A shadowy Russian tried to lure US officials into falling for 'kompromat' on Trump

[CousinIT]

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'Part of the business'

It's not the first time Russia has offered compromising information on a contender to gain a foothold in US politics. The White House was thrown into a frenzy last summer when it emerged that former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016 who had promised dirt on then Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The offer was extended as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," and appeared to be an attempt to push for the repeal of the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which sanctioned wealthy Russians accused of human-rights abuses.

Former CIA clandestine services officer John Sipher said that despite its end result, the US's participation in the deal to recover the stolen cyberweapons was not unusual and that the US would have had to "engage when there is an offer of such potentially interesting information."

"In these cases, the CIA is well aware that it might be a scam but needs to play it out in case it is real," he said. "If it appears to be Russian deception, it is important to develop as much information as possible in order to determine what they might be up to. These kinds of things often appear awkward but it is part of the business."

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Both the Times and The Intercept noted, however, that CIA officials were involved in aiding the operation from the agency's Berlin office last April.

Reached for comment, a CIA official said, "The people swindled here were James Risen and Matt Rosenberg," who are the authors of the Intercept and Times stories, respectively. "The fictional story that CIA was bilked out of $100,000 is patently false."