"Somehow those procedures didn't work as I had thought they were"

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Comey’s comments come a week after the DOJ Inspector General found while the investigation was properly opened by the FBI, errors were made in how the FISA warrant applications were handled. Joining me now to discuss, James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence. Director, thank you so much. What’s your reaction to Comey’s comments?

CLAPPER: Well, first, Jim did something that doesn’t happen in this town very often where he admitted publicly to a mistake. So, good on him for that. I guess the mistake here is trusting in the procedures that I have always understood. I’m more familiar with the FISA authorization request that NSA does than the FBI’s. But I’ve always been under the impression that this is a rigorous process and overseen by the Department of Justice and scrubbed pretty hard by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Somehow those procedures didn’t work as I had thought they were.

So I think Jim had the same feeling. And I’m sure he is thinking about that as the director at the time. And it does worry me. I suspect this wasn’t a one-time case. And that there are probably comparable systemic issues with other such requests and I’m also pretty confident that Director Wray stepped up pretty aggressively to make fixes.