A review by vladdbad
American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery by Craig Unger
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.25
There is one serious flaw in this otherwise excellent account of the unusual ties between Trump and Russian intelligence: FBI counter-intelligence chief-cum-mole Robert Hanssen. The only connection between Hanssen and any other player in the saga is shared conservative Catholic beliefs, beliefs encompassed by membership in a conservative Catholic group that has a sinister reputation and may-or-may-not have ties to William Barr and legal enablers of Trump. This inclusion of a such a weak thread where everything else in enmeshed in a nested series of webs raises doubts and eyebrows about the reasons for the inclusion, doubts that ill-serve the author. It raises questions of an anti-Catholic (or at least anti-clerical) bias, and it could easily be omitted as completely unnecessary.
The overall thesis is well-supported, and the frequency of appearance of the same names, faces, and social networks in different places and functions suggests there is fire behind the smoke, but the lengthy and narratively central digression into what in the end leads to nothing is unfortunate. That Hanssen betrayed his religion as well as his nation and vocation is a far more parsimonious conclusion.
The overall thesis is well-supported, and the frequency of appearance of the same names, faces, and social networks in different places and functions suggests there is fire behind the smoke, but the lengthy and narratively central digression into what in the end leads to nothing is unfortunate. That Hanssen betrayed his religion as well as his nation and vocation is a far more parsimonious conclusion.