Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced his resignation on Thursday and said it “felt pretty good” to step down, ending a six-year tenure as the top U.S. spy that included a sometimes rocky relationship with Congress.
Clapper, 75, a retired three-star U.S. Air Force general, will stay on until Democratic President Barack Obama leaves office in January. He has said for months he intended to leave when Obama departed and his replacement will be chosen by Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
Clapper’s term was marked by efforts to grapple with the re-emergence of an aggressive Russia, extremist attacks and growing cyber threats, as well as misleading a Senate committee about federal policy on collecting data on millions of Americans.
His formal letter of resignation was issued in response to a White House request that all Obama administration political appointees submit resignations effective at noon on Jan. 20, a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said.
Clapper appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing on Thursday and Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, lightheartedly said he hoped Clapper would stay in the job for four more years.
“I submitted my letter of resignation last night, which felt pretty good,” Clapper responded. “I’ve got 64 days left.”
In March 2013 Clapper found himself at the centre of controversy after testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, telling Senator Ron Wyden that the U.S. government did “not wittingly” collect data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.
