U.S. institutions ‘are under assault,’ Clapper declares

Ex-intelligence chief points to ‘internal’ and external forces

James Clapper, WASHINGTON the former director of national intelligence, said Sunday that U.S. institutions are “under assault” by President Trump as evidenced by Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director last week. Clapper said on CNN’s State of

the Union that “the developments of the past week are very bothersome, very disturbing to me.” Trump fired Comey in the midst of the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government in last year’s presidential election.

“I think in many ways our institutions are under assault both externally — and that’s the big news here is the Russian interference in our election system — and ... internally,” Clapper said.

When CNN host Jake Tapper asked if he meant they were under assault by the president, Clapper responded: “Exactly.”

In a separate appearance on ABC’s This Week, Clapper said Comey’s firing is a victory for Russia. “What’s unfolded now, here, the lead of the investigation about potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign has been removed,” he said. “So the Russians have to consider this ... another victory on the scoreboard.”

The former national intelligence director for the Obama administration also said on CNN that his past statements that he didn’t know of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during last year’s election “should not be considered excul- patory” even though they have been used that way by Trump.

Clapper said the report from the intelligence community he was citing when he made those statements to Congress early this year focused on whether the Russians tried to interfere in the election. The report concluded that they did, but it did not address possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.

Trump has cited Clapper’s past statements as evidence that his campaign did not collude with the Russians. The president has denounced any suggestion of collusion as a “witch hunt” by Democrats who are still upset over losing the White House. President Trump’s firing of the FBI director was “disturbing,” James Clapper says.

Clapper said he deferred to the FBI director about whether and when to tell him about any counterintelligence investigations he might be conducting, including any involving Russia and the Trump campaign. He said he didn’t know for sure that the FBI was investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials until Comey testified about it in March before congressional committees. Clapper had left office by then.

“The bottom line is I don’t know if there was collusion, political collusion,” Clapper said. “I don’t know of any evidence to it. So I can’t refute it, and I can’t confirm it.”