Clapper: Mueller couldn’t find ‘active collusion’ but there was ‘passive collusion’

FILE 2016: Then-Director of the National Intelligence James Clapper speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. (The Associated Press)

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Thursday said that there was “passive collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings that conclude there was no conspiracy.

Clapper began by defending the foundation of the Russia probe, telling CNN anchor Anderson Cooper that there was “good reason” for intelligence agencies and law enforcement “to be concerned about whether or not there was some kind of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”

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The top Obama official blasted President Trump for claiming that President Obama “did nothing” to prevent Russia’s interference during the 2016 election, saying his former boss “directly confronted Putin” and “asked him to stop the interference.”

He claimed that Russia’s social media campaign “turned the election in Trump’s favor” in targeted states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, adding that the Mueller Report “substantiates that.”

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“If there wasn’t active collusion proven, then I think what we have here is a case of passive collusion where in some cases, unwittingly, to include candidate Trump himself, who retweeted messages that had been planted by the Russians in social media,” the CNN national security analyst told Cooper. “That’s a small, but important, example of how members of the campaign were used and manipulated by the Russians.”