​US Director of National Intelligence Resigns

Mr. James Clapper, Director of the US National Intelligence Agency, announced to Congress that he would resign on January 20, 2017, which is also the day billionaire Donald Trump was sworn in.

Mr. Clapper served in President Obama's administration for 6 years - Photo: Getty Images

According to AFP news agency, Mr. James Clapper was the person who in 2013 denied that the US government collected personal communication data of millions of people, leading to the subsequent exposure of a large-scale spying program by former US National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden.

Mr. Clapper, 75, announced his decision to resign after 6 years in this position. The information was released in the context of public opinion speculating that Mr. Clapper may stay for another term.

Mr. Clapper's departure will create another major vacancy that the new administration of billionaire Donald Trump will have to fill.

Mr. Clapper's job is to coordinate the activities of 17 different organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). Mr. Clapper said he submitted his resignation the night before.

After Mr. Clapper's decision to leave, one name that is considered by public opinion to be a likely replacement is former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, retired Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess.

Mr. Clapper's tenure was tied to the leak of documents from the NSA that said the agency had collected personal data on Americans on a large scale without their permission.

In March 2013, Mr. Clapper denied before Congress that the NSA collected such data from US telecommunications service providers.

Months later, former NSA employee Edward Snowden released documents showing that the NSA had in fact collected this data, leading to accusations that Mr. Clapper had lied to Congress and calls for his resignation.

In a 2014 interview, Snowden admitted that it was Mr. Clapper's denial that prompted the former NSA employee to release top secret documents to expose the matter.

According to Tuoi Tre