|
On the subject of ''kompromat'', [[Bruce Ohr]] testified to the [[United States House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary]] and [[United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability|House Oversight]] committees that on July 30, 2016, Steele told him that "Russian intelligence believed 'they had Trump [[wikt:over a barrel|over a barrel]]' {{spaces}}... [a] broader sentiment [that] is echoed in Steele's dossier".<ref name="Tucker_Day_9/1/2018">{{cite web | last1=Tucker | first1=Eric | last2=Day | first2=Chad | title=AP sources: Former spy said Russia had 'Trump over a barrel' | website=[[Associated Press]] | date=September 1, 2018 | url=https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-financial-markets-ap-top-news-politics-970eefea2c154b3488ffde03a8a59d22 | access-date=May 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Herb_8/31/2018">{{cite web | last=Herb | first=Jeremy | title=Ohr says Steele told him Russian intel believed they had Trump 'over a barrel' | website=[[CNN]] | date=August 31, 2018 | url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/31/politics/bruce-ohr-christopher-steele-donald-trump/index.html | access-date=May 4, 2023}}</ref> Paul Wood described the source as "a former head of Russia's foreign intelligence services... he said they had sexual ''kompromat'' on Trump going back years."<ref name="Wood_8/12/2020"/>
=== Cultivation, compromise, ''kompromat'', and blackmail ===
Trump appears vulnerable to at least three types of ''[[kompromat]]'' (compromising material): those of a sexual, financial, and corrupt practices nature. These vulnerabilities go back many years, far before his 2015–2016 presidential campaign. The Russians and their allied intelligence agencies appear to have tried to collect ''kompromat'' on him for at least 40 years.<ref name="Palma_2/2/2021"/>
According to former [[KGB]] major [[Yuri Shvets]], Russia has been trying to cultivate Trump as a Russian intelligence [[Asset (intelligence)|"asset"]], not an actual "agent" (spy), for many years. He became the target of a joint KGB and [[StB|Czech intelligence services]] spying operation after he married Czech model [[Ivana Zelnickova]]<ref name="Smith_1/29/2021">{{Cite news | title='The perfect target': Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy | last=Smith | first=David | author-link=David Smith (journalist) | newspaper=[[The Guardian]] | date=January 29, 2021 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book |access-date=September 28, 2022}}</ref> and has been cultivated as an "asset" since 1977: "Russian intelligence gained an interest in Trump as far back as 1977, viewing Trump as an exploitable target."<ref name="Palma_2/2/2021">{{cite web | last=Palma | first=Bethania | title=Did Ex-KGB Spy Say Russia Cultivated Trump as an 'Asset' for 40 Years? | website=[[Snopes]] | date=February 2, 2021 | url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kgb-spy-russia/ | access-date=December 21, 2021}}</ref> Shvets describes why "Trump was the ideal target for Soviet recruitment. 'He was the perfect combination of extremes: Extreme vanity, extremely low IQ, extreme vulnerability to flattery, and of course, extremely greedy.'"<ref name="APB_Shvets">{{cite web | title=Book Yuri Shvets for Speaking, Events and Appearances | website=APB Speakers | date=Jul 13, 2018 | url=https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/yuri-shvets/ | access-date=July 20, 2024}}</ref> Trump was just one of many targeted by the KGB: "The Russians were trying to recruit like crazy and going after dozens and dozens of people." This time it paid off, and the KGB celebrated its success.<ref name="TOI_staff">{{cite web | author=Times of Israel Staff | title=KGB groomed Trump as an asset for 40 years, former Russian spy says | website=[[The Times of Israel]] | date=January 29, 2021 | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/kgb-groomed-trump-as-an-asset-for-40-years-former-spy-says/ | access-date=July 20, 2024}}</ref>
Three years later, Trump finished his first large building project, the [[Hyatt Grand Central New York|Grand Hyatt New York]] hotel, furnishing it with "hundreds of televisions from a Russian immigrant who was a KGB spotter and who highlighted him as a potential asset, being an up-and-coming businessman".<ref name="TOI_staff"/> "Then, in 1987, Trump and Ivana visited Moscow and St Petersburg for the first time. Shvets said he was fed KGB talking points and flattered by KGB operatives who floated the idea that he should go into politics." Shvets compared the young Trump to the [[Cambridge Five]], where early recruitment bore fruit for Russia much later.<ref name="Smith_1/29/2021"/>
