Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith will plead guilty to falsifying a document used to obtain a FISA warrant on former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page.
Clinesmith was charged in Washington, D.C., on Friday with one felony count of making a false statement, and will plead guilty in a plea deal with prosecutors conducting a criminal probe of the Russia investigation, the New York Times reported.
The probe is being led by prosecutor John Durham, who was appointed to the task by Attorney General William Barr. Barr hinted at a development in the Durham probe in comments to Fox News on Thursday night.
“It’s not an earth-shattering development, but it is an indication that things are moving along at the proper pace, as dictated by the facts in this investigation,” Barr said.
Clinesmith is set to admit that he altered an email from the CIA in order to renew the FISA warrant against Page in 2017. That email stated that Page had worked as a source for the CIA, but Clinesmith changed the reference to state that Page was not a source.
“Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email,” a lawyer for Clinesmith said. “It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate.”
A report by the Justice Department inspector general found numerous inaccuracies in the FBI’s applications to surveil Page.
Page was monitored as part of the FBI’s investigation into alleged collaboration between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian operatives. The FBI agents who opened the investigation, including Joe Pientka, gave Trump his first intelligence briefing as presumptive Republican nominee. A memo with a summary of the briefing was approved by former agent Peter Strzok as well as Clinesmith.
“Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email,” a lawyer for Clinesmith said. “It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate.”
Gotta love that one!!
Of course he deeply regrets altering that email … ONLY BECAUSE HE GOT CAUGHT! … Obamagate makes Watergate look like child’s play. And I agree with PaulE that he and especially Obama will never see 1 hour of jail time. Of course, if I was the Judge I’d say get a rope and find the nearest tree!