Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Tuesday that James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, lied at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing back in March when he said the government had “not wittingly” collected any type of data on millions of Americans.
“What I’m saying is that the director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law,” Paul said on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. “He said that they were not collecting any data on American citizens and it … and it turns out they’re collecting billions of data on phone calls every day. So it was a lie. What I’m saying is that by lying to Congress, which is against the law, he severely damaged the credibility of the entire intelligence committee.”
Paul added that if he were president, Clapper would not still be working in his administration.
Correction: The original version of this entry incorrectly referred to Clapper as the director of the National Security Agency. We regret the error.
