As U.S. Attorney John Durham continues his criminal investigation into the origins of the government's targeting of the 2016 Trump campaign, former Obama administration intelligence officials are denying any wrong doing and justifying their actions.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is arguing he was concerned about the Russians interfering in the election, which is why his agency gathered "information." During a recent interview with CNN, Clapper admitted he was simply following orders from the "commander-in-chief," who had ordered intelligence agencies to do so.

"I don't know. I don’t think there was any wrongdoing," Clapper said. "My main concern was with the Russians and the threat posed by the Russians to our very political fabric and ugh, the message I'm getting from all of this is apparently what we were supposed to have done was to ignore the Russian interference, ignore the Russian meddling and the threat that it poses to us and oh by the way, blown off what the then commander-in-chief, President Obama, told us to do, which was to assemble all of the reporting we could."

"What Obama told us to do...." pic.twitter.com/KEKHTx40j3 — Rep. Steven Smith ???? (@RepStevenSmith) October 8, 2019

This is quite a telling statement about President Obama's involvement in the surveillance of a political opponent, Donald Trump, who vowed to reverse his legacy if elected. There's also a pattern.

Officials at the Defense Department were also preserving information and accusing Trump campaign officials of "dealing with Russians," before President Trump was officially sworn into office.

Former CIA Director John Brennan, who pushed lies about Russia collusion for years, isn't a fan of Durham's investigation.

"I'm supposedly going to be interviewed by Mr. Durham as part of this non-investigation... I don't understand the predication of this worldwide effort to try to uncover dirt... that would discredit that investigation in 2016" - @JohnBrennan w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/FqDbIW9P41 — Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) October 2, 2019

Meanwhile Obama, who has along history of using the government to target political enemies, denies ever ordering the surveillance of any U.S. citizen.