Barack Obama's director of national intelligence from 2010-17 was the guest of the Australian National University, and used his prepared remarks to accuse Russia and president Trump of launching an "assault" on US institutions.



"I am very concerned about the assault on our institutions coming from both an external source, read Russia, and an internal source, the president himself."

He cited Trump's public attacks on the intelligence community before taking office, and the firing of FBI director James Comey.

Clapper also revealed that Trump asked him during a phone call on January 11 to publicly "refute" a report from the intelligence community that Russia had meddled in the election.

"Ever transactional, he simply asked me to publicly refute the infamous dossier, which I couldn't and wouldn't do."

Several local journalists asked Clapper about how the Trump presidency could affect the long standing alliance between US and Australia.