US Spies: to former intelligence operatives, Giuliani's involvement in the Post's story and Trump's willingness to seize on it showed just how susceptible they are to being duped by hostile intelligence services. https://www.businessinsider.com/spies-hunter-biden-emails-trump-giuliani-vulnerable-russian-intelligence-2020-10

Glenn Carle, a former CIA covert operative who specialized in turning Russian spies, told Business Insider that in addition to Giuliani's access to Trump, his motivations also make him an attractive target for Russian intelligence.

No matter what the motivation is, a foreign intelligence service can usually exploit it," Carle said.

"In this case, it's very straightforward: Giuliani is hunting for information that he thinks will help Trump and harm Biden...”

“And then you look at the person's psychological makeup. Are they gullible? Can they be duped? Are they motivated to take chances? In Giuliani's case, the answer to all those questions is a glaring 'yes.'"

Giuliani has "been stumbling around in Ukraine, which is Russian turf from an intelligence perspective. In every way, Trump & Giuliani are grotesquely vulnerable, exploitable targets for Russian intelligence...”

Giuliani, he said, "is a lot smarter than Trump but misses being in the limelight and wants to be a power player in Washington. He's an old guy who loves attention. So the Russians can easily get an agent to talk to him, butter him up...”

Hall echoed that view and described Giuliani as a "useful idiot" for Russian operatives.

"The Russians can make Giuliani feel like he's important..They can appeal to his ego and basically get the same type of control over him that they can with a traditional recruited asset."

"At the very least, Giuliani has been directly manipulated and fed information for a substantial period of time," Carle said.

"And when confronted with these concerns, both he and Trump aggressively challenge it and denounce those who raised the points.

From a counterintelligence perspective, all of that is very alarming and suspicious."

"They want to protect their boy in the White House because Trump's policies have been strategically fantastic for Russia," Carle said. "He alienated the United States from NATO and turned a blind eye to Russian influence in Crimea...”

“... His actions in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Libya, helped Russia gain a significant presence in the region for the first time in 48 years."

Most of all, Russia has a strategic objective to "make America dysfunctional because what's bad for America is good for Russia," Carle added.

"So if they can sow dissension in our political practices that discredits our institutions and disaffects Americans from participating in the democratic process, then America crumbles."

"And that's how Russia wins," he said

"Giuliani ...thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, politically...& he has protection from the Trump administration. That's exactly the kind of personality that Russian intelligence services would look to take advantage of."
@StevenLHall1,
former CIA chief of Russia operations