James Clapper on Trump-Russia Ties: My Dashboard Warning Light Was Clearly On
Source: NBC News
WASHINGTON — Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Sunday said that his "dashboard warning light was clearly on" when asked about whether he knew about communications between Russians and White House senior adviser and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
"I have to say that, without specifically affirming or confirming these conversations — since, even though they're in the public realm, they're still classified — just from a theoretical standpoint, I will tell you that my dashboard warning light was clearly on and I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community, very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians," Clapper said during an exclusive interview on NBC's "Meet The Press."
"If you put that in context with everything else we knew the Russians were doing to interfere with the election, and just the historical practices of the Russians, who typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique. So we were concerned."
He also acknowledged that intelligence like this would have triggered the FBI's extra attention on Kushner. NBC News has reported that Kushner is under FBI scrutiny related to the Russia investigations, but is not a "subject" of them. "I think so... I have to say, at the time I left, I did not see any smoking gun certitude evidence of collusion. But it certainly was appropriate for — given all the signs — certainly appropriate for the FBI — and necessary for the FBI to investigate," Clapper said.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/james-clapper-trump-russia-ties-my-dashboard-warning-light-was-n765601
= new reply since forum marked as read
