The Republican-led House Intelligence Committee released a much-anticipated report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that accused former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper of orchestrating the release of an anti-Trump research report and providing “inconsistent testimony” about his contact with the media.
Clapper allegedly changed his story about talking to reporters about an opposition research dossier on Donald Trump, who was President-elect at the time.
The former intelligence head, who now is an analyst at CNN, first said he didn’t speak with journalists about a secret intelligence assessment containing the information. He later admitted he discussed the dossier with CNN reporter Jake Tapper and possibly others, the House report said.
Clapper "flatly denied" during a July 2017 interview with the committee "discuss[ing] the dossier [compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists."
Clapper later in the same interview "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 said.
CNN used Clapper’s leak as the source for a Jan. 10, 2017, article that said Trump and President Barack Obama had been briefed on the details of the anti-Trump dossier.
Before Clapper’s leak, the dossier had circulated among government officials and reporters but was never published because its claims couldn't be verified. Clapper’s leak about the briefing gave CNN the news hook to report on the dossier. BuzzFeed News subsequently published the full dossier.
"The Committee assesses that leaks to CNN about the dossier were especially significant, since CNN's report 'that two page synopsis of the report was given to President Obama and Trump' was the proximate cause of BuzzFeed News' decision to publish the dossier for the first time just a few hours later," the report said.
The investigation found no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The report is the result of interviews with 73 witnesses, nine hearings and briefings, and a review of 307,900 documents
Committee Democrats opposed the report’s conclusion, saying that the committee didn’t interview enough witnesses or gather enough supporting evidence.
House Democrats released their own report Friday to rebut the Republicans’ findings. They admitted that Clapper discussed the dossier with Tapper but said his role as director empowered him to speak to the media.
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