A federal judge in Washington on Friday slapped the hand of a former FBI lawyer who changed a key piece of evidence, concealing critical investigative details from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and triggering what has been described as one of the biggest scandals ever in America's intelligence community.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg gave Kevin Clinesmith, who confessed to changing an investigative email to claim that Trump 2016 campaign aide Carter Page did not work for the CIA, when the opposite was true, 12 months of probation.
He had admitted making a "false statement" in the case, an offense that carried a term of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Boasberg said Clinesmith already had been punished because he'd lost "standing" in the eye of a media hurricane.
The offense cut at the heart of America's judicial system, the evidence that is used, and arguably is one that should horrify prosecutors and judges alike.
Clinesmith's actions impacted the massive scheme organized under the Barack Obama administration to spy on and undermine President Trump's 2016 campaign, and then his presidency after he was elected.
That agenda included claims, now debunked, that the campaign conspired with Russia. The evidence actually shows that those allegations likely were triggered by the campaign of twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who reportedly wanted to divert public attention from her own scandal of using a private computer system for U.S. government secrets.
The campaign against Trump now is considered one of the worst examples of the weaponization of America's intelligence agencies against a president ever.
FISA court Judge James E. Boasberg. Appointed to prior federal court position by former President Obama
Clinesmith was part of that weaponization, stating his personal bias when Trump was elected that "the crazies won finally" and calling Vice President Mike Pence "stupid." He said "Viva la resistance," in reference to what those who hated President Trump would organize into their "resistance."
Paul Sperry has reported for Real Clear Investigations that defenders of the FBI and its position inside Washington's establishment that the faked evidence from Clinesmith wasn't that important.
"They argue Kevin Clinesmith’s crime of altering a CIA document to obscure the fact that former Trump campaign aide Carter Page worked for U.S., not Russian, intelligence was a rare lapse in judgment by an overworked bureaucrat," Sperry explained. "It was not, his apologists say, part of any broader conspiracy to conceal exculpatory information from surveillance court judges, who never learned of Page’s history with the CIA before approving FBI warrants to wiretap him as a suspected Russian agent."
But he explained court papers now reveal that the Clinesmith offenses, "which some civil libertarians call the most egregious violation and abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act since it was enacted more than 40 years ago," show that Clinesmith knew all along about Page's cooperation with the U.S. government, and his supervisors in the FBI bureaucracy also knew it.
Fox reported Clinesmith was given the probation, plus 400 hours of public service for his crime.
His was the first criminal case arising for Special Counsel John Durham's review of the beginnings of that debunked Russia collusion case, about which Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., boasted for years he had seen evidence.
Clinesmith changed the evidence in the case when it developed from a statement that Page had worked with U.S. agencies to the false claim that he had not.
Prosecutors had wanted Clinesmith to spend at least some time being bars.
Sperry said some of the details of the case now are coming out, because Page has sued over the false statements that targeted him.
Page and his attorneys argue that the FBI obtained his electronic communications, both written and oral, based on fraudulent warrants in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. He is suing Clinesmith and the FBI for $75 million in damages.
Sperry had reported that Clinesmith's extreme dislike of President Trump was "safe with his chain of command. As Trump gained in the polls in August 2016, [ex-FBI agent Peter] Strzok promised a worried [ex-FBI lawyer Lisa] Page 'we’ll stop' him from becoming president, according to their text messages. A week later, during a meeting in McCabe’s office, Strzok and Page discussed devising an 'insurance policy' in the event Trump won. 'OMG I am so depressed,' Strzok wrote to Page after Trump’s election victory. 'I don’t know if I can eat. I am very nauseous,' Page replied."
Other FBI actions at the time included a deputy discussing "covertly" wearing a wire to record the president in the Oval Office, as well as attempts to accomplish a coup by removing the president from office with the 25th Amendment.
The charge to which Clinesmith pleaded guilty was a felony. He admitted it was his intention to make it appear Page had not assisted the CIA, when he had.
Clinesmith had claimed he never intended to deceive anyone.
The information about Page helping the CIA was highly relevant to the FISA surveillance application being prepared and went directly to the issue of Page’s loyalty. His history as a CIA-handled source undercut the premise being made by anti-Trump agents that he was a Russian agent. If it were disclosed, it would dramatically weaken the grounds for wiretapping Page as a national security threat. In fact, it would hurt the predication for the FBI’s entire Russia “collusion” investigation, which hinged on Page’s contacts with Russians, Sperry reported.
Sperry also documented that the Democrats running the Washington, D.C., Bar Association have yet to begin any disciplinary action against Clinesmith for lying in the evidence in a federal investigation.
That organization has the power to strip him of his law license. But Sperry's report said the D.C. law group still lists Clinesmith as an "active" lawyer in "good standing."
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