Barr and Durham

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08/20/2020 12:52

Subject: Re:Barr and Durham

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Anonymous wrote:He plead guilty today. Sentencing is in December.

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the investigation into links between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.

U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia James Boasberg accepted the plea. Clinesmith's sentencing date has been set for Dec. 10 at 11 a.m. ET.

Clinesmith was referred for potential prosecution by the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office, which conducted its own review of the Russia investigation.

The inspector general accused Clinesmith, though not by name, of altering an email about former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to say that he was “not a source” for another government agency.

Page has said he was a source for the CIA.

The Justice Department relied on Clinesmith’s assertion as it submitted a third and final renewal application in 2017 to eavesdrop on Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

During the plea hearing, Boasberg asked Clinesmith to affirm that he "intentionally altered an email, and added language" that "individual number one" was "not a source...and you knew that statement was in fact not true."

Clinesmith replied, "At the time I thought the information I was providing was accurate, but I am agreeing the information I inserted was not originally there, and I inserted the information."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ex-fbi-lawyer-kevin-clinesmith-pleads-guilty-durham-probe

What's really telling here is that the prosecutor had no objection to Clinesmith affirming to the court that he believed the information was true when he inserted it into the email, because this will prevent prosecutors from trying to use anything Clinesmith says to establish a knowing conspiracy to submit false FISA applications.

It’s interesting that Clinesmith asked for clarification, received it, then put the opposite information in.

Except that's not quite what happened. But if that were how it happened, Durham could be in big trouble for suborning perjury.

Clinesmith sent both versions to his higher ups and the DOJ attorney who wrote the first FISA. Maybe that’s why he thought it was ok.

So to use the Democratic logic applied to Gen. Michael Flynn, why did he plead guilty if he didn't think his actions were wrong?

Read the documents. Clinesmith admits that he knowingly inserted a phrase into the email that wasn't there in the original version. He also testified that he believed the phrase was correct when he inserted it. So he knowingly altered the email, but believed that the substantive information he inserted was correct.

So breaking the law doesn't count if you think you're doing the right thing. Sorry, but that excuse doesn't work for an ordinary person, much less an "officer of the court" who owes a duty of candor to a tribunal. If he truly believed the document was inaccurate, he could have included the document with his proposed corrected language and the evidence that he had to support such claim.

I didn’t say the misrepresentation doesn’t matter (although you’re talking to multiple posters here). The misrepresentation was wrong. But all this tells us is that Clinesmith knew he misrepresented what the email said, not that he did so while knowing Page was a source. So far all of the evidence, including statements signed by Durham, indicate Clinesmith believed the phrase he inserted was factually correct. He was absolutely negligent in his preparation of the substantive statements, but negligence won’t support a finding of knowing conduct or conspiracy.

It doesn't matter what personal knowledge he had or didn't have about the status of Carter Page - though you have to admit that if he knew Page was a source, that makes the situation far worse. He falsified a document and presented it to a court of law. First rule you learn in law school is NEVER lie to a judge.

No one here is disputing that. But it also is not evidence of a conspiracy within the FBI to fabricate grounds to spy on the Trump campaign.

We will see what else comes out of the Durham investigation. There is plenty of evidence already floating around that points to a coordinated effort, but I'm willing to wait for a formal determination. By comparison, quite a few folks on the Democratic side, including the vast majority of the MSM, weren't willing to wait until Mueller finished his investigation.