A Russian-born academic accused of being a Kremlin operative claims she was "used" to smear former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn over an unplanned contact they had at a 2014 dinner at the University of Cambridge, England when Flynn was the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Obama.

38-year-old Svetlana Lokhova met Flynn at the February 2014 Cambridge dinner organized by Sir Richard Dearlove - a former head of MI6 who was launching an organization called the Cambridge Security Initiative, according to the BBC. Also part of the organizing group was alleged American spy Stefan Halper, a longtime spook and then-Cambridge professor emeritus widely reported to have infiltrated the Trump campaign and spied on several aides during the 2016 US election.

Svetlana Lokhova

"General Flynn was the guest of honor and he sat on one side of the table in the middle. I sat on the opposite side of the table to Flynn next to Richard Dearlove because I was the only woman at dinner, and it's a British custom that the only woman gets to sit next to the host," Lokhova told Fox News, who added that she has never been alone with Flynn. On the contrary, the unplanned encounter was professional and mildly productive.

As an expert on Soviet intelligence in the 1930s, Lokhova says she was asked to present some of her research. "The idea was that I would impress the DIA with the Cambridge pedigree of research." Lokhova showed Flynn a 1912 postcard from Stalin to the fiancee of his best friend. The fiancee was helping Stalin obtain a fake passport to escape surveillance when he was an early revolutionary working against the Tsarist regime. ... She says Flynn asked her to send the document to him. This was because he was expecting some senior officials visiting Washington from Russia. At this point, there was a move towards trying to increase co-operation with Russia in the field of counter-terrorism, as it had recently emerged that those involved in the 2013 Boston bombing had been known to the Russians. Lokhova says both Flynn and his assistant provided their emails, looking forward to using the postcard to break the ice when the Russian officials arrived in Washington. -BBC

Lokhova's contact with Flynn at the dinner was used in several 2017 media reports to suggest that he had been "gotten to" by the Russians, while pundits and social media commentators suggested she was a Kremlin "honeypot."

Hi @MalcolmNance @MSNBC, I have not forgotten how you told American people and the world a whole packs of lies about me based on your racist and sexist views. The tide has turned. https://t.co/iZnkX9Hqb6 — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 4, 2019

I'm not a Russian spy and I have never worked for the Russian government," said Lokhova, adding "I believe that General Flynn was targeted and I was used to do it."

'Lokhova is speaking out to clear her name' on Fox News with @TuckerCarlson and Catherine Herridge pic.twitter.com/yvybKHYEV3 — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 5, 2019

Of note, Halper - the ex-son-in-law of former CIA Director Ray Cline, was paid over $1 million by the Obama Defense Department between 2012 and 2018, with nearly half of it surrounding the 2016 US election.

Michael Flynn is pictured at a 2014 dinner at the University of Cambridge. (Courtesy of Svetlana Lokhova)

In December, 2016 - weeks after President Trump won the US election, event organizers Dearlove and Halper suddenly resigned from their positions at the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar (CIS) - an academic forum on the Western Spy World - due to what Halper called "unacceptable Russian influence" on the group.

According to journalist Sara Carter, however, Halper is steeped in Kremlin contacts.

Ironically, documents obtained by SaraACarter.com suggest that Halper also had invited senior Russian intelligence officials to co-teach his course on several occasions and, according to news reports, also accepted money to finance the course from a top Russian oligarch with ties to Putin. Several course syllabi from 2012 and 2015 obtained by this outlet reveal Halper had invited and co-taught his course on intelligence with the former Director of Russian Intelligence Gen. Vladimir I. Trubnikov. ... Even more interesting are reports from the British Media outlet, The Financial Times, that state Halper received funds for the Cambridge seminar from Russian billionaire Andrey Cheglakov, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. -Sara A. Carter

Stefan Halper

On Sunday, Lokhova took to Twitter for a massive thread to slam Washington Post journalists David Ignatius and Tom Hamburger for what she said was covering up for "Halper's mess."

They have 'interesting' friends and sources. (2) pic.twitter.com/u9BQX9z25D — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

Remember, you must not never ever under any circumstances whatsoever called a spy on Trump campaign Halper, 'a spy on Trump campaign'. Washington Post wants you to refer to Halper as 'the FBI source who assisted the Russia investigation' Got it? (4) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

I never heard of Ignatius. But some reason my university professor, who I now understand is a friend of Ignatius, gave him my personal email address. Which was very nice as I have given birth few weeks earlier and still recovering from a shock of the WSJ attack (6) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

I never heard of Ignatius. But some reason my university professor, who I now understand is a friend of Ignatius, gave him my personal email address. Which was very nice as I have given birth few weeks earlier and still recovering from a shock of the WSJ attack (6) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

Ignatius responded he understood. And nothing was published, because as he told me later, he interviewed witnesses at the 'Flynn dinner' and found nothing (10). — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

Roll forward May 2018, and Halper is exposed as FBI operative. Ignatius writes 'I'd like very much to ask you about Halper'. We spoke, & I caught him off-guard with a direct question: did he know he was a spy? To which he said 'I always found him very reliable', then hung up(12) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

Hamburger tries to interrogate me AGAIN over the Flynn dinner. I refer him to Ignatius. Then he tries the Kremlin penetration of the Cambridge Seminar line. I read him out Halper resignation email proving that Halper did not tell the truth (14) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

I told Hamburger (&have it time-stamped): 'You reveal you have not had contact with Dearlove. So if the principals in the story have not confirmed their knowledge/statements personally, then the journalists do not have evidence, but only hearsay, and this should be stressed. (16 — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

I also confirmed that Gen Flynn DIA liaison Dan O'Brien had been on the record with WaPo to confirm he left 2014 dinner with Flynn and nothing happened. Now let's turn to what Hamburger wrote (18) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

No mention of the fact that his colleague Ignatius interviewed everyone at dinner a year before, and there were no concerns. Interesting... (20) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019

I've previously made numerous complaints to the WaPo and have been ignored. So now I call on the @washingtonpost to retract the story by Tom Hamburger and print everything they know about the #Russiagate hoax. (22) — Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) April 7, 2019