Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) lashed out Tuesday night at Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for telling Congress the National Security Agency wasn’t amassing data on Americans.

“What I’m saying is that the director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law,” Paul said on CNN. “He said that they were not collecting any data on American citizens and it turns out they’re collecting billions of data on phone calls every day.”

ADVERTISEMENT

During a Senate Intelligence committee hearing in March, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) specifically asked Clapper if the NSA collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper replied the NSA did not “wittingly” amass information.

Following recent revelations about the NSA, Clapper said his answer was the “least untruthful” response he could provide.

“So it was a lie,” Paul continued. “What I’m saying is that by lying to Congress, which is against the law, he severely damaged the credibility of the entire intelligence committee.”

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by CNN, below: