James Clapper, America’s top spy under President Barack Obama, said President Trump encouraged Russia to again meddle in U.S. elections when he said he would accept opposition research from a foreign government.
“The Russians are doing — they’re going to repeat what they did in 2016. They’re going to repeat it in 2020 and now what President Trump has done is encouraging them to do so. Again, it’s just — it’s stunning,” Clapper, former director of national intelligence, told CNN on Wednesday.
Trump said in an ABC News interview that he was not necessarily opposed to accepting opposition research from a foreign government but might report it to the FBI if he believed “something was wrong.”
There has been backlash from both Democrats and Republicans in response to the president’s comments. “The president’s comments are undemocratic, un-American, disgraceful,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would take up legislation that would require candidates to report foreign offers of opposition research to the FBI.
Trump’s remarks also put him at odds with FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has said public officials or a campaign should contact the bureau if a foreign government offers dirt.
Clapper also said there is “duplicity” when comparing Trump’s latest comments about opposition research to his criticism of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s unverified dossier, which was funded by Democrats and used by the FBI to obtain warrants to surveil Carter Page, a onetime member of his campaign.
Clapper, who is now a CNN contributor, was director of national intelligence up until Trump’s inauguration. He oversaw the intelligence community’s assessment, released in January 2017, that determined Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”
Trump’s comments to ABC were reminiscent of his July 2016 appeal to Russia, in which he said, “I will tell you this: Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
Trump said this call was made in jest and not intended to be taken seriously. But federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment filed against 12 Russians by special counsel Robert Mueller last year that they began attempting to hack Clinton’s personal email server the day Trump called for Russia to find her deleted emails.
