Former FBI lawyer pleads guilty to altering a document related to Russia probe

On August 19, a former FBI lawyer pleaded guilty for changing a document related to the secret surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser during the Russian investigation. Kevin Clinesmith is the first current or former official to be charged in a special Justice Department review of the investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign. Attorney General William Barr appointed John Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, to scrutinize decisions made by officials during that probe.

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Kevin Clinesmith is found guilty for the doctoring email that the FBI relied on as it sought court approval to eavesdrop on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2017. According to media reports, the punishment could be from zero to six months in prison and sentence will be declared by United States District Judge James Boasberg, who accepted Clinesmith’s plea. Sentencing was scheduled for December 10. Guilty Clinesmith resigned from the FBI before an internal disciplinary process was completed.

What Charging documents say

Charging documents say Clinesmith altered an email he received in June 2017 from another government agency to say that Page was “not a source” for that agency, then forwarded it along to a colleague. The document does not say which agency, but Page has publicly said that he had worked as a source for the CIA. The FBI relied on Clinesmith’s representation in the email when it submitted its fourth and final application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to secretly eavesdrop on Page on suspicions that he was a potential Russian agent.

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Information about any relationship Page may have had with another government agency would have been important to disclose to the FISA court to the extent it could have helped explain, or reframe in a less suspicious light, Page’s interactions with Russians. Clinesmith mostly answered routine questions from the judge with brief responses, but he did elaborate at one point to clarify the nature of his conduct and to make clear that he believed the information he had included in the email was factually accurate at the time he altered the message.

“At the time, I believed the information I was providing in the email was accurate, but I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not originally there and I inserted that information,” Clinesmith said.

(With inputs from agency) (Image credit-AP)

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