Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Friday Russia used social media trolls as part of a "multifaceted campaign" to meddle in last November's presidential election.
"The use of social media trolls … was part of the multifaceted campaign that the Russians used," Clapper, who served in the Obama White House, told Erin Burnett on CNN.
Clapper also endorsed Facebook's decision this week to turn over the contents of 3,000 ads bought by a Russian agency to congressional investigators.
"We did address this in our intelligence community assessment" on Moscow's role in the election that was published in January and presented to President-elect Donald Trump in New York.
"He was very curious, complimentary and he did listen," Clapper said of the president-elect during the Trump Tower meeting. "The evidence that we provided in detail was pretty overwhelming.
"It's why we had such a high confidence level in what we said in that assessment.
"I thought it was a good discussion," he told Burnett. "He had some doubts about some things, but that's fine to be skeptical about some things.
"But on balance, I thought we successfully conveyed the message because the evidence was quite compelling and we didn't hear anything about the 400-pound guy in his bed in New Jersey."
However, Clapper said that the intelligence report raised concerns "on the legitimacy of his victory in the election — and that above all else is what concerned him.
"That transcends, unfortunately, the real concern here — which is Russian interference in our political process, which is going to continue."
Clapper once again said that intelligence agencies found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
"When I left office on Jan. 20, there was not any evidence available to me, as DNI, of collusion between the Trump camp, the Trump campaign and the Russians.
"There were things that bothered us," Clapper added. "The frequency of the meetings that representatives of the president-elect and before him candidate Trump were having with the Russians, for example, and other foreign emissaries.
"But in terms of the specific substance of what was going on, we didn't have much insight into that at the time I left office."
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