![]() political process and undermine the credibility of the 2016 election. "To me," Hoffman says, "it pointed to a discoverable influence operation rather than some effort to establish a clandestine channel for collusion."īoth in NPR's interview and in an op-ed for The New York Times, Hoffman argues the meeting was meant to be discovered, that Putin deliberately left a trail of breadcrumbs from Trump Tower to the Kremlin.Īnd that the objective was simple: to soil the U.S. The one attended by Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort - and Kremlin-connected Russians. Hoffman's long experience observing Russian spies at work leads to a surprising conclusion about one of the most sensational revelations from last year's election: that Trump Tower meeting in June 2016. "And of course Russian intelligence services are very good at collecting on that sort of information." "He will generate a lot of discussion," Hoffman says, "among different agencies at the embassy and probably some angst among those who are on the losing end of having their people remain in Moscow, whether Americans or Russians. Still, Hoffman says - Putin does stand to benefit. "He needed to respond to impose some level of reciprocity on the action that we took." sanctions imposed on Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. So they're the FSB's eyes and ears."īut Hoffman says Putin had no choice, given the U.S. "My estimation," Hoffman says, "was always that no Russian would ever get a job at an American official installation if they were not reporting to the FSB. Because it'll mostly be local, Russian staff that gets cut. The greater impact, says Hoffman, may be on Russia's spies, including the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB. ![]() ![]() He says the upcoming expulsions won't have much impact on U.S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |