Friday's outing of longtime CIA and MI6 asset Stefan Halper as an FBI asset sent to infiltrate the Trump campaign has social media abuzz today. Reactions have ranged from celebration to outrage, with little inbetween.

To recap, after two weeks of hunting for a "mole" in the Trump campaign, the New York Times and Washington Post both printed incredibly detailed descriptions of Halper - printing all but his name, solidly corroborating a March report by the Daily Caller's Chuck Ross about Halper's meetings with the Trump aides. Neither publication give Ross credit, of course.

Somehow several anti-Trump intellectuals got their wires crossed, conflating President Trump and Senate Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes' calls for transparency by the DOJ, with the actual media outlets that exposed Halper.

Senior Brookings Institute fellow, and James Comey's close friend, Benjamin Wittes is beside himself - angrily tweeting: "I have a whole lot to say about how the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the President of the United States teamed up to out an intelligence source...," adding in a subsequent tweet "But I am too angry to write right now—and Twitter is probably not the right forum. So I’ll leave it at this for now: Important people defiled their oaths of office for these stories to appear."

I have a whole lot to say about how the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the President of the United States teamed up to out an intelligence source who aided our country in a properly predicated counterintelligence investigation against a hostile foreign power. — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) May 19, 2018

To which Paul Krugman replied: "We've basically crossed the line into treason now -- and a whole party is acquiescing"

We've basically crossed the line into treason now -- and a whole party is acquiescing https://t.co/zZdhidfFR3 — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) May 19, 2018

Maybe Paul... there is just one problem:

Krugman says it's treason to out Halper -- but the NYT and WaPo outed him based on DoJ leaks... https://t.co/2B6QJIJmeH — Steve Robinson (@BigSteve207) May 19, 2018

Others have noted that Halper, a longtime asset of MI6 and US Intelligence - is a rabid Trump hater who openly supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 US election.

"I believe [Hillary] Clinton would be best for US-UK relations and for relations with the European Union," Clinton is well-known, deeply experienced and predictable. US-UK relations will remain steady regardless of the winner although Clinton will be less disruptive over time," Halper, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs and senior adviser to the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, said.

Listen to Stefan Halper describe how much he hates Trump in this 2017 interview https://t.co/jzF4wxJVFM — Jack Posobiec🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 19, 2018

I see none of these people thought to ask anyone about “Stefan Halper” before meeting with him — Jack Posobiec🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 19, 2018

Yet others noted that the FBI's Russia "investigation" into Trump didn't seem to extend to Hillary Clinton. We would remind readers that her campaign chair, John Podesta, sat on the board of Massachusetts energy company Joule Unlimited, along with senior Russian official Anatoly Chubais and Russian oligarch Ruben Vardanyan – who was appointed by Vladimir Putin to the Russian economic council.

Two months after Podesta joined the board, Joule managed to raise $35 million from Putin’s Kremlin-backed investment fund Rusnano. Podesta transferred 75,000 shares of Joule to his daughter through a shell company using her address.

We're sure the FBI was all over that...

Weird how they didn’t “protect” Hillary. https://t.co/uyIcFXXEZm — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) May 19, 2018

FBI opened a CI investigation in the absence of any (a) incriminating evidence, or (b) evidence implicating the Trump camp in Russian espionage. The FBI collaborated w/ CIA to probe an American political camp using foreign-intel surveillance & informants. Bigger than Watergate... — Nick Short 🇺🇸 (@PoliticalShort) May 19, 2018

Stefan Halper, the spy placed into the Trump campaign to entrap and smear was also an MI-6 asset.



Questions for @Comey:



What’s his relationship with Christopher Steele?



Was he paid by Fusion GPS?



Was he paid by FBI part and parcel to the deal they cut with Steele? — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) May 19, 2018

The media accuses Nunes of wanting to get an informant killed. Then the media continually leaks details about said informant. Pick a side guys! https://t.co/PG5NCS9neP — Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) May 19, 2018

Even Midtown Manhattan bars were abuzz with people shaking their heads over the FBI's double-standards and ham-handed investigation.

Last night all the guys at my regular bar in Midtown—not by any means a lunch-bucket institution, if you will—were saying the FBI thing has gone too far and enough with elite institutions trying to undo the result of a democratic election.



This is in Midtown Manhattan[!!!]. — Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) May 19, 2018