Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Monday that the intelligence community is not backing off its theory that Russia sought to undermine Hillary Clinton and boost President Trump during last year’s election, several months after it offered that assessment.
“While it’s been over four months since the issuance of the assessment, as [FBI and NSA] Directors [James] Comey and [Michael] Rogers testified … the conclusions and confidence levels reached at the time still stand,” Clapper told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in his prepared remarks.
“That’s a testament to the quality and professionalism of the IC personnel who produced such a compelling intelligence report during a tumultuous, controversial time, under intense scrutiny, and with a very tight deadline,” he added.
Clapper said the assessment was completed by three agencies: the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency.
Clapper summarized the intelligence community’s findings by saying Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to erode the “faith and confidence” of U.S. voters, in an effort to “demean Secretary Clinton.” He also said Putin “sought to advantage Mr. Trump.”
The hearing was called as part of the committee’s early effort both to examine Trump’s links to Russia and Russia’s effort to help Trump, as well as leaks from the Obama administration about Trump’s alleged contacts with Russia.
Republicans charge that those leaks were put out by Trump’s opponents in the Obama administration, and that they did so by “unmasking” members of Trump’s team who had contact with Russian officials.
On the issue of unmasking, Clapper said there are times when U.S. citizens are unmasked for legitimate reasons, and said in 2016, 1,934 people were unmasked. But he said leaks of this information are unauthorized, and said he has never “knowingly exposed classified information in an inappropriate manner.”
“At no time did I ever submit a request for personal or political purposes, or to voyeuristically look at raw intelligence, nor am I aware of any instance of such abuse by anyone else,” he said.
