Wow. One of the people working on this is a former security guy at Intel. Makes me wonder if meltdown and specter were engineered into chips on purpose.
Meltdown and Spectre aren't backdoors or simple mistakes. They are the unforeseen consequences of speculative execution. Also, other companies' processors are affected too.
Spectre/Meltdown aren't the "tinfoil" (which might actually be legitimate) fears in Intel -- those are probably Intel Management Engine/AMT/etc. and general supply chain risk (maybe Intel processors in general are safe, but if you're a target, maybe the machines you order are "special" -- although making special CPUs in the latest process, especially if you're not Intel itself, is a lot harder than making "special" versions of other chips in older process in the system.)
Without other evidence pointing to deliberate design of the flaws, it's reasonable to think that an expert on security would be hired by Intel for that expertise on security, and that they would also be someone tapped to be in a high-level group that would be looking into security issues for the government. You can definitely disagree with the goals of the Justice Department and those involved in this matter without also attributing deliberately introducing flaws that resulting in Meltdown and Spectre.