Former President Barack Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Chuck Todd on Meet The Press that evidence between President Donald Trump and Russia do not exist:
We did not include any evidence in our report, and I say, “our,” that’s N.S.A., F.B.I. and C.I.A., with my office, the Director of National Intelligence, that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that included in our report.
James Clapper, a retired lieutenant general with the Air Force, served as Obama’s DNI director from 2010-2017. He previously served as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1992 – 1995.
Of course, Todd kept attempting to make Clapper admit evidence existed, but the former director stood his ground:
CHUCK TODD: I understand that. But does it exist?JAMES CLAPPER: Not to my knowledge.CHUCK TODD: If it existed, it would have been in this report?JAMES CLAPPER: This could have unfolded or become available in the time since I left the government.CHUCK TODD: At some–JAMES CLAPPER: But at the time, we had no evidence of such collusion.
Todd did not stop trying to achieve agenda, by pointing out that “a lot of smoke” exists around the allegation and asked Clapper if the public should just accept it as such. This question reeled in Clapper:
JAMES CLAPPER: Well, that’s a good question. I don’t know. I do think, though, it is in everyone’s interest, in the current President’s interests, in the Democrats’ interests, in the Republican interest, in the country’s interest, to get to the bottom of all this. Because it’s such a distraction. And certainly the Russians have to be chortling about the success of their efforts to sow dissention in this country.CHUCK TODD: So you feel like your report does not get to the bottom– you admit your report that you released in January doesn’t get to the bottom of this?JAMES CLAPPER: It did– well, it got to the bottom of the evidence to the extent of the evidence we had at the time. Whether there is more evidence that’s become available since then, whether ongoing investigations will be revelatory, I don’t know.
Clapper admitted that he believed the conclusion “that the Russians interfered and did so in an attempt to help Donald Trump.” But he reiterated that his report did not come up with proof.
On Sunday, Professor Jacobson wrote about Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) on Fox News Sunday that he does not have “hard evidence of collusion” between Trump and the Russians.
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