Story highlights He says the Russia investigation is a "dark cloud" hanging over the White House

He also said the FBI didn't lose faith in Comey

Washington (CNN) Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told MSNBC'S Andrea Mitchell on Friday that there could be evidence of collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign -- a statement that comes on the heels of an apparent public threat Trump made this morning to fired FBI Director James Comey, tweeting that Comey had better hope their conversations have not been taped.

"There was no evidence that rose to that level, at that time, that found its way in to the intelligence community assessment, which we had pretty high confidence in," the former director of national intelligence said of collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russians, referring also to the US intelligence assessment that Russia tried to influence the presidential election in favor of Trump. "That's not to say there wasn't evidence, but not that met that threshold."

When asked whether the FBI's Russia investigation is fake news, or a "witch hunt," as Trump called it this morning in another tweet, Clapper told MSNBC on Friday: "I don't believe it is."

"But that's kind of irrelevant," he continued. "I think what needs to happen here is to clear this cloud, a cloud that's hanging over the administration, over the President, over the White House. It would be in everyone's best interest to get to the bottom of this, and for the country. Otherwise this is going to continue to linger as a dark cloud, in my opinion, over this administration."

Clapper's remarks come after Trump tweeted that Clapper had said there is no collusion between Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russia.

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