American politician initially in cult, accused (7)
I believe the answer is:
suspect
'accused' is the definition.
(I know that accused can be written as suspect)
'american politician initially in cult' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'US' (United States).
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'cult' becomes 'sect' (religious sect).
The first letter of 'politician' is 'p'.
'us'+'p'='usp'
'usp' inserted inside 'sect' is 'SUSPECT'.
(Other definitions for suspect that I've seen before include "person in the dock" , "Believe to be guilty, but without proof" , "Doubt - man being questioned by police" , "Questionable" , "Consider or believe likely" .)