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The Clinesmith guilty plea: beginning or end? — 34 Comments

1. Even among those who have been following this “investigation”, many will not have heard the name of the relatively unimportant Clinesmith until today. This news (coming on a Friday) augurs very badly indeed for any serious consequences for the criminal misbehavior of Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and all the other assorted scoundrels in the DC swamp who were responsible for the most egregious malfeasance by non-elected officials in many a decade.

2. I, for one, am delighted that Clinesmith has pled guilty.

   Here’s hoping there’s more of this to come.

3. Very interesting interviews with AG Barr on Hannity and Mark Levin.

   Barr took the job as AG to try to change things which have gone awry.
   !. De-politicize the DOJ.
   2. To end the tactic that the Democrats have instituted of criminalizing political activity..
   3. To reform our justice system to conform to the standard of equal justice for all. He readily admits that there are two tiers of justice in operation today.
   4. To make a transparent report of Durham’s investigation to the American people. To indict anyone involved in Russia-gate who can be proven guilty of criminal activity. He doesn’t want to prosecute political activity and believes he and Durham can tell the difference between criminal and political activities.

   Barr is very reassuring. He didn’t take the job because he thought it would be fun. He took it because he believed he could make a real contribution to improving justice in the country. I wish him well.

4. Key is that the criminal actions were political.

5. “Mr. Clinesmith was among the F.B.I. officials whom Mr. Mueller removed from the Russia investigation after Mr. Horowitz found messages they had exchanged expressing political animus against Mr. Trump. Shortly after Mr. Trump’s election victory, Mr. Clinesmith texted another official: ‘I honestly feel like there is going to be a lot more gun issues, too, the crazies won finally. This is the tea party on steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost.’

   “In another text, he wrote, ‘viva le resistance.’

   “Mr. Clinesmith told the inspector general that he was expressing his personal views but did not let them affect his work.”

   From this article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ex-f-b-i-lawyer-expected-to-plead-guilty-in-durham-investigation/ar-BB17Y2iT?ocid=msedgntp

   The mealy-mouthed excuse in that last paragraph is transparently dishonest. One would have to be a gullible fool to believe it.

   But the media will certainly never challenge Clinesmith on it, because it’s the same excuse they use every time they are caught with tangible evidence of bias.

6. I believe neo will be incorrect in

   ” I have long assumed that a few lower-downs such as Clinesmith will be the fall guys, and that a great many Americans will just yawn, because they either hate Trump and therefore think all is justified, or don’t understand how grave a threat the Russiagate coup attempt has been to our nation, or both.”

   insofar as the parade of lower ranked participants in the coup, each and everyone, will find their personal interest against longer sentences and higher fines leading to detailed testimony against their directing superiors. This Clinesmith indictment and plea is the model of working link by link up the chain of complicity and lawbreaking. The Barr DoJ is serious. Leave us give them time and our patience to conduct the whole investigation and consequent prosecutions in the proper manner. It has taken too long, it’s true, but it can still be done, and done justly toward all.

7. Personally, I think it is too late.
   But there are a few things coming to fruition now.
   Title IX reform (kangaroo courts for college sex crimes).
   Yale slapped for racism in Admissions.
   This “minor player” in Muh Russia Hoax

   It’s little. It’s late. It’s welcome as far as it goes. It can all be undone in an eyeblink if the Nov election goes awry.
   Dems can mobilize this stuff in no time. Repubs dally.

8. I am less sanguine than sdferr about this. The best analysis/predictive site in my opinion has been the CONSERVATIVE TREEHOUSE blog. The main person “Sundance” has been a lot less at ease than most. He also doesn’t have much use for the “tick tock” club that Sean Hannity has assembled and thinks there is a lot of administrative butt protecting going on as large institutions tend to develop.

   I worked in General Motors for 35 years and I can attest to it. The log rolling of slow information from the DOJ institutions show this and Congress particularly the Senate is complicit with it. The senators are all show and no go. They make noise right around the election to try and convince people they are doing something. Hear me Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson?

   There is a uni-party that can subvert people. I think of Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio as examples. Tea Party rebels that ended up being part of the apparatus. Just today we read that Hillary doesn’t have to answer questions about her email server under oath. Bill O’Reilly said it best when I came back from an overseas assignment in 2000. “The rich and the powerful protect their own” Look at the cozy relationship between the Clinton’s and Bushes.

   (Bill and Hillary, the Juan and Eva Peron of our country. Now I see Barack and Michelle doing the same thing. And the sad thing about it. It still is in Argentina today with the Kirchiners.)