{{blockquote| For the KGB, it was a charm offensive. They had collected a lot of information on his personality so they knew who he was personally. The feeling was that he was extremely vulnerable intellectually, and psychologically, and he was prone to flattery.<br> This is what they exploited. They played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality and believed this is the guy who should be the president of the United States one day: it is people like him who could change the world. They fed him these so-called active measures soundbites and it happened. So it was a big achievement for the KGB active measures at the time.<ref name="Smith_1/29/2021"/>}}
He was "groomed by the Russians to pursue a political career",<ref name="APB_Shvets"/> and after he returned to the United States, he immediately began to seek the Republican nomination for president. He also began publishing unorthodox and anti-American sentiments.<ref name="Smith_1/29/2021"/> Trump was not viewed as an actual spy but as an asset who is a "[[useful idiot]]". Kyle Cunliffe, a lecturer in [[intelligence studies]], puts it this way:
{{blockquote| We're talking about Trump being a self-interested businessman who's happy to do a favour if it works to his own best interests – and that includes staying out of jail.{{spaces}}... Simply put, an agent is a partner for life, whereas an asset is a friend with benefits. And, most likely, if Trump has been one of the two, it's the latter.<ref name="Cunliffe_6/8/2023">{{cite web | last=Cunliffe | first=Kyle | title=Donald Trump spying allegations: more likely useful idiot than Putin's agent | website=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] | date=June 8, 2023 | url=https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-spying-allegations-more-likely-useful-idiot-than-putins-agent-154300 | access-date=February 13, 2024}}</ref>}}
The Senate Committee looked at Trump's potentially blackmailable activities in Russia in 1996<ref name="Grocott_2/8/2019">{{cite news | last=Grocott | first=Jeffrey | title=Trump's Moscow Trip in the '90s Had Another Luminary: Apollo's Leon Black | agency=[[NDTV BQ Prime]] | date=February 8, 2019 |url=https://www.ndtvprofit.com/business/trump-s-moscow-trip-in-90s-had-another-luminary-apollo-s-black | access-date=August 7, 2024 | archive-date=August 7, 2024 | archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240807185411/https://www.ndtvprofit.com/business/trump-s-moscow-trip-in-90s-had-another-luminary-apollo-s-black |url-status=live}}</ref> and interviewed several witnessess, including [[Leon Black]],<ref name="Cohan_9/3/2020">{{cite web | last=Cohan | first=William D. | title=What Was Leon Black Doing With Trump in Russia? | website=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] | date=September 3, 2020 | url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/what-was-leon-black-doing-with-trump-in-russia | access-date=August 7, 2024}}</ref> who, like Trump and their mutual [[Leon Black#Jeffrey Epstein relationship|friend]] [[Jeffrey Epstein]], also had problems with various [[Leon Black#Sexual misconduct accusations|sexual misconduct accusations]]:
{{blockquote| Two decades before he ran for president, Donald J. Trump traveled to Russia, where he scouted properties, was wined and dined and, of greatest significance to Senate intelligence investigators, met a woman who was a former Miss Moscow.<br> A Trump associate, Robert Curran, who was interviewed by the Senate investigators, said he believed Mr. Trump may have had a romantic relationship with the woman. On the same trip, another Trump associate, Leon Black, told investigators that he and Mr. Trump 'might have been in a strip club together.' Another witness said that Mr. Trump may have been with other women in Moscow and later brought them along to a meeting with the mayor.<br> Mr. Trump was married to [[Marla Maples]] at the time.<ref name="Schmidt_8/23/2020"/>}}
The Committee also investigated the threats of ''kompromat'' about Trump that "emerged in 2016", as well as those that "predated both Steele's memos and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign":
