Flynn Charged With Lying to FBI, Clapper Still Free After Committing Clear Perjury
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Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has been charged with “willfully and knowingly” lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador, charges that James Clapper has been able to avoid over 4 years after committing clear perjury when he lied under oath about the NSA’s mass surveillance of Americans.
“The charging document states that Flynn made a false statement to the FBI when he stated that in December 2016 he did not ask Kislyak “to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day; and Flynn did not recall the Russian ambassador subsequently telling him that Russia had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request,” reports CNN.
While Flynn is expected to plead guilty to making false statements, Obama’s DNI head Clapper was able to commit brazen perjury with no consequences whatsoever.
During testimony in 2013 in front of a congressional inquiry, Clapper was asked by Senator Ron Wyden if the NSA was collecting “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”
“No, sir,” responded Clapper.
Senator Wyden asked “It does not?”
Director Clapper responded “Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly.”
This was proven to be completely fraudulent three months later when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA was deliberately collecting tens of millions of Americans’ phone call records as well as browsing histories, chat logs, email usage, as well as their physical locations.
Clapper would have had a level of security clearance to know that this was taking place. He committed clear perjury by lying under oath, yet faced no consequences at all.
Clapper was also caught in a brazen lie when he denied that any surveillance targeting people linked to the Trump administration had taken place.
During a March 2017 appearance on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, Clapper asserted that, “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign.”
This was proven to be false by the revelation that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had been wiretapped both before and after the election.
Clapper himself partially admitted this during a September 2017 appearance on CNN when he told Don Lemon it was “conceivable” President Trump’s conversations could have been picked up during the course of the surveillance.
“Now we learn that there was, in fact, a FISA court order and it came from the FBI and Clapper, in his own words, claimed he would have known about that,” reported Mediaite. “And he denied it, unequivocally. Maybe he forgot all about the FISA order wiretapping Paul Manafort while he was in direct contact with Trump in his campaign and after the election.”
In summary, it appears that lying under oath is perfectly acceptable if you’re a member of the deep state, and Clapper, unlike General Flynn, is enjoying the privilege of having that special distinction.