   Time will tell if Barr can unbreak this bureaucratic mess or if he is trying to do so. I am keeping an open mind. One thing that is different is that the games are now being played in the open thanks to people like Hannity and his team, Judicial Watch and blogs like Red State, Conservative Treehouse and Gateway Pundit.

   I highly recommend those who have not read the Conservative Treehouse to do so. Sundance had to have been a very high up non-appointed FBI or DOJ head or a senior member of the Congressional Staff to know the processes as well as he does.

9. Carter Page too has an interest in the Clinesmith case, so, his view at the link: “Clinesmith, his organization, and their associates put my very life at risk, leading to abusive calls and death threats because of my personal opinions and support for President Trump, […] There is a long way to go on the road to restoring justice in America, but certainly a good first step has now been taken.”

10. Sparticus, if you’re gonna tout sundance, I must tout ret. FBI Mark Wauck, at https://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/2020/08/major-update-on-kevin-clinesmith-plea.html .

11. It will be interesting to see how corrupt is the bar in whatever state Clinesmith is licensed. It used to be that a lawyer tampering with a document being submitted to a court would bring automatic disbarment. We’ll see if it still does, then neo can revise the first line of her post to read “ex-lawyer Kevin Clinesmith who worked for the FBI. . . “

12. After Watergate I concluded that the legal system in this country is corrupt and dishonest. Everything I have seen since then has reinforced that opinion. I am delighted to see that the public is now starting to understand that the justice you receive depends on your political connections.

13. “Ever since we learned that the entire Russiagate investigation was riddled with falsehood and traps, it has been clear that if it is allowed to stand then the rule of law in the US and the orderly transition of power is finished. Actually, I think it’s been clear for quite some time that it is finished, even if a few indictments come down.” neo [my emphasis]

    ““Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.”” Abraham Lincoln

    When irreconcilable differences exist and one side is an existential, mortal threat to the destruction of the other side… at least in this, Mao Tse Tung had the right of it; “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

    Ultimately, our differences will be settled by the choice that in the aggregate the U.S. Military makes; will they follow the orders of the democrats and crush liberty or will they support their oath to defend the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic?

    “Just today we read that Hillary doesn’t have to answer questions about her email server under oath.” I am Spartacus

    And Ray’s reaction to that news is confirmation that even Ray hasn’t quite got it; “the public is now starting to understand that the justice you receive depends on your political connections.”

    If you’re on the Left and guilty, justice will be denied. If you’re on the right and innocent, justice will be denied.

14. The mass arrests I and others talked about, is only just starting. You haven’t seen the finale yet.

    It is not Trump that will end the Deep State. It is me and others like me.

    Can’t believe that? Well, I am sure just as many believed me when I talked about Civil War 2 being inevitable… in 2007 that is.

15. aNanyMouse on August 14, 2020 at 7:35 pm said:
    Sparticus, if you’re gonna tout sundance, I must tout ret. FBI Mark Wauck, at https://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/2020/08/major-update-on-kevin-clinesmith-plea.html .
    * * *
    Thanks for the link!
    Great comments BTW (including yours, of course), but my favorite was the link to this by Sidney Powell: (I’ve “flipped” the Tweets to get the proper sequence – Twitter delenda est.)

    https://twitter.com/SidneyPowell1/status/1294391662584532992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1294391662584532992%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2F2020%2F08%2F14%2Fproactive-distancing-the-special-counsel-operation%2F

    Andrew Weissmann
    @AWeissmann_

    Question for Barr: how are Flynn’s confessed lies to the FBI (repeated to the VP) not a crime, but Clinesmith changing an email (the full version of which he also sent to DOJ) is?

    Sidney Powell ?????
    @SidneyPowell1

    That you would pose this question only demonstrates your pathetic lack of ethics, legal knowledge & the Rule of Law
    #UnfitToPractice
    #FlynnWasFramed & you know it You orchestrated the deceitful prosecution, coercion & calculated suppression of exculpatory evidence
    @TheJusticeDept

    Wauck was amplifying a post by shipwreckedcrew at Redstate, but didn’t give the link. Credit where credit is due!

    https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/08/14/clinesmith-guilty-plea-suggests-durham-has-broad-set-of-targets-in-his-sights-look-for-silence-from-most-likely-candidates-today/

    Major points made.

