is this true? i don't think there has never been a definitive evidence or proof about this. just "journalistic evidence" (= news outlets repeating the same info without any real evidence).
You may recall Clapper from his previous film, titled "I perjured myself before Congress and lied to the American public, and I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for that damn Snowden kid." So take anything he says with an entire truckload of salt.
Edit: Source regarding his perjury - https://apnews.com/article/business-33a88feb083ea35515de3c73...
You’d very rarely want to release this as it would compromise sources and methods. Due to the extreme public interest we do actually know the info came from the Dutch intelligence agency, who among other things were tapping the GRU’s security cameras.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/01/04/why-was-gru-using-open...
https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/03/28/what-was-the-relations...
I do not know why it is, but the second anyone uses quotation marks like this, my trust in what they're saying instantly goes down by an order of magnitude
I don't see this as a personal problem
Russiagate is QAnon for liberals.
See another commenters article from Ars above.
Try a little thought experiment: substitute "China" for "USA" and ask yourself, would you believe claims by Chinese espionage agency official, repeated by numerous Chinese outlets? Even if he wasn't known for committing crimes, like James Clapper is?
No, the "evidence" was never released. If I'm mistaken, I'd be grateful if you provided a link. If you make an assertion and claim you have secret evidence that you can't show it is exactly the same as making as assertion with no evidence.