CLARITY

Clapper Explains the ‘Beautiful Letter’ He Sent Trump

Was actually from a pair of pre-written, identical notes he’d prepared for either Clinton or Trump.

James Clapper on Thursday explained the “beautiful letter” President Trump claimed the former intel chief sent him. “James Clapper, who famously got caught lying to Congress, is now an authority on Donald Trump. Will he show you his beautiful letter to me?” the president tweeted in response to Clapper on Wednesday questioning Trump’s “fitness” to be president. As Clapper explained to CNN’s Jake Tapper, that “beautiful letter” was just a pre-written memo he planned to send to either Trump or Hillary Clinton—depending on who won the election. “The night before the election, we deployed two teams so that we would be ready to provide a [presidential daily briefing] the next morning to whomever won,” he explained. “I hand-wrote almost identical short notes to each of the two candidates to accompany the first brief as President-elect; only one actually got deployed—the one to him.”