Trump went on to call the alleged misdemeanor of the FBI investigation the “greatest political crime in the history of our country.”
On Friday, we got this first bit of news from the Durham probe: former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith has pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement – by changing an email sent to another official who it, like Clinesmith, was involved in overseeing the oversight of former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith changed the email to indicate that Page had not been a government source in the past, a mistake his lawyer made in a statement was a simple mistake with no malicious intent. (Clinesmith had also been critical of Trump during his time with the FBI.)
“Kevin deeply regrets that he changed the email,” Clinesmith’s attorney, Justin Shur, said in a statement Friday. “It was never his intention to mislead the court or his colleagues because he believed the information he passed on was accurate. But Kevin understood what he was doing wrong and accepted responsibility.”
This is, in a word, bad. FISA warrants are a very big deal and should be considered very carefully as they allow the government to investigate a US citizen. That there were errors in this process that led to at least one guilty plea from someone involved in the trial reflects poorly on the bureau. Period.
Informed about the news Friday, Trump said this at the White House:
“That’s just the beginning … what happened should never happen again. He pleads guilty, terrible thing, terrible thing. The fact is, they spied on my campaign and they were caught and you will hear more.”
Which, well, part is unknowable and part just not true.
Let us first take the wrong part.
There is zero evidence that the FBI “spied” on Trump’s campaign or, as he has repeatedly stated in recent years, that then-President Barack Obama orchestrated some massive surveillance efforts of his 2016 campaign.
Now to the unconscious part.
When Trump says that the Clinesmith plea “is just the beginning and” you will hear more “, he is simply saying things. He is convinced that this was some kind of broad-based conspiracy against him (although, again, there is no proof of it) and so he fictitious it until he (hopes) he makes it.
He tries to work the refs here too, which is inconvenient because the refs are the department of justice and his head: Barr.
Again, there is no evidence to suggest that Obama directed any kind of espionage. And no matter what Trump wants to be true, Clinesmith’s plea does not prove it either.
What it does prove – especially when you consider the mistakes made by the FBI and the findings by the IG regarding the FISA applications – is that there were significant twists and turns in the way the FBI went about making the matter that it is necessary to examine Page as long as it did. And that, in Clinsemith’s case, a crime was committed in connection with these FISA applications – whether he intended to or not.
What it does not prove is that the savagery of Trump claims that there is a “deep state” conspiracy that tried to keep him from being elected and has been working against him since he took office. The facts just aren’t there.
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