Ex-F.B.I. Lawyer Expected to Plead Guilty in Review of Russia Inquiry

[progressive nobody]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/us/politics/kevin-clinesmith-durham-investigation.html


WASHINGTON — A former F.B.I. lawyer intends to plead guilty after he was charged with falsifying a document as part of a deal with prosecutors conducting their own criminal inquiry of the Russia investigation, according his lawyer and court documents made public on Friday.

The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 38, who was assigned to the Russia investigation, plans to admit that he altered an email from the C.I.A. that investigators relied on to seek renewed court permission in 2017 for a secret wiretap on the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who had at times provided information to the spy agency. Mr. Clinesmith’s lawyer said he made a mistake while trying to clarify facts for a colleague.

President Trump immediately promoted the plea agreement as proof that the Russia investigation was illegitimate and politically motivated, opening a White House news conference by calling Mr. Clinesmith “corrupt” and the deal “just the beginning.” Mr. Trump has long been blunt about viewing the investigation by the prosecutor examining the earlier inquiry, John H. Durham, as political payback whose fruits he would like to see revealed in the weeks before the election.

Attorney General William P. Barr has portrayed Mr. Durham’s work as rectifying what he sees as injustices by officials who sought in 2016 to understand links between the Trump campaign and Russia’s covert operation to interfere in the election.

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Please tell me I'm wearing a tinfoil Hat

Please Tell Barr won't drag more crap up to eff with the election.

please tell me I'm crazy in my fear Barr will make this into Biden's "crime",

You want to laugh at me. Think I am crazy. go ahead.

This is going to get a hell of a lot more scarier. Read Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny and tell me this isn't the start of something.

[Iliyah]

1. I've heard about this months ago . .

[madville]

2. Wonder if he will implicate any others as part of his deal

Like if a superior directed him to alter the email in order to mislead the FISA court. Might not be the end of it with just this guy.

[Atticus]

4. What is the purpose of this negative speculation? nt

[madville]

7. Hopefully not

But you know that is what Barr and company are trying to do to make this bigger than it actually is.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Barr is pulling out all the stops.

It’s not the document.

“I just can’t imagine the systematic disassembly of the progress we made over the last 8 years,” Clinesmith said the day after Trump’s election win. “ACA is gone. Who knows if the rhetoric about deporting people, walls, and crap is true. I honestly feel like there is going to be a lot more gun issues, too, the crazies won finally. This is the tea party on steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost, they have to deal with an incumbent in 4 years. We have to fight this again. Also Pence is stupid.”

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/heres-what-we-know-about-fbi-attorney-2-kevin-clinesmith-the-first-person-charged-in-durham-probe/

[NCjack]

5. Barr is keeping this stale investigation in the public eye.

[karynnj]

6. The FBI guy's action is not new news. It was in the Inspector General's report

Also note that the intent was to explain, not to deceive. It was wrong and he will suffer a lot for something that in normal times would be handled administratively.

Note also that the action happened in 2017 for one of the renewals. Obama and Biden were not in office then and other than Q nonsense, it is hard to blame Democrats.