Retired General Barry McCaffrey told MSNBC on Tuesday that Russia’s leverage would follow President Donald Trump for the rest of his life, and the president would “never be safe” from its intelligence services.

McCaffrey’s assessment followed a discussion between hosts Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle with NBC chief global correspondent Bill Neely about whether Trump’s private, one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin put US intelligence services at a disadvantage when it came to countering “Russia’s efforts to advance its agenda against the United States?

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Neely responded that we already know what Russia’s plans are because they are playing out in Europe as elections approach.

“It’s in Russia’s interest to interfere as much as possible,” he said. “China’s interests and Russia’s interests align, why wouldn’t they do malign things with regard to the United States?”

McCaffrey then chimed in and said that Trump’s Helsinki meeting with Putin would be a long-term problem for the president and the country.

“What Mr. Trump ought to fear the most is that the Russians in particular eventually will use their version of the events against them,” he said. “They may wait until he’s out of office just to discredit the U.S. political system.”

“Mr. Trump will never be safe from the GRU,” he added. “Eventually, their version of it’s going to be put out in public, and he’ll have no defense.”

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