{{blockquote| Russia has a longstanding practice of collecting compromising information to attempt to influence or coerce prominent individuals, posing a potential counterintelligence threat. Allegations that the Russian government had compromising information on then-candidate Trump emerged in 2016, and were more fully made public in early 2017, through memos produced by Christopher Steele. Separate but related allegations, which were not public, in some cases predated both Steele's memos and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Collectively, the allegations raised a potential counterintelligence concern, that Russia might use compromising information to influence the then-presidential candidate's positions on relations with Russia. The Committee sought, in a limited way, to understand the Russian government's alleged collection of such information, not only because of the threat of a potential foreign influence operation, but also to explore the possibility of a misinformation operation targeting the integrity of the U.S. political process.<ref name="SICv5_8/18/2020"/>}}
It has also been suggested that Putin could blackmail Trump:
{{blockquote| [O]n October 22, 2016, O'Brien sent an invitation email to the group of expatriate businessmen, including Geovanis, regarding the 2016 holiday dinner in Moscow. In that email, O'Brien wrote, 'I keep thinking that VVP [Putin] must have some great material on Donald.'<ref name="SICv5_8/18/2020"/>}}
A ''[[Lawfare (website)|Lawfare]]'' summary of the Committee's final report on [[Russian interference in the 2016 elections]] examined its "findings regarding reports of 'kompromat' of a sexual nature that may have been collected on Donald Trump during his various visits to Moscow" and found they were "significantly redacted. The blacked-out portions include a fuller description of the threat posed by Russian intelligence services' collection of kompromat."<ref name="Wittes_et_al_8/21/2020"/>
While the Committee investigated the possibility of Russian ''kompromat'' on Trump, witnesses were less than cooperative: Schiller could [[#Criticisms of bodyguard|"not recall"]] many events where he was present as Trump's bodyguard. He could not remember ever being at "The Act" nightclub in Las Vegas or anything about the Moscow trip, not even the name of the hotel or whether they stayed there. He was not the only one with "memory issues", thus making the Committee's work more difficult:
{{blockquote| A number of witnesses told the Committee their memories were unclear, and some of the information they provided could not be corroborated. The Committee collected this testimony and other information, but it did not establish that the Russian government collected ''kompromat'' on Trump, nor did it establish that the Russian government attempted to blackmail Trump or anyone associated with his campaign with such information.<ref name="SICv5_8/18/2020"/>{{rp|638}}}}
Aaron Blake places this failure to "establish" proof of ''kompromat'' on Trump in context:
{{blockquote| The report includes a discussion of Russia potentially having compromising information on Trump — as the unverified Steele dossier suggested it might — saying it 'did not establish' that Russia did. Despite not ultimately making that conclusion, though, it goes over the possibility in significantly more detail than we've seen to date. (Much of this section is redacted, but much of it is not.) One allegation, according to the report, is that 'Trump may have begun a brief relationship with' a former Miss Moscow in 1996. Trump was at the time still married to his second wife, Marla Maples, from whom he separated in 1997.'<ref name="Blake_8/21/2020"/>}}
Blake then discusses David Geovanis, who "has a reputation in Moscow for a pattern of conduct regarding women that could make him, and potentially those around him, vulnerable to kompromat operations," the report says.{{spaces}}... Unsubstantiated allegations, yes — but allegations that the bipartisan report nonetheless opted to put out there."<ref name="Blake_8/21/2020"/> (These and other discussions of Trump's associations with Geovanis, potential ''kompromat'', and Geovanis's description of a tour he gave Trump in Moscow: "[He] intimated that there was partying and that Mr. Trump should be nice to him in light of the information he had."<ref name="SICv5_8/18/2020"/> are covered in more detail in the [[#David Geovanis]] section.)
