In an opinion piece for The New York Times, former FBI agent and CIR Advisory Board member Clint Watts says Russian intelligence services tend to cultivate sources and exert influence over time, and it is that strategy which likely paid off through people associated with Trump, if not the president himself.
Typically, the Kremlin deploys layers of surrogates and proxies offering business inducements, information or threatened reprisals that can individually be explained away by coincidence while masking the strings and guiding hands of the Kremlin’s puppet masters and their objectives. When called upon by the Kremlin, oligarchs, contractors, criminals and spies (current or former) all provide levers for advancing President Vladimir Putin’s assault on democracies.
In Trump and his campaign, Mr. Putin spotted a golden opportunity — an easily ingratiated celebrity motivated by fame and fortune, a foreign policy novice surrounded by unscreened opportunists open to manipulation and unaware of Russia’s long run game of subversion.
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Evidence of Russia’s intent to interfere in the election is overwhelming, and documentation of Trump campaign members’ collusion not only exists but is growing.
Read more: For Russia, Trump Was a Vehicle, Not a Target (NYT Opinion)