Polly want a cracker?

The testimony of Clint Watts, former FBI agent, before the Senate Intelligence Committee today:

“The reason active measures have worked in this US election is because the commander-in-chief has used Russian active measures at times against his opponents.”

‘Active measures’ is a term used during the Cold War to describe political warfare carried out by the Russian security services to undermine a rival power.

Mr Watts, an advisor at the Foreign Policy Research Institute Programme, cited several examples of when Mr Trump had referenced false new stories about terror attacks that had in fact never taken place.

“He has made claims about voter fraud, that President Obama is not a citizen, that Congressman [Ted] Cruz is not a citizen,” he added.

“So part of the reason these active measures work, and it does today in terms of Trump Tower being wiretapped, is because they [the Trump team] parrot the same lines.”

No, it's not the kind of evidence that supports a criminal investigation.  But it is the kind of evidence that supports a counter-espionage investigation.  And makes you wonder whether Trump is doing it on purpose, or because he's a "useful idiot."

Neither answer is encouraging.