Former United States National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan have said that President Donald Trump poses a risk to the country’s national security because he is vulnerable to being influenced by Russia.

The veteran intelligence chiefs made the remarks in an interview to CNN after Trump said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had denied interfering with the US presidential election in 2016. He had also called Brennan, Clapper and former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey political hacks.

“First of all, he was referring to us as political hacks because he was trying to delegitimise the intelligence assessment that was done,” Brennan said. “By not confronting the issue directly...I think he is giving Putin a pass.”

Clapper said Putin was committed to undermining democracy in the United States. “And to try to paint it in any other – any other way is, I think, astounding and, in fact, poses a peril to this country,” he added.

The Russia investigation

The former intelligence agency chiefs’ remarks come soon after charges were filed in an investigation into Russia’s alleged meddling in the presidential election. Trump said the allegations of a collusion between his campaign and Russia were part of a “witch hunt for evil politics”.
US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is heading the investigation into the alleged Russian meddling. Mueller has been investigating alleged financial dealings between Trump’s aides and foreign governments, including Russia and Turkey, for possible money laundering and tax evasion.