On September 5, 2017, in a Russian state TV broadcast, Russian politician [[Nikita Isaev]] (Isayev) confirmed the Kremlin had ''kompromat'' on Trump.<ref name="Pasha-Robinson_9/5/2017"/> He was the leader of the far-right New Russia Movement, and he called for retaliation against the Trump administration over its closure of several Russian diplomatic compounds across the U.S.<ref name="Watson_9/2/2017">{{cite news | last=Watson | first=Kathryn | title=Russian diplomats vacate 3 compounds in U.S., State Department says | agency=[[CBS News]] | date=September 2, 2017 | url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/state-department-denies-that-fbi-searched-russian-diplomatic-offices/ | access-date=March 16, 2024}}</ref> As retaliation, he threatened the release of unspecified ''kompromat'' on Trump held by the Russian government. Isaev said: "Let's hit Trump with our Kompromat!" Host: "Do we have it?" Isaev: "Of course we have it!"<ref name="Pasha-Robinson_9/5/2017">{{cite news | last=Pasha-Robinson | first=Lucy | title=Russian politician says they should 'release the Kompromat' they have on Trump | newspaper=[[The Independent]] | date=September 5, 2017 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-donald-trump-kompromat-nikita-isaev-new-russia-movement-state-tv-us-president-a7929966.html | access-date=March 16, 2024}}</ref>
==== Terms of art: "asset" and "agent of influence" ====
Within the intelligence community, various "terms of art" are used to describe individuals and their roles, and how they are compromised and become an [[Asset (intelligence)|asset]], [[useful idiot]], [[agent of influence]], or [[intelligence agent|agent/spy]], an actual agent of a foreign power.<ref name="Sipher_4/16/2019"/><ref name="Weiner_9/21/2020"/><ref name="Rubin_11/30/2018"/><ref name="Cunliffe_6/8/2023"/> Experienced intelligence personnel do not generally view Trump as a Russian "agent", but as an "asset" and "agent of influence", someone who uses their power "to influence public opinion or decision-making to produce results beneficial to the country whose intelligence service operates the agent".<ref name="Weiner_9/21/2020"/>
John Sipher, a former member of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service, considers Trump a Russian agent in a limited sense. He starts by saying Trump is not an agent in the traditional sense, and later says he is "an agent of a foreign power":
{{blockquote| I think it is entirely plausible that Mr. Trump is somehow compromised by his personal and financial dealings with Russia and Russians, but I do not think he is an 'agent' in the sense that intelligence professionals use the term. Let me explain.{{spaces}}... Based on the U.S. definition of an agent, it is unlikely that President Trump is a recruited and controlled source of the Russian intelligence services. To a professional he is a nightmare. Yes, he is a cauldron of potentially exploitable vulnerabilities.{{spaces}}... He clearly crossed a line and can be objectively labeled an agent of a foreign power in the standard definition of the word. From the Russian perspective, it is a win-win even if the relationship doesn't meet the cloak-and-dagger definition of a wholly clandestine espionage agent.<ref name="Sipher_4/16/2019">{{cite web | last=Sipher | first=John | title=Is Trump a Russian Agent?: Explaining Terms of Art and Examining the Facts | publisher=[[New York University School of Law|Just Security]] | date=April 16, 2019 | url=https://www.justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump-a-russian-agent-explaining-terms-of-art-and-examining-the-facts/ | access-date=March 1, 2024}}</ref>}}
Intelligence agencies may create an "asset" by compromising the person, and this is done by keeping track of their lies, indiscretions, and potential sexual scandals. Any of these can be used as ''kompromat'' to gain leverage over the asset, enabling them to be pressured in many ways:<ref name="Rubin_11/30/2018">{{cite news | last=Rubin | first=Jennifer | author-link=Jennifer Rubin (columnist) | title=Was Trump compromised? Is he still? | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=November 30, 2018 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/11/30/was-trump-compromised-is-he-still/ | access-date=December 29, 2023}}</ref>
