"I think the White House denials are getting increasingly hollow, and they simply don't pass the giggle test," Clapper told CNN Friday. Stone's Friday indictment by the Office of Special Counsel on seven charges, five of which involve making false statements to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017, makes him the sixth Trump associate to be charged in the Russiagate investigation.
Back in March 2013, Clapper was then-President Barack Obama's DNI and went before Congress, telling the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the National Security Agency (NSA) didn't "wittingly" collect data on "millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." That, we know now, thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's enormous divulgence of highly classified information later that year, was a flat-out lie.
Clapper said in a later interview that he had simply "made a mistake" in responding to a question and "didn't lie."
While Clapper wasn't charged with perjury before the five-year statute of limitations ran out, knowledge of his doubletalk is wide. It's highly ironic that CNN would have him, of all people, as an expert giving them comments about Stone being charged with lying to Congress — and the irony wasn't lost on observers, either. One might say it simply doesn't "pass the giggle test."
Right now on @cnn — a guy who lied to Congress talking about an indictment against Roger Stone for lying to Congress. pic.twitter.com/kSPMYMDdgy
— 𝙻𝚎𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚑𝚊𝚗 ⏳ (@stranahan) January 25, 2019
Consider the magnitude of Clapper's lie. He lied under oath as DNI about an unconstitutional surveillance program that violated the rights of every American. Roger Stone allegedly lied about the nature of private conversations where nothing illegal was discussed. #WitchHunt https://t.co/ERPEa9TG2Q
— Dale Cooper 🇺🇸 (@AgentCoopr702) January 25, 2019
kind of funny to watch CNN interview known perjurer James Clapper on the arrest of another liar Roger Stone. Interesting times…
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) January 25, 2019
Brennan and Clapper straight lied to Congress same as what Roger Stone is charged with.
— DeepStater (@StaterDeep) January 25, 2019
If only Stone were a lefty — he'd have gotten a job with the corporate media instead of an arrest record.
— Silver Dragon (@JamesEShaffer) January 25, 2019
It worked for Clapper.
The justice system is a joke we have known criminals running around giving CNN interviews about Stone lying to congress when in fact that person Clapper did the same thing.
— Tha Don (@ThaDtothaOtotha) January 25, 2019