Basically, Putin was just using the American MSM as useful idiots to sow discord and drive a wedge into our governing processes by leaving breadcrumbs he knew they would freak out and obsess over.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8LgkUdLuaQ
Hoffman, former CIA officer
>I think if the media can discover the breadcrumbs then they were deliberately placed.
>8:40
Other interesting quotes
>Hoffman believes that Putin and the Russian Intelligence Services set President Trump and his team up for failure.
>1:39
>Russian intelligence would not send a bevy of Kremlin connected, influential Russians all together to a meeting. It was as if Putin was channeling the Brothers Grim and leaving bread crumbs a la Hansel and Gretel all the way back to the Kremlin.
>2:00
>Hoffman says the email was what professionals call a poison pill, and that the Trump team swallowed it whole.
>2:34
>Hoffman believes that once the Trump team took the bait Putin was counting on the free press in America to do what it does best: investigating and exposing all the details.
>3:07
>The difference in terms of status between Mr. Page and Mr. Kislyak is quite significant. Vladimir Putin would understand that that would drive a bit of media interest in why Mr. Page was engaging with an ambassador. They never should have been meeting.
>7:45