President Donald Trump is waging "a very disturbing assault on the independence of the Department of Justice," former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Monday.
Over the weekend, Trump demanded the Department of Justice investigate whether the FBI planted an informant in his presidential campaign.
"When the president – this president or any president – tries to use the Department of Justice as kind of a private investigatory body, that's not good for the country," Clapper told CNN's "New Day."
He added that using confidential informants is "a legitimate activity, an important one, on the part of the FBI. They use informants and have strict rules and protocols on this."
Clapper then warned against politicizing the oversight of intelligence agencies, as it "places a heavier burden on our intelligence community leaders to provide the top cover, so that rank-and-file workers, employees in the intelligence community, can continue to serve up truth to power, even if the power doesn't listen to the truth."
He went on to call for bipartisan congressional oversight of intelligence agencies, and praised the Senate Intelligence Committee for confirming Russian election interference.
"And they did so, importantly, on a bipartisan basis," Clapper said. "They are not credible within the intelligence committee unless they are bipartisan."
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