{{blockquote| President Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen says that Trump repeatedly lied during the campaign when he denied have any deals or anything to do with Russia. Others knew as well, presumably — his daughter and son-in-law who worked on the project, [[Felix Sater]] who reached out to the Russian and — this is key — the Russians. If you believe Cohen, then Russians knew Trump was lying and Trump knew that they knew. That's leverage. Former FBI official [[Frank Figliuzzi]] explains: 'At any time, Vladimir Putin could use — or perhaps he already has used — knowledge of Trump's deceit to pressure Trump on everything from sanctions to public statements to policy on Ukraine.'}}
Trump's lies about [[Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia|his business projects in Russia]] created the necessary conditions for Trump to be [[Kompromat|compromised]]: "As candidate and again as president, Trump lied about his business ties with Russia."<ref name="Lozada_9/5/2020">{{cite news | last=Lozada | first=Carlos | author-link=Carlos Lozada (journalist) | title=Review - He investigated Clinton and Trump. Then the Justice Department turned on him. | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=September 5, 2020 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/09/05/he-investigated-clinton-trump-then-justice-department-turned-him/ | access-date=April 8, 2023}}</ref> Peter Strzok explains the consequences of those lies:
{{blockquote| The moment Trump said publicly, 'I have no business dealings with Russia,' he knew he was lying. Putin knew he was lying, and the FBI had reason to believe he was lying. But American citizens didn't know that. The then-presidential candidate's public denial of his business dealings in Russia signaled to Putin that Trump was more interested in maintaining his personal financial interests than in telling the truth to the American people, and that he needed Putin's complicity to maintain the lie. To use an intelligence term that you will be seeing a lot in this book, in this moment Trump became ''compromised''. Trump's compromising behavior did not begin or end with the lie about his business interests in Russia. The list was long and alarming.{{spaces}}... All these actions made Trump vulnerable to coercion by Russia, and now he was behaving in a way that suggested he was indeed being manipulated by our adversary. The dilemma for us was, what was the Bureau going to do about it?<ref name="Strzok_2020"/>}}
Former FBI special agent [[Clint Watts]] says that "Trump handed Putin 'a window of opportunity should he choose to use it to discredit President Trump at any time President Trump doesn't do what President Putin likes.'"<ref name="Rubin_11/30/2018"/> Former acting CIA director [[John McLaughlin]] described how the "seeds of blackmail" can come from "ongoing business negotiations" and "the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, even if nothing came of it".<ref name="Rubin_11/30/2018"/>
''Lawfare'' described how Trump's lies about the plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow gave the Russians "leverage" over him and "compromised" him:
{{blockquote| This was a lie, and for those quick to dismiss the notion that Donald Trump was to any degree compromised by the Russians, consider the lie for a moment. Trump made these comments publicly in a high-stakes situation. He knew when he did so that they were untrue. The Russians also knew they were untrue. And Trump also knew that the Russians knew that they were untrue. The only people who didn’t know they were untrue were the American public. This creates leverage, because Trump also knew at some level that the Russians could expose his lie in a high-stakes situation at any point. Such knowledge creates counterintelligence risk for the simple reason that it creates a powerful incentive on the part of the candidate not to cross the party with leverage.<ref name="Wittes_et_al_8/21/2020"/>}}
[[Jennifer Rubin (columnist)|Jennifer Rubin]], columnist for ''The Washington Post'', wrote:
{{blockquote| Senator [[Adam Schiff]] "raises the possibility that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to President Trump's financial dealings with Russia. If true, and especially if Trump was engaged in money laundering that might violate U.S. laws (something yet to be proven), Schiff says 'Russians would be well aware of it,' and could hold (or be holding) that over Trump's head."<ref name="Rubin_11/30/2018"/>}}
