(I am focused on only one portion of this interview with James Clapper and John Brennan, but there is much more to learn by watching the entire clip.)
Courtesy of Business Insider:
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN on Sunday that he did not know about the meeting top Trump campaign advisers took with a Russian lawyer last year at Trump Tower to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton when he said in January that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Moscow.
Clapper was also not aware that a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, was told about the Russian "dirt" on Clinton last April and had been trying for months to arrange a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former top intelligence official told CNN's Jake Tapper.
"You said in January 2017 that you knew of no collusion," Tapper said. "Did you know of those two events?"
"No, I did not," Clapper replied.
"The statement I made at the time was true," he continued. "I had no direct evidence of collusion. We had lots of concerns, because we were aware of multiple meetings that were going on."
Clapper said that, for his part, he was "not directly aware of the content of these meetings."
"But we were certainly concerned," he said. "The dashboard warning lights were clearly on about what was going on. To say specifically that we had smoking gun evidence of collusion, no. But, of course, a lot more has come out that raises, I think, circumstantial questions if nothing else."
If you think about it we have learned an enormous amount since January, and it seems clear to me by how James Clapper and John Brennan phrased their responses that their assessment of Trump's involvement with the Russian interference may have changed dramatically since they were on the job.
Personally I am fairly convinced that Robert Mueller has plenty of evidence to tie Trump to Putin's hijacking of our election, and look forward to watching how he presents this evidence and Trump's reaction when he realizes the jig is up.
Courtesy of Business Insider:
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN on Sunday that he did not know about the meeting top Trump campaign advisers took with a Russian lawyer last year at Trump Tower to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton when he said in January that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Moscow.
Clapper was also not aware that a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, was told about the Russian "dirt" on Clinton last April and had been trying for months to arrange a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former top intelligence official told CNN's Jake Tapper.
"You said in January 2017 that you knew of no collusion," Tapper said. "Did you know of those two events?"
"No, I did not," Clapper replied.
"The statement I made at the time was true," he continued. "I had no direct evidence of collusion. We had lots of concerns, because we were aware of multiple meetings that were going on."
Clapper said that, for his part, he was "not directly aware of the content of these meetings."
"But we were certainly concerned," he said. "The dashboard warning lights were clearly on about what was going on. To say specifically that we had smoking gun evidence of collusion, no. But, of course, a lot more has come out that raises, I think, circumstantial questions if nothing else."
If you think about it we have learned an enormous amount since January, and it seems clear to me by how James Clapper and John Brennan phrased their responses that their assessment of Trump's involvement with the Russian interference may have changed dramatically since they were on the job.
Personally I am fairly convinced that Robert Mueller has plenty of evidence to tie Trump to Putin's hijacking of our election, and look forward to watching how he presents this evidence and Trump's reaction when he realizes the jig is up.
