Former FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty today to altering Carter Page evidence to support the FISA warrant used to spy on the Donald Trump campaign in 2016.
38-year-old Clinemsith altered an email from CIA investigators used to request a FISA warrant and renewals on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.
Carter Page previously worked as a source for the CIA, however Clinesmith falsely said Page was “never” a CIA source.
According to Durham’s charging document (and also in IG Horowitz’s report), “certain individuals” on the Crossfire Hurricane were told in an August 2016 memorandum that Page was a CIA asset — so who else knew?
Despite members of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team knowing Carter Page was a CIA asset, that information was omitted from the first three FISA warrants on Page.
Clinesmith’s plea agreement is set for today in front of Judge James Boasberg who is currently the presiding judge over the FISA Court.
Judge James Boasberg was appointed by Obama in 2011. In April 2012 Boasberg ruled that the American public had no right to view government photos of deceased terror leader Osama Bin Laden.
Via Techno_Fog:
The Kevin Clinesmith plea agreement is now set for August 19.
It will be before Judge James Boasberg – who happens to be the presiding judge over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. pic.twitter.com/LWEJQQBx2q
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) August 17, 2020
Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Monday he has no idea how Judge James Boasberg, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, ended up being in charge of a case related to the FISA surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide.
“I saw that today. I was a little bit shocked,” the California Republican said. This was after Dobbs, a staunch ally of President Trump and stern critic of the Russia investigation, asked if it was “a little bit screwed up.”
The FISA court, which oversees requests for surveillance warrants for federal law enforcement and intelligence purposes, is currently composed of 11 judges. Boasberg, who is a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has served in the FISA court since 2014. He was named the presiding judge of the FISA court on Jan. 1.
According to a charging document filed on Friday, Clinesmith, who worked on both the Hillary Clinton emails investigation and the Russia investigation, altered an email in 2017 that helped justify the continued FISA surveillance of onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. A lawyer for Clinesmith, 38, told the Washington Examiner that his client will be pleading guilty to making a false statement during a video teleconference hearing on Wednesday.
Though Nunes, who has been a lead congressional investigator into what Trump’s allies have dubbed the “Russiagate” scandal, emphasized how odd it looked to him for Boasberg to be the judge assigned to this case, the congressman added that he will reserve judgment because he does not have the full picture.
“I don’t know if there’s a reason there, but I would assume the attorney general and U.S. Attorney Durham have raised those concerns if there are concerns,” Nunes said. “But I did find that highly unusual. But I’ll leave it at that because I’m sure there’s more to it that we may not know yet.”
The most publicized action to date by Boasberg was when he appointed an Obama lackey to oversee changes to the FISA court to prevent further FISA abuse. We reported in January:
Judge Boasberg announced in an order that he appointed Obama-era national security leader at the DOJ David S. Kris as amicus counsel to review the reforms the FBI will be making to its FISA application process.
Appointing an Obama connected individual to oversee changes in the FISA Court was the last thing the courts could do to show the public the court was serious about making systemic changes to protect innocent Americans from the FISA Court.
The Clinesmith case isn’t closed yet. We’ll see if justice is served or if another totally disgusting episode occurs in the US courts like the sham occurring with Judge Sullivan in D.C. who is refusing to end General Flynn’s case despite the government and Flynn’s attorneys agreeing to end the case based on it being a corrupt government indictment.
Roger Stone’s case was also grotesque as Judge Amy Berman Jackson ensured the corrupt Mueller gang would have a corrupt jury on his case. Judge Jackson’s actions may be the most corrupt by an Obama appointed judge to date.
