Former intelligence chief James Clapper is poised to avoid charges for allegedly lying to Congress following five years of apparent inaction by the Justice Department.
Clapper, director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, admitted giving "Clearly erroneous" testimony about mass surveillance in March 2013, and offered differing explanations for why.
Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman declined to comment on Clapper or how perjury cases typically would be handled, saying in an email, "No comment or information to be provided." Clapper, speaking through a spokesman, declined to comment.
Wyden later said he provided the question to Clapper before the hearing and unsuccessfully asked Clapper to correct the record.
The journalist who conducted the interview did not inform viewers about Clapper's false testimony about surveillance, and months after the interview, questions mounted about wiretapping affecting the Trump campaign and Trump Tower.
In another interview, Clapper said about Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, it sure looks like obstruction to me." In July, Clapper told Australia's National Press Club, "I think [if] you compare the two, that Watergate pales, really, in my view, compared to what we're confronting now."
In August, Clapper told CNN, "I really question his ability to - his fitness to be - in this office," and, "I worry about, frankly, access to the nuclear codes." Trump fired back on Twitter: "James Clapper, who famously got caught lying to Congress, is now an authority on Donald Trump. Will he show you his beautiful letter to me?" Clapper said the letter was short and formulaic.
Clapper, director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, admitted giving "Clearly erroneous" testimony about mass surveillance in March 2013, and offered differing explanations for why.
Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman declined to comment on Clapper or how perjury cases typically would be handled, saying in an email, "No comment or information to be provided." Clapper, speaking through a spokesman, declined to comment.
Wyden later said he provided the question to Clapper before the hearing and unsuccessfully asked Clapper to correct the record.
The journalist who conducted the interview did not inform viewers about Clapper's false testimony about surveillance, and months after the interview, questions mounted about wiretapping affecting the Trump campaign and Trump Tower.
In another interview, Clapper said about Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, it sure looks like obstruction to me." In July, Clapper told Australia's National Press Club, "I think [if] you compare the two, that Watergate pales, really, in my view, compared to what we're confronting now."
In August, Clapper told CNN, "I really question his ability to - his fitness to be - in this office," and, "I worry about, frankly, access to the nuclear codes." Trump fired back on Twitter: "James Clapper, who famously got caught lying to Congress, is now an authority on Donald Trump. Will he show you his beautiful letter to me?" Clapper said the letter was short and formulaic.
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