( CNN) Every week, I offer a glimpse of the kind of intelligence appraisals that are likely to come across the desk of the president of the United States, modeled on the President's Daily Briefing, or PDB, which the director of national intelligence prepares for the president almost daily.
Now that Trump's longtime friend and informal adviser Roger Stone has been indicted, both our enemies and allies around the world can see that special counsel Robert Mueller has evidence to believe that senior Trump campaign officials spoke with Stone about Wikileaks and that a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases from Wikileaks, an organization that published information that Russia stole from Americans.
The President's “witch hunt” response to the special counsel's indictment — especially when considered along with his response to previous ones — will likely be interpreted by many around the world as a sign that when it comes to Russia, he's conflicted. By scream witch hunt louder than he decries Russia's attack, he's setting us up for another very dangerous election season. His failure to condemn illegal Russian behaviour, especially when it involves his own associates and family, will probably be interpreted as condoning it. That opens the US to a lot of risk going forward.
