Newsweek

Is Donald Trump Really a Russian Spy?

The Russia investigation isn't fake news. But Donald Trump would be a spymaster's nightmare.
President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House upon his return to Washington, D.C., on August 20, after a vacation in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Donald Trump

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

It was the summer of 2008, and I was in Wayne, New Jersey, standing in a Hooters parking lot with Captain Oleg Kulikov, a New York–based Russian spymaster. For three years, I’d been working for Moscow, trying to prove my worth. I wanted to become a key asset for the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. In return, I wanted a hefty paycheck and thought I’d done enough to earn it. But Kulikov was dithering—and he could see I was upset.  

What he didn’t know: I was a double agent, working for the FBI. My mission was to make the Russians believe I was a spy. Which meant I had to

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