by Debra Heine
President Trump on Friday said that news of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s plea deal with Department of Justice prosecutors was “just the beginning,” signaling that U.S. Attorney John Durham is zeroing in on other targets in his investigation.
Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty in connection with his alteration of an exonerating email during the Crossfire Hurricane (CH) investigation, which targeted members of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
In 2016, the CIA sent the email to CH investigators in response to their inquiry about the status of Page’s relationship with the CIA. Their response was not what the CH team was hoping for.
When the CH team reached out to the CIA to confirm that information, the CIA responded with an email to Clinesmith. That message confirmed that Page had been a cooperative source of information for the CIA in the past — including a period of time being relied upon by the CH investigation to contend that Page was an “Agent of a Foreign Power” for FISA surveillance purposes. The email stated that Page was not currently in contact with the CIA, but that any information from him would be favorably received by the CIA.
Rather than include information that was favorable to their target to the FISA court, Clinesmith altered the wording on the email to indicate that Page was not a friendly source of information. Significantly, Clinesmith reportedly shared the original CIA email with case agents and supervisors on the CH team before drafting the bogus FISA application. It is now expected that the first two FISA warrants will be invalidated.
This tidbit –
"Mr. Clinesmith had provided the unchanged C.I.A. email to Crossfire Hurricane agents and the Justice Department lawyer drafting the original wiretap application."
Who else knew about the lies? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/AfrEXj6d0e
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) August 14, 2020
RedState’s “ShipWreckedCrew” explains the significance of this “tidbit.”
If the knowledge of Clinesmith’s criminal act extended beyond Clinesmith himself, that would call into question the accuracy of every submission under oath made by members of CH. Not just the FISA applications, but all the affidavits offered in support of search warrants across the entire scope of the CH investigation — including everything done by the Special Counsel’s Office since many FBI agents and other personnel carried over from the DOJ/FBI investigation of CH to the SCO investigation of CH.
Regardless of what the corporate media is reporting, Clinesmith is not a minor player in the Russia hoax. In addition to being on the Crossfire Hurricane team, he worked with disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok to arrange a Trump-Flynn briefing in 2016, was on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, and took part in the effort to set up former Trump advisor George Papadopoulos.
Kevin Clinesmith was not a bit player in Crossfire Hurricane.
*He worked with Strzok to arrange sending an FBI agent into Trump-Flynn briefing.
*He was on the Mueller team
*He took part in Papadopoulos interviews
*He was part of FISA process. https://t.co/hJynsJ5jhs— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) August 14, 2020
He is also notorious for texting “Viva la Resistance” to a colleague after Trump won the 2016 election.
Deep State Lawyer Kevin Clinesmith Texted 'Viva la Resistance' to FBI Colleague After Trump Won https://t.co/vJtlTu2jLq via @BreitbartNews
— Chris 🇺🇸 (@Chris_1791) August 14, 2020
CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge pointed out on Twitter that Clinesmith’s plea deal suggests that he may be cooperating with investigators on this point.
office about a deal. The question in both the 2016 defensive briefing + the altered CIA email is whether Clinesmith acted independently or at the direction of, or with approval of FBI leadership. Plea deals typically involve cooperation. READ pic.twitter.com/5ZzlAcXCHw
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) August 14, 2020
During a White House briefing on Friday afternoon, President Trump also seemed to suggest that Durham is honing in on other targets in the investigation.
“Kevin Clinesmith, a corrupt FBI attorney who falsified FISA warrants in James Comey’s very corrupt FBI, is expected to plead guilty,” President Trump told reporters.
“That’s just the beginning, I would imagine. This . . . what happened should never happen again,” Trump continued, calling the FBI’s corruption a “terrible thing.”
“Fact is, they spied on my campaign and they got caught,” the president added. “And you’ll be hearing more.”
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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
John Fredericks is the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Virginia Star.
He is also a Trump 2020 delegate and the chairman of the Trump Virginia Delegation.
