--- title: James Clapper: Donald Trump Russia Leak Didn't Come From Us description: Intelligence chief James Clapper told President-elect Donald Trump that he does not believe leaks originated from the intelligence community canonical: https://time.com/4632743/james-clapper-donald-trump-russia/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-12T14:01:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:41:35.249Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. Intelligence Chief to Donald Trump: We Didn't Leak Russia Documents og:description: James Clapper also expressed "profound dismay" at leaks more broadly og:url: https://time.com/4632743/james-clapper-donald-trump-russia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae737d775f8e525c/6988b54a7cdbac7f65d56c4a/james-clapper-trump-leaks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4994 og:image:height: 2809 og:image:alt: james clapper trump leaks og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Intelligence Chief to Donald Trump: We Didn't Leak Russia Documents twitter:description: James Clapper also expressed "profound dismay" at leaks more broadly twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae737d775f8e525c/6988b54a7cdbac7f65d56c4a/james-clapper-trump-leaks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Intelligence Chief James Clapper to Donald Trump: We Didn't Leak Russia Documents > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 12, 2017 2:01 PM UTC  James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Russian Intelligence Activities on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Jan. 10, 2017. James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Russian Intelligence Activities on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Jan. 10, 2017. Tasos Katopis—AFP/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 12, 2017 2:01 PM UTC Director of National Intelligence James Clapper [told](https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/224-press-releases-2017/1469-dni-clapper-statement-on-conversation-with-president-elect-trump) President-elect Donald Trump that he does not believe leaks of a document detailing unsubstantiated claims of Trump’s connections to Russia originated from the intelligence community in a phone call Wednesday evening. Clapper took the unusual [move](https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/224-press-releases-2017/1469-dni-clapper-statement-on-conversation-with-president-elect-trump) of issuing a statement on the matter a day after CNN [reported](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/) that intelligence chiefs had briefed Trump, President Obama and senior congressional leaders on reports that Russian officials have a secret dossier on Trump that could be used to blackmail him. Buzzfeed followed shortly thereafter with the release of the dossier, which was compiled by a third party intelligence operative and contains a slew of unsubstantiated claims. Trump suggested that he believes a member of the intelligence community may have been behind the leaks in the aftermath of those reports, adding that it would be a “tremendous blot on their record” if that was the case. He tweeted early Thursday morning in response to Clapper’s call. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/819520238446411777) Most of the President-elect’s Twitter message remains unsupported or false beyond the fact that Clapper spoke with Trump. Clapper did not say in his statement that document was false, instead noting that the intelligence community “has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable.” He also did not make any judgment about the legality of the document’s circulation among members of the media and political establishment. Clapper also used the opportunity to express concern at leaks from the intelligence community more broadly and find common ground with Trump. “I expressed my profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press,” said Clapper. “We both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4632743/james-clapper-donald-trump-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4632743/james-clapper-donald-trump-russia/"},"headline":"U.S. Intelligence Chief James Clapper to Donald Trump: We Didn't Leak Russia Documents","datePublished":"2017-01-12T14:01:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:41:35.249Z","description":"Clapper also expressed \"profound dismay\" at leaks more broadly","url":"https://time.com/4632743/james-clapper-donald-trump-russia/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae737d775f8e525c/6988b54a7cdbac7f65d56c4a/james-clapper-trump-leaks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae737d775f8e525c/6988b54a7cdbac7f65d56c4a/james-clapper-trump-leaks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"james clapper trump leaks","caption":"james clapper trump leaks","creditText":"Tasos Katopis—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4632743/james-clapper-donald-trump-russia/","name":"U.S. Intelligence Chief James Clapper to Donald Trump: We Didn't Leak Russia Documents"}}]}] ```