(CNN) Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Monday that it was "gratifying" to read two Senate Intelligence Committee reports on the scope of Russian misinformation campaigns, because they reiterated the intelligence community's 2017 findings. The two reports , both commissioned by the committee, were based on troves of data -- much of it not disclosed publicly -- about the Russian campaign to influence the 2016 US presidential election that Facebook, Twitter and Google gave lawmakers. When asked by CNN's John Berman on "Anderson Cooper 360" if he was surprised by the continued attacks on American elections, Clapper replied, "Absolutely not." "It was very gratifying for me to read about these reports, because they simply reinforce or buttress what we said in our intelligence community assessment in January of 2017," he added. The 2017 report found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an "influence campaign" designed to hurt then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and help then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Source: CNN December 18, 2018 03:22 UTC