Retired Col. Lt. Ralph Peters, a former military analyst for Fox News, threw down an astonishing claim on CNN Wednesday night.

On the network to discuss the Mueller investigation and White House claims that the entire thing is a witch hunt, host Anderson Cooper noted Peters has experience with Russian intelligence, and asked if he thought Vladimir Putin has “some sort of grip on President Trump.”

“I am convinced that Vladimir Putin has a grip on Trump,” Peters replied.

“When I first learned of the Steele dossier, it just rang true to me,” he continued. “Because that’s how the Russians do things. And before he became a candidate for president, Donald Trump was the perfect target for Russian intelligence. Here is someone who has no self-control, a sense of sexual entitlement and intermittent financial crises. That’s made to order for seduction by Russian intelligence. I hope I am wrong. I hope Putin doesn’t have a grip on him.”

Peters continued that he thinks we may very well look back on the “much-maligned” Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, as a hero. He added that the Mueller investigation is the “most important” in his lifetime… and he lived through Watergate.

The appearance was Peters’ first cable news hit since he ditched Fox News with a nuclear email announcing his departure — calling the network “a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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