Donald Trump was ‘recruited by Vladimir Putin as unwitting agent of Russia’

A former top CIA official has attacked Donald Trump as a danger to America’s national security, saying president Vladimir Putin had made the Republican presidential candidate an “unwitting agent” of Russia.

Putin had flattered Trump into supporting positions favourable to Russia, Michael Morell, a long-time 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 November 8 election, Democrat Hillary Clinton.