Former CIA acting director Michael Morell told
ABC News that he has “no doubt” Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks that Republican nominee Donald Trump is an unwitting agent of Russia.
Morell made the accusation as he was interviewed about an editorial he wrote in Friday's
New York Times in which he said he will vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for president, explaining that Trump "may well pose a threat to our national security."
One of his examples in the editorial was that Trump’s personality traits allowed Putin to use him, and in the ABC interview Morell gave a fuller explanation of what he meant.
Putin is "a trained intelligence officer, worked for the KGB, very talented, manipulated people much smarter than Donald Trump," Morell said.
"He played this perfectly. He saw Donald Trump wanted to be complimented, so he complimented him," he said. "That led Donald Trump to then compliment Vladimir Putin and defend Vladimir Putin’s actions in a number of places around the world. And Donald Trump didn’t even understand that Putin was playing him."
Morell has emphasized that he is not registered as a member of any political party and has voted for both Republican and Democratic candidates in the past.
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