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BERMAN: Asking for names [to be unmasked], nothing wrong with that. Unmasking in itself, nothing wrong with that. Leaking classified information — and by definition these phone calls were classified — that’s a problem, correct? CLAPPER: Absolutely, it is. BERMAN: And if anyone did leak the contents of these conversations with or without the name, that would be a problem, yes? CLAPPER: [connection ends] BERMAN: We’ve lost the shot. I wonder if we can at least get him on the phone to finish this. Let’s try to get Director Clapper back. All right, we’re gonna work on getting that shot...

James Clapper, in an interview with John Berman on CNN, was asked about the attorney general appointment of U.S. Attorney John Durham for the job to investigate how the “FBI Russia Investigation started”. “There is a substantial investigation, which as I understand it, is nearing completion, being conducted by the Justice Department Inspector General,” Clapper said. “I’d wait for the outcome of that to determine if there needs to be more investigations.”

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: The 2017 assessment that the President says he now agrees with, that was done while you and then NCI Director John Brennan were still in office. So, how can we reconcile the President attacking you, but apparently after a very long time finally, allegedly saying — or saying he allegedly agrees with the product of the intelligence community that you, yourself oversaw?JAMES CLAPPER: Yes, well, this is — yes, as we’ve come to know the President, he is not a stalwart for a consistency or coherence. So it’s very hard to explain that. One point...

Former President Obama’s intelligence chief on Monday said he hoped special counsel Robert Mueller would wrap up his Russia investigation soon and tell the country whether there was any collusion between Moscow and President Trump’s campaign. “I think the overarching point here is that this whole issue has to come to a resolution,” Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in an interview with Hill.TV’s new morning show, "Rising." “At some point special counsel Mueller and his team I hope will wrap up the investigation and clear the air one way or the other whether or not there was...

President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had admitted that the FBI spied on his presidential campaign, further escalating his attacks on the law enforcement and intelligence communities charged with probing possible collusion with Russia. "Clapper has now admitted that there was Spying in my campaign," Trump tweeted, referring to an interview Clapper did Tuesday on ABC's "The View." But that's false — Clapper did not say that. Responding to a direct question from one of the hosts, Joy Behar — "Was the FBI spying on Trump's campaign?" — Clapper said, "No, they were...

James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence for former President Obama, claims in his new book Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to sign a statement condemning foreign interference in elections. In his book, “Facts and Fears, Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence,” Clapper claims the two Republican leaders did not want to sign anything that would hurt their party’s nominee. Clapper was “disappointed, but not surprised,” he also wrote. Ryan and McConell have not responded to the claims. During his appearance on “The View,” Clapper insisted the FBI was not spying on President Donald...

Clapper admitted the FBI “may have had someone who was talking to them in the campaign,” referring to President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He explained away the possibility of an FBI informant spying on the campaign as the bureau was trying to find out “what the Russians were doing to try to substantiate themselves in the campaign or influence or leverage it.” Obama’s Director of National Intelligence then went on to say, “So, if there was someone that was observing that sort of thing, that’s a good thing.” He also stated he believes “it’s hugely dangerous if someone like that...

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that his earlier statements that there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia should not be considered “exculpatory.” Clapper, appearing on on State of the Union, said that he had made his earlier claims based on information he had seen, which had not included information about an ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation investigation. “I deferred to the FBI director … So my statement was premised on, first, the context of our intelligence community assessment … There was no reporting in that intelligence community...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said our institutions of government were “under assault” by President Donald Trump. Partial transcript as follows: TAPPER: Let’s take a wider view of this for one second and then get back to more detailed questions. This week with the president firing the FBI director while this investigation is going on, and then saying that he was thinking about the Russia probe when he was making the decision, have we crossed a line here? well, CLAPPER: Well, I will just say that the developments of the past...

President Obama’s director of national intelligence identified one claim made in the dossier on Donald Trump that U.S. officials have corroborated, though it is likely to underwhelm Trump’s critics.Speaking to ABC News this week, James Clapper said that officials have corroborated the part of the dossier that asserts that Russian president Vladimir Putin has a “rabid animus” for Bill and Hillary Clinton.But that’s all that Clapper would cite as decidedly accurate in the dossier, which was compiled by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.That Putin has intense hatred for the Clintons is not news, nor is it among the more salacious...

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told ABC News he did not see anything to suggest that Russia successfully infiltrated Donald Trump’s presidential campaign or recruited any of Trump’s advisers – at least as of Jan. 20, when the retired three-star general left office. "There was no evidence whatsoever, at the time, of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians," Clapper, a career intelligence officer, told ABC News' Brian Ross in an interview Monday for "World News Tonight." The Clapper comments came amid a fight between the Trump administration and the FBI over the wiretapping claim the President...

In his “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reaffirmed the conclusion reached in a report regarding Russian influence on the presidential election, prepared during his watch by the intelligence services and the FBI. They concluded that there was no evidence of collusion between Donald Trump or his campaign and the Russian government to influence the presidential election in President Trump’s favor. Mr. Clapper said: “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...