Back in March, former Director of National Intelligence turned CNN contributor James Clapper swore up and down that no one on the Trump campaign was wiretapped and insisted he “would know” if that was the case.
Even though he’s a proven liar who was caught lying to congress before about mass surveillance, the mass media took his assurance that Trump and his campaign was not spied on as gospel.
CNN even went on to hire Clapper as a contributor a few months later.
Thanks to Monday’s report from CNN which detailed how the government spied on Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort before and after the election, we now know Clapper was lying once again.
“But I will say that, for the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as DNI, there was no such wiretap activity mounted against– the president elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign. I can’t speak for other Title Three authorized entities in the government or a state or local entity,” Clapper told NBC’s Chuck Todd in March.
Watch.
Fmr. DNI Clapper: “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, president-elect, candidate or campaign.” pic.twitter.com/yRIg2ygP59
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 5, 2017
TODD: Yeah, I was just going to say, if the F.B.I., for instance, had a FISA court order of some sort for a surveillance, would that be information you would know or not know?
CLAPPER: Yes.
TODD: You would be told this?
CLAPPER: I would know that.
TODD: If there was a FISA court order–
CLAPPER: Yes.
TODD: –on something like this.
CLAPPER: Something like this, absolutely.
TODD: And at this point, you can’t confirm or deny whether that exists?
CLAPPER: I can deny it.
Will CNN fire Clapper now that it’s abundantly clear he’s a serial liar?
Of course not.
CNN’s Chris Cillizza today actually cited Clapper’s lies — blatantly misquoting what Clapper actually said — as proof Trump was not wiretapped.
Cillizza wrote:
And the fact that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has also definitively ruled out that Trump’s phones were tapped.
“For the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as DNI, there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the President-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign,” Clapper said on NBC in March. Asked directly whether there was a FISA warrant to tap Trump’s phone at Trump Tower, Clapper responded bluntly: “I can deny it.”
Todd asked Clapper whether there was “a FISA court order of some sort for a surveillance,” he didn’t ask him, as Cillizza said, “directly whether there was a FISA warrant to tap Trump’s phone at Trump Tower.”
Todd didn’t cite “Trump’s phone” nor “Trump Tower” specifically until after Clapper’s blanket denial there was any “sort” of surveillance.
Author: Chris Menahan
Courtesy of Information Liberation
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