Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Friday called Michael Flynn's guilty plea in the Russia investigation "dramatic but not surprising," and he said it proved that "the rule of law does prevail in this country."
"That, to me, is very important," Clapper, who served in the Obama administration, told Jake Tapper on CNN. "Obviously, huge implications for the White House. It's not a good day.
"He's not a coffee boy. This is not a hoax. It's not fake. It's real."
Clapper added that Flynn's plea also provided "a certain amount of vindication" for former FBI Director James Comey, whom President Donald Trump fired in May.
He headed the agency's probe into Russia's meddling in last year's presidential election.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein then named Robert Mueller, who also once headed the FBI, as special counsel in the probe after Comey's dismissal.
"I've often wondered what would have happened had he not been fired," Clapper said.
He said he supported Flynn's termination as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under former President Barack Obama while acknowledging his longtime service to the U.S. via the Army.
Flynn, 58, retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2014. He had served 33 years.
"Mike would do whatever he could to preclude his son from legal jeopardy, or even jail time," Clapper said, referring to Michael Flynn Jr., who reportedly is facing scrutiny from Mueller's investigators over his father's Moscow dealings.
"It is, in a sense with respect to Mike, kind of a tragedy in a way, given the service, long and distinguished service, he rendered in the Army.
"Over 30 years. Lots and lots of deployed time to Iraq and Afghanistan. You have to acknowledge that."
He added that, while Flynn's guilty plea may have provided further evidence of possible collusion between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin, "we haven't seen any smoking-gun evidence of that."
"If anyone would know about that, it would be Mike Flynn," Clapper told Tapper. "So, hopefully, given the terms of his plea bargain, his agreement, the truth on this will come out.
"Because, to me, what's even more important is . . . the threat posed by the Russians and the administration's singular indifference to that threat."