# American Kompromat - Author: [Craig Unger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger.md) - Quotes: 35 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat ## Quotes > ... described... to me in great detail... the most successful intelligence operation in history... ending... with a Russian asset in the ... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/described-to-me-in-great.md) > "Trump was a dream for officers looking to develop an asset," Shvets told me. "...with Trump it wasn't just weakness. Everything was excessive. His vanity ...Narcissism ...Greed ...Ignorance, excessive." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/trump-was-a-dream.md) > , who lived in until his death... helped bail out Trump by funding... Trump SoHo... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/who-lived-in-until.md) > [D]uring the 2016 election cycle, the... FSB... found plenty of ways to subvert America’s elections without breaking the law. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/d-uring-the-2016.md) > [T]he Jackson–Vanik Amendment to the allowed the Soviet Union... normal trade relations... General ...saw it as a great opportunity for the . ..."We told [the émigrés] ...you will provide ...information. And they pledged their services..." ...the KGB had leverage on any family left behind. ...And what was their task ..? "To penetrate... Western institutions. Government ...and ...high technology... And some did succeed" ...huge numbers of Russian criminals and KGB spies ...did inundate the United States ...fueling the growth of the and a new generation of KGB assets... one of whom was Donald Trump. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/t-he-jackson-vanik-amendment.md) > John Brennan declared Trump... "...in the pocket of Putin" and... on ... he... called Trump’s behavior "treasonous, which is to betray... trust and aid and abet the enemy..." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/john-brennan-declared.md) > [I]ntelligence operations are designed to operate within the law... [L]ax regulations... enforcement, and the... nature of counterintelligence, has given the Russians... latitude. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/i-ntelligence-operations-are.md) > ... based in ... [with] ties to the , came up with a... business model to franchise Trump condos after he'd lost billions... which made the perpetually bankrupt... Trump rich again and would lead to a... ... America... injected with... oligarchy... with Donald Trump in the . [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/based-in-with.md) > Trump... had a personality that was ideal for a potential asset—vain, narcissistic, highly susceptible to flattery, and greedy. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/trump-had-a-personality.md) > Yuri helped Litvinenko assemble and analyze a dossier linking senior officials, including... Putin, to the Tambov organized crime group, which laundered money and facilitated drug trafficking for the Colombian cartel. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/yuri-helped-litvinenko.md) > Shvets... had a front-row seat at the birth of post-Soviet Russia as a Mafia state and on the waves of kleptocrats and oligarchs... sweeping into the West, along with authoritarian right-wing populist politicians. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/shvets-had-a-front-row.md) > [A] ... 1999 article by... Knute Royce... cited a 1994 FBI file characterizing [Kislin] as a "member/associate" of the mob organization headed by ... "godfather of Russian organized crime in the United States." ...Kislin had started Trans Commodities Inc. ..."...known to have laundered millions of dollars from Russia to New York." ...Trans Commodities, and Anton Malevsky... contract killer for the , were... allegedly tied to... Mikhail Chernoy... a major figure in the... Aluminum Wars... marked by embezzlement, money laundering, and murder. ...[T]he report said... Kislin was... a "close associate" of... arms smuggler Babeck Seroush and that he... cosponsored a visa for Malevsky. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/a-1999-article.md) > Kislin... came to Trump’s aid after his massive bankruptcies in Atlantic City in the nineties by issuing mortgages for condos in Trump World Tower... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/kislin-came-to-trumps.md) > [I]ntelligence operations... [brought] Trump into the 's fold... compromised him through... money-laundering schemes, sycophantic flattery... extravagantly well-paid franchising projects... [etc.] [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/i-ntelligence-operations-brought.md) > Kislin... and his partner, ... set up... Joy-Lud Electronics... ultimately controlled by the ... always filled with KGB agents and high-level Soviet dignitaries. ..."The KGB was... paranoid about... bugging...” said Shvets. But since Kislin was... with the KGB, Soviet dignitaries had no such concerns. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/kislin-and-his.md) > [T]he Mueller Report... part... dealing with was one... paragraph, saying... the FBI "embedded personnel... did not work on the Special Counsel’s investigation, but... sen[t]... summaries of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence... to FBIHQ and... Field Offices. Those communications and other... not all... contained in this Volume." ...there was no counterintelligence investigation. