(Reuters)
- A former top CIA official attacked Donald Trump on Friday as a danger
to national security, saying President Vladimir Putin had made the
Republican presidential candidate an "unwitting agent" of Russia.
Putin
had flattered Trump into supporting positions favorable to Russia,
Michael Morell, a longtime CIA officer and former deputy director of the
agency, said in an opinion piece in The New York Times.
"In
the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited
Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation," Morell said,
in an article in which he endorsed Trump's rival in the Nov. 8
election, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Morell
did not provide evidence for his assertion, but he said Putin had used
skills from his past as an intelligence officer to identify and exploit
vulnerabilities in an individual.
"That
is exactly what he did early in the primaries. Mr. Putin played upon
Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities by complimenting him. He responded just as
Mr. Putin had calculated," Morell wrote.
Trump's
campaign dismissed Morell's criticism, linking the ex-CIA officer to
the Obama administration's public response after the September 2012
attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
"Count
how many reporters will tweet today that Michael Morell lied for
#CrookedHillary to cover up Benghazi," Trump's campaign said in a
Twitter message.
The
incident, in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were
killed, occurred while Clinton was secretary of state, and Republicans
have long criticized her handling of the attack and its aftermath.
Critics
say administration officials tried to play down the role of Islamist
militants in the attacks. Morell approved talking points after the
incident. U.S. officials have said any reference to militants taking
part was initially dropped for classification reasons.
Morell
is currently affiliated with Beacon Global Strategies, a consulting
firm with ties to senior Democrats with national security expertise,
including former defense secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta and
former top Clinton aide Philippe Reines.
Trump's
vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, on Friday
dismissed Morell's comments, saying that "standing up to Russian
aggression is going to be really different under a Trump-Pence
administration."
"These people are playing politics," Pence said of Morell in an interview on NBC's "Today" program.
Morell's
article, in which he also said Trump had undermined U.S. security with
his campaign proposal to combat terrorism by imposing a temporary ban on
Muslims entering the country, added to questions raised by some
national security experts about the New York businessman's
qualifications to be president.
On
Thursday, a bipartisan group of experts criticized Trump's lukewarm
support for the NATO alliance, comments about Russia's annexation of
Crimea and other matters as "disgraceful."
Trump
has also drawn criticism for his praise for Putin as a strong leader,
particularly after Moscow came under suspicion from U.S. officials as
being behind recent hacking of Democratic Party groups. Moscow has
denied the allegations.
(Reporting by Emily Stephenson, Mark Hosenball and Susan Heavey; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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