I feel I should report on a fascinating and telling interaction a couple of weeks ago with people associated with the Secret Service.

I was at a meeting in a DC hotel that happened to be being conducted in a room next to rooms in which it appeared that the Secret Service was conducting job interviews.

A small group was sitting outside the room, and I could not resist going up to them and asking: “Here is an interesting question, what would you do if you had uncontroverted evidence that the person you were protecting was a Russian agent.”

To my considerable surprise, while none of them said anything, the body language was to somewhat quizzically encourage the line of inquiry.

I got even more positive body language from my follow up point that in the past that would have an absurd question, but now the possibility is an openly discussed question in the media.

Ultimately I answered the question by analogizing to the circumstances of an illegal command to the military – “you would talk about it within the agency.”

Now, I do not know if the group were agents, managers, interviewees, or trainees (or that the stated purpose was a cover for some other meeting). But, the question remains as a terrifyingly good one.