2016 ELECTION/FBI/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA: “The White House responded to hours of Senate testimony Monday [5-8-17] by saying there was still no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that he was not aware of any evidence demonstrating collusion, but also said he had been unaware of an FBI investigation into the matter until FBI Director James Comey announced it to the public at a House hearing in March.
Clapper previously made a similar comment in an interview on NBC. Pressed by Sen. Lindsey Graham if that claim was still accurate, Clapper said, ‘It is.’
On the same matter, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates said her answer would require revealing classified information and noted that Clapper had just said he was unaware of the FBI’s investigation.
President Donald Trump called Clapper’s comments a full dismissal of potential collusion and dismissed the entire issue outright in the series of tweets after the hearing, referring to information from the day’s events as ‘old news,’ ‘a total hoax’ and ‘#FakeNews!’ “
-Eli Watkins and Jim Acosta, “W.H. highlights Clapper’s lack of evidence on Trump-Russia collusion,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 9, 2017 5:13am