Both of Trump's sons have "admitted that Russians supplied the [[Trump Organization]] much of its capital needs", and Trump's former architect, [[Alan Lapidus]], has described how Trump's "involvement with Russia was deeper than he's acknowledged". He helped Trump survey property in Russia in 1997, yet, to his consternation, Trump later "kept protesting that he knew nothing about Russia and hadn't tried to do much business there". Lapidus said: "The [[quid pro quo]] has to be in there somewhere.{{spaces}}... Trump could not get money here. He found Russia, and the Russians gave him a lot of money. He has got to be doing a quid pro quo. It's just logical. It's just too much money."<ref name="Hirsh_12/21/2018">{{cite web | last=Hirsh | first=Michael | author-link=Michael Hirsh (journalist) | title=How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business | website=[[Foreign Policy]] | date=December 21, 2018 | url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/ | access-date=February 13, 2024}}</ref>
Rubin cites [[Center for American Progress|The Moscow Project]]'s description of Trump's relationship with Russia. In the context of heavy investments by Russians in Trump's properties and "a president under several investigations for his connections to the Kremlin":<ref name="Rubin_11/30/2018"/>
{{blockquote| Russia's outsize role in Trump's reemergence from financial tribulations that nearly destroyed his real estate empire merit additional attention. What emerges is the story of a man indebted to Russia through the oligarchs that President Vladimir Putin helped create and now controls.}}
During testimony,<ref name="Chait_7/25/2019"/> Robert Mueller confirmed that Trump's lies about his negotiations with Russia for a Trump Tower deal in Moscow gave Russia blackmail material{{efn|name="Vulnerable_to_blackmail"}} on him. Trump "repeated five times in one press conference, Mr. Mueller, in 2016, 'I have nothing to do with Russia.'" Those repeated false statements<ref name="Chait_7/25/2019">{{cite magazine | last=Chait | first=Jonathan | author-link=Jonathan Chait | title=Mueller Testifies Russia Had Blackmail on Trump | magazine=[[New York (magazine)#Intelligencer|Intelligencer]] | date=July 25, 2019 | url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/mueller-testifies-russia-blackmail-leverage-trump.html | access-date=January 31, 2024}}</ref> made him vulnerable to blackmail:{{efn|name="Vulnerable_to_blackmail"}}<ref name="Kelly_12/3/2018">{{cite news | last=Kelly | first=Meg | title=The president's misleading statements on Trump Tower Moscow: A timeline | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=December 3, 2018 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/03/president-trumps-misleading-statements-trump-tower-moscow-timeline/ | access-date=February 16, 2024}}</ref><ref name="PBS_2/27/2019">{{cite web | author=PBS | title=WATCH: Trump 'knew of and directed' negotiations for Trump Tower in Moscow, Cohen testifies | website=[[PBS NewsHour]] | date=February 27, 2019 | url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-trump-knew-of-and-directed-negotiations-for-trump-tower-in-moscow | access-date=February 16, 2024}}</ref>
{{blockquote| Any undisclosed foreign arrangements would raise red flags about candidates for national office, making them vulnerable to blackmail by others privy to those secrets. Russians call such nuggets of damaging information 'kompromat,' a concept that's become familiar enough to enter the international lexicon.<ref name="Farrell_11/30/2018">{{cite news | last=Farrell | first=Greg | title=Cohen's Plea Suggests Russians Held 'Kompromat' on Trump | agency=[[Bloomberg News]] | date=November 30, 2018 | url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-30/cohen-s-plea-suggests-russians-held-kompromat-on-donald-trump | access-date=January 31, 2024}}</ref>}}
Right after the dossier was published, the BBC's Paul Wood described four sources for claims of possible Trump–Russia blackmail: "the head of an East European intelligence agency"; "an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States"; "active duty CIA officers dealing with the case file"; and Christopher Steele ("a former British intelligence agent").<ref name="Drum_1/12/2017">{{cite magazine | last=Drum | first=Kevin | author-link=Kevin Drum | url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/01/bbcs-paul-wood-there-are-four-sources-possible-trump-russia-blackmail | title=BBC's Paul Wood: There are four sources for claims of possible Trump–Russia blackmail | magazine=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]] | date=January 12, 2017 | access-date=April 1, 2018}}</ref>
