Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper admitted in a CNN interview Saturday that former President Obama instigated the ongoing investigations into Donald Trump and those in his orbit.

Speaking with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Clapper let slip:

If it weren’t for President Obama we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set up a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today including Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. President Obama is responsible for that. It was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place.

James Clapper admits to Anderson Cooper that Obama set off the sequence of events that led to the Mueller investigation by tasking the intelligence community assessment pic.twitter.com/v79PNuTxBe — ᏢᏒᎥsᏟᎥᏞᏞᎪ’s ᏉᎥᎬᎳ ™️ (@PriscillasView) July 19, 2018

Recall in May, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) fired off a letter to the Department of Justice demanding unredacted versions of text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and former bureau attorney Lisa Page, including one exchange which took place after Strzok had returned from London as part of the recently launched "Operation Crossfire Hurricane" referring to the White House "running" an unknown investigation .

Strzok had been in London to interview Australian ambassador Alexander Downer about a drunken conversation with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who - after reportedly being fed information - mentioned Russia having Hillary Clinton's emails.

Strzok: And hi. Went well, best we could have expected. Other than [REDACTED] quote: “ the White House is running this .” My answer, “well, maybe for you they are.” And of course, I was planning on telling this guy, thanks for coming, we’ve got an hour, but with Bill [Priestap] there, I’ve got no control…. Page: Yeah, whatever (re the WH comment). We’ve got the emails that say otherwise.

And with Clapper's admission - it looks like Strzok's text stating "the White House is running this" may have been right on the money.

Update: Meanwhile, House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) told Fox's Maria Bartiromo that the American public needs to see an unredacted version of the Carter Page FISA application.

.@RepGoodlatte: "I have had the opportunity... to read these FISA warrant applications without all of those redactions... and I think that it is critically important that the American people have the opportunity to see most of the rest of those documents." pic.twitter.com/LJPijepOYg — Fox News (@FoxNews) July 22, 2018

We can only imagine what's in there...