James Clapper actually said...

I think he's trying to erase any vestiges of as much as he can of culpability that people that were caught up in this investigation.

Clapper discusses Trump's pardons in relation to the Russia investigation.

12/21/2020

More James Clapper Quotes

I thought that characterization is reprehensible in and of itself. And again, this is part of I think the general assault on our institution...

We saw no evidence of meddling with voter tallies.

The reason we wanted to do it this way because we knew we were going to be talking to a lot of other people besides the President-elect.

The whole point of informing the President-elect about the dossier was simply out of a duty to warn if you will.