Declassified Congressional Report: Yes, James Clapper Leaked to Jake Tapper About the Russia/Dossier Briefing and Then Lied to Congress About It

Let me add in my own "finding:" Clapper was going to continue lying about this until the specificity of the question -- Did you leak to Jake Tapper, specifically? -- suggested to him that Congress knew and had him in a perjury trap if he continued to lie.

So at that point, he said "Oh right, now that you mention it..."

Are we to believe he'd previously forgotten?

From Sean Davis:

Buried within a newly declassified congressional report on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections is a shocking revelation: former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper not only leaked information about the infamous Steele dossier and high-level government briefings about it to CNN, he also may have lied to Congress about the matter.

In one of the findings within the 253-page report, the House intelligence committee wrote that Clapper leaked details of a dossier briefing given to then-President-elect Donald Trump to CNN’s Jake Tapper, lied to Congress about the leak, and was rewarded with a CNN contract a few months later.

"Clapper flatly denied 'discussing[ing] the dossier [compiled by Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists,'" the committee found.

When asked directly whether he had ever discussed the dossier with any journalists, Clapper replied that he had not, according to a transcript of the proceedings:

MR. ROONEY: Did you discuss the dossier or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists?

MR. CLAPPER: No.

The former DNI later changed his story after he was confronted specifically about his communications with Jake Tapper of CNN.

"Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the 'dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,' and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic," the report continued. “Clapper’s discussion with Tapper took place in early January 2017, around the time IC leaders briefed President Obama and President-elect Trump, on 'the Christopher Steele information,' a two-page summary of which was ‘enclosed in’ the highly-classified version of the ICA," or intelligence community assessment.

Clapper was then hired as a CNN national security commentator.

Remember, CNN was looking for a "news hook" -- this is straight from Comey's mouth -- to report on the dossier. Did Tapper mention that to Clapper? Did Clapper then contrive this whole briefing, which he could leak to his future employer, as the exact "news hook" CNN was looking for?

I'm 99% certain that's exactly what happened. And I've been saying so for more than a year.

My only question is whether Brennan and Comey also understood the purpose of this briefing was not to inform the president, but to deliver CNN the news hook it needed to report the fake dossier paid for by Clinton.

Were they co-conspirators, or just Clapper's dupes?

posted by Ace of Spades at 12:32 PM

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