Clapper: It’s getting ‘harder and harder to believe’ Trump didn’t know about Russia contacts

by Brooke Seipel - 06/19/18 9:16 AM ET

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says it’s getting more difficult for him to believe that President Trump didn’t know about at least some of his campaign’s contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential election.

“With each subsequent revelation of yet another meeting between someone from the Trump camp and Russians, it gets harder and harder to believe that he didn’t know about at least some of them,” Clapper told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” Monday. “Just statistically, it’s illogical. … It’s difficult for me to believe that he didn’t know about some of these meetings.”

“Why so many meetings with the Russians? The Russians are our adversaries” – Former DNI James Clapper reacts to former Trump operative Roger Stone’s 2016 meeting with Russian who wanted $2M for Clinton dirt https://t.co/C3MawM8Ko9 pic.twitter.com/pFY0WY1iN8

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) June 18, 2018

Clapper’s comments come after it was revealed this week that former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone met with a Russian man ahead of the 2016 election who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton in exchange for $2 million from Trump.{mosads}

Clapper said the revelation fell into a pattern of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, similar to the famous Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016.

“A major objective of the Russians was to disparage Hillary Clinton and her campaign, so this comports exactly with yet another way the Russians can do that,” he said. “The Russians were trying to gain access, leverage to the campaign, and presumably exert influence.”

Clapper has clashed with Trump in recent days, often speaking out against the president’s comments on the intelligence community.

Clapper announced his resignation one week after Trump won the 2016 election. Former President Obama appointed him director of national intelligence in 2010.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton James Clapper Roger Stone