A Clapper Postscript

I defer to Scott on all things relating to the Three Stooges (Comey, Clapper and Brennan), but I want to add an observation on James Clapper’s remarkable self-absolution as quoted by Scott earlier this morning. When asked why he didn’t tell Donald Trump or his campaign manager about the alleged threat to his campaign posed by the Russians that was then under investigation, Clapper said:

It wasn’t my place to do that. I was reporting to the then-government…the executive branch policymakers.

So whether to tell the Trump campaign about the Russians’ alleged threat to that campaign, and the Obama administration’s investigation, was a policy decision to be made by Clapper’s superiors.

Clapper was Director of National Intelligence at the time, which means that he reported directly to the president, Barack Obama. His statement implies that President Obama knew about the investigation of the Trump campaign, and it was his call whether to keep candidate Trump in the dark. There is no one else in the executive branch to whom Clapper reasonably could have deferred on this obviously important question.

It is possible that Clapper regarded Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, or even White House hacks like Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett and Ben Rhodes as his de facto superiors. But someone should ask him who were the “policymakers” to whom he “reported” who decided not to tell candidate Trump about the Obama administration’s investigation. In particular, did he discuss this matter with the only person to whom he actually reported, Barack Obama?

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