Trump: ‘Clapper Admitted’ FBI Spied On 2016 Campaign

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Saagar Enjeti White House Correspondent
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President Donald Trump once again took a shot at former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper in a brief appearance before cameras on the White House lawn Wednesday.

“If you look at Clapper, he sort of admitted that they had spies in the campaign yesterday, inadvertently,” Trump said. The president appeared to reference Clapper’s recent appearance on ABC’s “The View,” where he claimed that Trump should be grateful that the FBI had an informant in his campaign. The former DNI director insisted that the FBI was not spying on the Trump campaign, saying, “What they were trying to do was protect our political system and protect the campaign.”

He then added, “They were spying — a term I don’t particularly like — on what the Russians were doing, trying to understand, were the Russians infiltrating?” When pressed by ABC as to why Trump is not supporting the FBI’s action, Clapper said, “Well, he should be.”

Trump reacted to the interview in a tweet Wednesday morning, saying:

Trump is reacting to recent revelations that an FBI informant made contact with several members of his campaign and efforts by conservative lawmakers to review documents relating to the probe. These efforts will come to fruition Thursday when Congressman Devin Nunes and Congressman Trey Gowdy will be allowed by the Department of Justice to review the documents after months of oversight efforts.