met him at a hotel bar the week after I returned home to Washington—just like in the movies. He had significant experience in Russia from his time working for international organizations in the days when the old Soviet Union crumbled after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Sometimes the word “spook” is considered a racial slur but I did not see it this way with my spooky friend. As the weeks of this strange election unfolded he was like a ghost who appeared early in the morning, calling me on my home landline often as early as 4 am, to tell me what to be aware of, and often knowing what would
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