Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN on Friday the arrest of political operative Roger Stones shows “coordination” and “synchronization” between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
A partial transcript is as follows:
JIM SCIUTTO: You were, of course, DNI as this was happening and as Russia was interfering in the U.S. election with the intention of benefiting Donald Trump. Of course, I don’t want you to get into classified intelligence, but based on these series of communications that Stone was having with senior Trump campaign officials, often in advance of WikiLeaks releases, emails we know stolen by Russia, what does that show to you? Is that evidence in your view of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia?
JAMES CLAPPER: Well, it does to me. I say that not as an attorney, but just as a layman. I think, clearly, it does show a connection, coordination, synchronization, whatever you want to call it. And I might just mention something that I wrote about in my book, which is the striking parallels and similarities between what the Russians were saying and doing, and what the Trump campaign was saying and doing, particularly and specifically about Hillary Clinton.