SO WHO WAS ‘AZRA TURK’ WORKING FOR?

• The New York Times report on Azra Turk provides mixed clues about who the aliased investigator worked for during an operation to spy on George Papadopoulos.
• Turk was reportedly tasked by the FBI to accompany bureau informant Stefan Halper during meetings with Papadopoulos in London in September 2016.
• But a reporter who wrote The Times story has hinted that Turk could work for another government agency.

The FBI tasked a woman posing as an assistant to longtime FBI informant Stefan Halper to meet with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos in London in 2016, The New York Times revealed in a report Thursday.

The report confirms longstanding speculation that the woman, who operated under the alias Azra Turk, was part of the government’s operation to keep tabs on Papadopoulos and the Trump team.

But one question about Turk remains unanswered by The Times piece: Who does she work for?

The Times report appears on first glance to suggest Turk is an FBI investigator. One section of the story states:

But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

Adam Goldman, one of the reporters on The Times story, added mystery to the report Thursday night when he discussed it on CNN.

Goldman provided a cryptic response suggesting she does not work for the FBI when host Anderson Cooper asked who Turk worked for.

“I’m just going to leave it right now as a ‘government investigator.’ I use that wording for a reason, and I’m going to leave it at that,” he said.