Despite Congress apparent ire over the possible perjury of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, it seems that Clapper has now emerged without so much as a scratch over his National Security Agency surveillance testimony earlier this year. In March 2013, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked Clapper whether the NSA grabbed “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” Clapper replied, “No.” Then he said, “Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly.”
In June, Clapper said that those statements were “the least untruthful” thing he could say. Clapper then apologized for his “erroneous” statements in a letter to Congress.
Both parties in Congress have declined to do anything about Clapper’s possible perjury. Sen. Wyden and Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) did not call for his removal; Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-CA) have all declined to comment. “This administration views [NSA leaker Edward] Snowden as the problem, not Gen. Clapper,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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