Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he felt President Trump accepted Russia's role in hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) when Clapper left a Trump Tower briefing on the incident in January.

"When we briefed the president he didn’t say anything about the 400-pound guy in New Jersey because the evidence was so overwhelming," Clapper said on Thursday at the CyberSci conference in Fairfax, Va., which is organized by the strategic group ICF.

Clapper was referring to comments made during a presidential debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonJoe Biden looks to expand election battleground into Trump country Biden leads Trump by 12 points among Catholic voters: poll The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden goes on offense MORE.

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"She's saying Russia, Russia, Russia. Maybe it was. It could also be China. It could be someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. You don't know who broke into DNC," said Trump.

"I think it very well could be Russia, but I think it could very well have been other countries," Trump said of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Clapper said he wished the public could see the classified report shared with Trump in full, something he said would be impossible, lest the government expose sources and methods.

Nine months after Clapper's meeting with Trump in January, the president has not publicly accepted the intelligence community's assessment of Moscow's involvement in the hacking and frequently refers to investigations into Russian involvement in the hacking as a "hoax."