[[Max Boot]] has listed "18 reasons Trump could be a Russian asset".<ref name="Boot_1/13/2019">{{cite news | last=Boot | first=Max | author-link=Max Boot | title=Here are 18 reasons Trump could be a Russian asset | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=January 13, 2019 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/here-are-18-reasons-why-trump-could-be-a-russian-asset/2019/01/13/45b1b250-174f-11e9-88fe-f9f77a3bcb6c_story.html |access-date=November 12, 2019}}</ref> He mentioned the dossier when he described more "evidence of Trump's subservience to Putin", and he tied it to new government confirmations of rumors about Trump's alleged indiscretions in Russia:
{{blockquote| The Senate Intelligence Committee offered some provocative new nuggets, including suggestions that Trump might have engaged in dalliances with Russian women during visits to Moscow that left him open to blackmail. This is the first confirmation from any branch of the U.S. government that rumors of Russian kompromat on Trump — a central feature of the infamous Steele Dossier — may have some basis in fact.<ref name="Boot_8/1/2020">{{cite news | last=Boot | first=Max | author-link=Max Boot | title=More evidence of Trump's subservience to Putin - and we still don't know why | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=August 1, 2020 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/01/more-evidence-trumps-subservience-putin-we-still-dont-know-why/ | access-date=September 3, 2020}}</ref>}}
[[Tim Weiner]] wrote that experienced intelligence personnel, such as "veteran American spies, spymasters, and spy-catchers",<ref name="Weiner_9/21/2020"/> including [[Leon Panetta]], have described Trump as an "agent of influence",<ref name="Weiner_9/21/2020">{{cite news | last=Weiner | first=Tim | author-link=Tim Weiner | title=The unanswered question of our time: Is Trump an agent of Russia? | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=September 21, 2020 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/09/21/russian-agent-trump-counterintelligence/ | access-date=June 1, 2024}}</ref> someone who uses his position, power, and influence in the interests of an enemy power:<ref name="Weiner_9/21/2020">{{cite web | last=Weiner | first=Tim | author-link=Tim Weiner | title=Trump Makes America More Like Russia Every Day | website=[[The Daily Beast]] | date=September 21, 2020 | url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-makes-america-more-like-russia-every-day | access-date=June 1, 2024}}</ref>
{{blockquote| Leon Panetta, who ran the CIA and the Pentagon under President Obama, has no doubt about it. He told me that, by any definition, 'Trump, for all intents and purposes, acts as an agent of influence of Russia.'{{spaces}}... [Many] veteran American spies, spymasters, and spy-catchers{{spaces}}... concur with Panetta. But they have other theories as well. There's the useful idiot scenario. Or maybe it's money: the Russians might have kompromat—compromising information—about Trump's finances. And some think it might be worse than that.}}
John R. Schindler says of former [[Director of National Intelligence]] [[James Clapper]] that "Nobody knows the [[United States Intelligence Community|IC]] better than Clapper." Then he describes Clapper's description of Putin's influence over Trump as "The most jaw-dropping statement ever uttered about any American president by any serious commentator.":<ref name="Schindler_12/19/2017">{{cite web | last=Schindler | first=John R. | title=Jim Clapper Just Nuked the Trump Presidency | website=[[The Observer]] | date=December 19, 2017 | url=https://observer.com/2017/12/james-clapper-tells-cnn-donald-trump-is-vladimir-putins-kremlin-asset/ | access-date=June 1, 2024}}</ref>
{{blockquote| I think this past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that's what he's doing with the president.{{spaces}}... You have to remember Putin's background. He's a KGB officer. That's what they do. They recruit assets. And I think some of that experience and instincts of Putin has come into play here in his managing of a pretty important account for him, if I could use that term, with our president.}}
Schindler also described Trump as an "agent of influence":
{{blockquote| In particular, Trump's flashy 1987 trip to the Soviet Union – an obvious KGB operation to anyone versed in Chekist matters – led to his becoming an apparent agent of influence for Moscow. That is, a conduit for political favors and information, often in exchange for commercial deals of the sort Trump has always prized. Knowing this, the history of the Trump Organization over the last few decades takes on a different coloration.<ref name="Schindler_12/19/2017"/>}}
=== Trump viewed as under Putin's influence ===
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