-related emails at that government organization and that they wanted to get them to the Trump campaign,” he told Cavuto, explaining that the intermediary was approached with the information on May 6 and told him about the offer on the 9th.
“This conversation continued back and forth for several days,” Caputo continued. “I was in Trump Tower at the time. Whenever I got a call from the intermediary, I would walk outside of the office. I spent a lot of time outside the fifth floor office talking to this intermediary,” he said.
Caputo said the intermediary is a friend of his, and will be willing to go on the record “at the right time.”
“He’s willing to talk to Fox,” Caputo declared.
He noted both he and his friend were “kinda amazed” that they were contacted by someone from “a government agency,” which he didn’t name. He was a “former contractor for that agency who said actual staff members of the agency had Hillary Clinton-related emails,” Caputo told Cavuto. He added that they assumed the former contractor was talking about Hillary Clinton’s 30,000 missing emails.
“By the time the 16th of May came around, I came to the conclusion that I did not want to take possession of these emails,” he told Cavuto. “I thought they might be classified documents, and I urged through the intermediary that the people at the government organization do it through a proper whistleblower process. I never revealed this conversation to anyone at the Trump campaign. I was uncomfortable talking about it and I then broke off contact with that government organization representative.”
He said he was kinda disturbed by the whole thing and didn’t bring up the information with anyone in the Trump campaign because he thought it would make him look “kooky.”
“It became very frightening to me. I thought it could be a crime for me to take them into my own custody,” he noted.
Caputo said that after he left the Trump campaign in June 2016, the former contractor actually reached out to his friend again to offer the emails.
He told Cavuto that he shared the information with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
“They never reached out to the intermediary to check on it,” he told Cavuto. “They didn’t even seem to be taking notes.”
The Fox News host was taken aback. “They weren’t remotely interested? Did they follow up on it? Even question you more about it?”
“No, they didn’t and they didn’t call the intermediary who’s willing to go on the record about it,” Caputo replied. “I have the telephone number of the former government representative who was trying to give this to us — I don’t think they called him, as well. He’s kind of gone silent. We can’t find him.”
He told Cavuto that he forgot to mention the episode when the House Intelligence Committee first asked him if any Russians had offered him Clinton’s emails.
“It didn’t come to mind that someone from the U.S. government apparently was trying to offer me emails,” Caputo said, adding that as soon as he recalled it, he went back to the committee to tell them about it. “It didn’t seem to interest them, either,” he said.
The former contractor also talked about a Swedish waiver on dealing with Iran that was given to the Swedish companies right about the time they gave $26 million to the Clinton Foundation. “That came out in the WikiLeaks emails in late October and it blew my mind. Because I remembered then — that that had been brought up in the first week of May.”
He said he wondered at the time, “why are we talking about WikiLeaks emails that … the government was trying to give me in May?!”
“When we finally find out the truth about this, Director Clapper and the rest of them will be wearing some orange suits,” Caputo told Laura Ingraham Monday night.
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