Why American Spies Worry When Trump Meets Putin
Just as the Russian leader has unleashed his intelligence and security services, the American president has kneecapped and undermined his own.
It was going to be Donald Trump’s “easiest” meeting, at least according to Trump himself. After a week of tense exchanges with allies in Brussels and then the U.K., the U.S president would head to Helsinki for his first formal summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Then on Friday, right as the president was settling down to tea with the Queen, the indictments came; the Justice Department accused 12 officers of Russian intelligence with specific crimes related to meddling in the 2016 election—the one U.S. intelligence says the Russians wanted to throw to Trump.
If Trump is worried this will cast a pall over the summit, American intelligence officials have plenty of other reasons to worry about the
