Former President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Meet the Press Sunday morning, “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, president-elect, candidate or campaign.”
Watch here:
Former DNI Clapper on @MeetThePress: There was no wiretapping mounted against the president or his campaign https://t.co/thrhL9wfoE
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 5, 2017
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Clapper said he would have known about a FISA court order on something like this, and there was not one to his knowledge. This was a specific and narrow denial, but it still quashes Trump’s wild accusations.
Clapper was the Director of National Intelligence from 2010-2016.
What Clapper is not saying is what every person who speaks to foreign intelligence targets should already know, and that is that they are probably being monitored. Thus, when one speaks to them, one is being monitored.
Trump supporters are already calling Clapper a liar (he was accused of lying under oath by Representative Justin Amash and Senator Rand Paul, who said he belonged in prison for lying under oath – see Jeff Sessions lying under oath for the irony), but in doing so they are pulling a Glenn Beck. Donald Trump made an accusation against the Obama White House with no evidence, and he is now demanding that Obama prove a negative.
Demanding that someone prove your accusations are false, which you based on nothing, is the oldest set-up in the book, and a trick often relied upon by conspiracy artists.
Donald Trump just asked Congress Sunday morning to investigate his unfounded and wild accusations against President Obama while they are looking into Trump’s contacts with Russia.
The facts are that all intelligence agencies agree that Russia interfered in the U.S. election and wanted to help Donald Trump win. A virtual who’s who of Trump’s close confidants have had contact with Russia during the campaign, and several of them have already been caught lying about it, notably Trump’s Attorney General, who lied about it under oath.
The Trump White House needs evidence before accusations. That is how this is supposed to work, otherwise Trump is operating like a dictator, going on witch hunts against people he perceives to be against him, with no facts or evidence to support his paranoia.
Image: Screengrab, James Clapper, Meet the Press NBC
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