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/t-he-mueller-report.md) > Michael Hayden... called... Trump "a clear and present danger" to America's... security and "a ," a term... attributed to Vladimir Lenin... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/michael-hayden-called.md) > Shvets would find himself asking how... a comically incompetent organization could have... installed a Russian asset as president of the United States. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/shvets-would-find.md) > [A]ccording to Shvets, Kislin... spotted Donald Trump, who... became a special unofficial contact—a rare variation of trusted contact that was applied to high-level intelligence assets, like... and... Robert Maxwell. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/a-ccording-to-shvets.md) > [A]fter... residence in the , people asked... what the Russians had on Trump. ..[I]t’s... simple: They owned him. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/a-fter-residence-in-the.md) > "In terms of his personality," Shvets added, "the guy is not a complicated cookie, his most important characteristics being low intellect coupled with hyperinflated vanity. This combination makes him a dream for an experienced recruiter." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/in-terms-of-his.md) > [T]he Mueller probe... regarding criminal activities... led to.. indictment of thirty-four individuals and three companies. Ten men pleaded guilty or were convicted... including... Trump associates... Paul Manafort... Rick Gates... Michael Flynn... George Nader... Roger Stone.... , and... Michael Cohen. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/t-he-mueller-probe.md) > s are intended to lead toward prosecution; are not. Instead, they... thwart... espionage, or ... Even though... not... about breaking the law... counterintelligence... may... involve issues... far more serious. In this case... Russian interference in... elections. From .... disinformation... Russian assets... groomed for... perhaps decades, and were... in place to... damage... vital American institutions. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/s-are-intended.md) > A serious counterintelligence investigation... would presumably have asked... whether Trump had been compromised... by Russia. ...[H]ow deeply Trump was indebted to the ...laundering millions of dollars... Was he a Russian asset? ...How much did he make laundering ..? [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/a-serious-counterintelligence.md) > [V]ast sums from the 's various s had to be laundered. So in 1984, David Bogatin, a Russian mobster who had scored millions in the Red Daisy gas scam with Balagula, went shopping... at... ... closing, with Donald Trump... in attendance... five condominiums ...$6 million... cash, the equivalent of... $15 million in 2020. According to the New York State attorney general’s office... the Russian Mafia had just laundered money... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/v-ast-sums-from.md) > Sapir told magazine, his customers included the former Soviet minister of s, who granted Sapir rights to distribute tens of thousands of tons of fertilizer and tens of millions of barrels of oil, while pocketing fees... [S]elling oil was impossible without approval. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/sapir-told-magazine.md) > In 1995, Shvets published Washington Station: My Life as a KGB Spy in America, his memoir... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/in-1995-shvets.md) > ... "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/in-the-intelligence.md) > James Clapper asserted... Trump was... an intelligence "asset" serving... Putin. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/james-clapper-asserted.md) > [T]his is a country... in which it's possible to take money... [and] establish communications with Russian intelligence, and... to be a Russian asset without breaking the law. Russians can hire... attorneys as lobbyists, who... have access to... secrets... to get what they want. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/t-his-is-a-country.md) > Deceit was the new norm. ...Trump’s lies from [[w:The Washington Post|the ''Washington Post]]s "Fact Checker" ...passed twenty thousand. ...[N]ow ...anti-science ... Lies that killed'''... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/deceit-was-the.md) > [A] malevolent narcissist... at the helm... deliberately infected the nation with a murderous stupidity... of supporters who lived in a cultlike world of paranoid fantasies and magical thinking, blithely spreading... Trumpian hate and lethal disease... weaponized by Russian intelligence via social media, and incorporated into paranoid conspiracies by... extremist cults. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/a-malevolent-narcissist.md) > Fascism was in the air. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/fascism-was-in-the.md) > [H]e was a vulgar... vile... misogynistic, racist... buffoon who knew only his own pecuniary interests and prejudices... He was clownish and repellant... his... spectacles amplified by a sycophantic right-wing media. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/h-e-was-a-vulgar.md) > [H]e... implemented anti-science... policies that... led to... deaths of hundreds of thousands... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/craig-unger/american-kompromat/h-e-implemented-anti-science.md)