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BERMAN: All right, the breaking news, President Trump just now criticizing law enforcement leaders, claiming that they are politicizing really the classified Republican memo. This is what the president wrote. The top leadership and investigators of the FBI and Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans, something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank and file are great people. Now, this comes as sources tell CNN that President Trump thinks the memo could discredit Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and that is a primary reason he wants it released. Here to discuss, CNN national security analyst, former director of national intelligence, James Clapper. Director, thanks so much for being with us. First, your reaction to this statement from the president moments ago saying that investigators and leaders of the FBI and Justice Department have politicized the investigative process.</s>JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it strikes me as the pot calling the kettle black. I think this is almost amusing if it weren't such a serious subject. I think the Department of Justice, and particularly the FBI, have done the right thing by trying to defend themselves. And I was particularly struck by the FBI's statement, which cited errors of omission of fact rather than jeopardize the sources and methods. And I found that quite significant.</s>BERMAN: Why?</s>CLAPPER: I mean it -- transparency is a great thing, but let's -- let's be factual and objective about it. And this clearly is a pretty blatant political act. And I hope that the FBI particularly takes the opportunity to rebut the memo that those things -- those -- and include those omissions of fact to the extent that they can.</s>BERMAN: There's an implication in the president's statement this morning that it's the leadership that is politically biased, not the rank and file. Is there any merit to that distinction, especially you're dealing with the Russia investigation, the Clinton e-mail investigation, from the beginning. Was it the leadership doing this investigation? Was it the leadership driving for these FISA warrants, or was it the people, the rank and file, on these cases?</s>CLAPPER: Well, I believe it's probably the rank and file. Certainly the leadership is aware, particularly if there's a FISA request -- authorization request. And, by the way, you know, this implicates a lot of other considerations here. The court itself that grants -- and, in this case, what I understand as the -- the instant issue was the extension of a FISA authorization, which would indicate that the original FISA order was producing something and information of value. And so the court -- this is not a casual thing. And there has to be layers of approval. There has to be corroborating evidence. And the court, more importantly, has to -- has to approve it. As well, I think Mike Hayden alluded to this yesterday, this also implicates others in the intelligence community who have a lot at stake here with the whole FISA process. Not to mention besmirching, regardless of what the tweet says, besmirching the rank and file superb people of the FBI. And I think it calls to question our standing and our ability to keep secrets in the rest of the world, which could impact sharing.</s>BERMAN: Now, leave aside, for a second, the fact that this is a Republican memo and the Democratic version of the analysis of the underlying data is not being allowed to come out at the same time. But is there a proper role for congressional oversight over the intelligence agencies if there was something wrong with the way that investigators went about getting this FISA warrant? Shouldn't Congress step in and say, hey, this smells funny?</s>CLAPPER: Well, absolutely. And that's the whole purpose of why the two intelligence oversight committees were established in the first place. You know, unlike other constituencies in the government, the Department of Agriculture or the Department of Commerce, what the intelligence community does is secret. So I almost felt that the oversight committees had an additional burden because they have to represent the people because we can't expose what the intelligence community does every day because of the concern about sources and methods, trade craft, protection of people undercover, et cetera. But absolutely they should conduct oversight. But there is a process for this that is discreet and confidential. And exposing this as a political act I think is particularly egregious.</s>BERMAN: Let me ask you this. Christopher Wray, the FBI director, there are people within the White House telling CNN they are concerned that he might quit over this. There are other people suggesting he's been sending signals he won't. But put yourself in his shoes. If the White House goes ahead and releases this memo over your objection and now your public, frankly, objections to this, should he stay in his job?</s>CLAPPER: Well, that's entirely up to him. That's a very personal decision. But I will tell you, John, having been in a situation like that, you know, a similar position, senior position, that there were times when I considered resigning to make a point. And what you have to weigh is what would be the impact on the institution if you did that. Are you doing more harm, causing more turmoil if you take an action like that to make a point? No one -- you know, that's a very personal decision and only Chris Wray can make it. And I don't think anyone else can speculate, I certainly can't, about what he will do.</s>BERMAN: Again, just one more question on the president's statement this morning. The top leadership and investigators in the FBI and Justice Department politicized this investigation. You were director of national intelligence when this all began. Were there any politics involved when you were there?</s>CLAPPER: Well, I don't think so. People will argue that until the cows come home. But I know in the preparation of our intelligence community assessment, we tried to keep the politics out of it and just report on what -- on the -- and we did so with pretty high confidence in the findings of the intelligence community assessment. Obviously, when we went to The Hill to brief it, there were varying reactions to what we said in the intelligence community assessment. And some Republicans did look for political motives. But we tried to keep -- very hard to keep that out of it. I didn't see it. Certainly not among the analysts that actually did the work. And --</s>BERMAN: Let me ask you one question on some other news today. We learned that Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, did met with Russian intelligence chiefs in the United States last week, despite the fact that at least one of them were listed under Russian sanctions. Now, our understanding from Jim Sciutto is, is that they went through the proper processes to OK this meeting and certainly former U.S. intelligence chiefs have met with Russian leaders before. What do you make of this meeting?</s>CLAPPER: Well, sort of a mixed message here. First, it is a good thing to try to communicate a dialogue with the Russians. Although I've, in my experience, found that to be very unsatisfactory and pretty much a one-way street because the Russians are, at best, transactional. I do hope that Director Pompeo, when he did meet with them, didn't give them a pass as far as the Russian interference in our election is concerned because it was those very services that he was meeting with, or the leaders of which, which were at the pointy end of the stick, if you will, in orchestrating the interference in our election. So, yes, the Russians are bad, but we need the dialogue with them. And if we can find ways to work with them, fine. I just -- I never did. But you've got to talk to them. But I just hope that they didn't get a pass when he met with them.</s>BERMAN: All right, James Clapper, always great to have you, sir. Thank you so much.</s>CLAPPER: Thanks, John.</s>BERMAN: All right, thanks for our international viewers for watching. For you, CNN "TALK" is next. For our U.S. viewers, NEW DAY continues right now.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, we do have some breaking news because there are developments coming out this morning fast and furious about this memo. John Berman joins me. Great to have you here this morning. So, here's the breaking news. President Trump is again accusing the nation's law -- top law enforcement leaders of being biased. This is a new tweet. He claims they are the ones politicizing this investigative process, rather than the partisan politicians in Congress who are doing so.