16. A very important point is made in this post, which I didn’t catch at all, because the timelines of who did what when with whom are so lengthy and confusing.

    https://www.redstate.com/michael_thau/2020/08/14/897459/
    Durham Target Kevin Clinesmith Wasn’t Working for Who You Think When He Forged That Email To Spy on Carter Page
    Posted at 9:00 pm on August 14, 2020 by Michael Thau

    One important fact getting overlooked in all the discussion of whether FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s guilty plea represents the sacrifice of a minor criminal so the ringleaders can escape justice or the beginning of the end for those who were running the show is exactly whose show Clinesmith was a part of when the crime he’s admitted committing occurred.

    You see, Clinesmith wasn’t working for James Comey on June 19, 2017, the date he altered that CIA email inconveniently identifying Trump’s onetime foreign policy advisor Carter Page as a trusted source.

    By that point in time, Clinesmith was part of Robert Mueller’s Independent Counsel investigation.

    And it was Mueller’s crew who made use of the illegitimately obtained renewal of the FISA warrant to spy on Page that Clinesmith’s willingness to commit forgery enabled.
    …
    Funny how things work out sometimes. If you didn’t know better, you might think making Mueller Independent Counsel was the result of some kind of plan.

    And don’t forget this part:

    The DNC’s tech firm CrowdStrike were the only ones allowed to examine any of their supposedly infected hardware, as everyone knows since Trump mentioned CrowdStrike in his now-famous phone call to Ukrainian president Zelensky.

    Both the FBI and Mueller’s probe consented to the very strange arrangement of accepting forensic evidence from a private contractor hired by the alleged victim of the crime they were investigating in lieu of collecting their own.

    And the concern Rosenstein professed about whether the public would have confidence in McCabe might have applied even more to Mueller had it ever become widely known that CrowdStrike president, Shawn Henry, prior to joining the firm, was promoted to FBI head of cyber operations by none other than Robert Mueller when the latter ran the FBI.

    Good thing we know that none of this could have possibly been planned.

    Moreover, we learned something in May that might have struck another blow to the public’s confidence in Shawn Henry’s mentor. Thanks to acting Director of National Security, Richard Grenell, Adam Schiff was forced to release testimony Henry gave to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017.

    CrowdStrike’s president admitted that the claim we’ve been assured of for four years now that his firm had discovered proof that the Russians had stolen files from the DNC was – not to put too fine a point on it – a baldfaced lie.

    There wasn’t even any evidence, let alone proof.

    Henry testified that CrowdStrike only found evidence that files were “staged for exfiltration” but explicitly admitted that “[t]here’s not evidence that they were actually exfiltrated” at least five separate times.

    In fact, there seems to be very good evidence they weren’t.

    Crazy, huh?
    Flynn, Manafort, and Stone all thought the DNC hack was a ruse.
    Maybe they knew something!

    Funny how Shawn Henry’s mentor, Rober Mueller wound up doing everything in his power to destroy the three most prominent people pushing the idea that the Russian DNC hack never happened and the ones most in a position to keep pushing Trump to make sure it was investigated.

    One of the strangest things about congressional Republicans’ reaction to the many abuses of power perpetrated against Donald Trump, his associates, his campaign, and his presidency is the difference between the way they seem to view Crossfire Hurricane and Mueller’s probe.

    Everyone in the GOP establishment seems to accept that the FBI investigation was completely corrupt and that Comey and all his underlings committed serious crimes and ought to be punished.

    Yet Mueller’s probe, which was merely the new, more powerful, identity Crossfire Hurricane took on after it faked its own death, isn’t treated with the same skepticism.

    These very different attitudes are even more puzzling given that Mueller was forced to get rid of three members of his team who’d also been part of Crossfire Hurricane when text messages they’d sent indicating an incredible antipathy towards Donald Trump emerged.

    Given that the FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page that was renewed as a result of Clinesmith’s admitted criminal activity was used by Robert Mueller and not his protege James Comey, hopefully, congressional Republicans will start taking the same dim view of Mueller’s probity that they already have of Comey’s.

    And, hopefully, John Durham is already taking a hard look at Mueller’s corruption.

    I’ve just started a series of columns on the blatant lies Mueller’s report contains concerning that alleged Russian hack of the DNC. And believe me, there’s plenty for him to find.

17. This sure as heck better be the beginning.

18. I am focusing on one thing that makes the Durham investigation and Barr’s DOJ unique in modern political history. Consider… THERE HAVE BEEN NO LEAKS.

    That means that Barr has actually enforced operational discipline. This, to me, is the signal that this Administration really is de-politicizing the DOJ.

    I am as anxious as anyone else to see justice done. But, the lack of leaks reassures me that, whatever the timeline, they are doing it right.

19. aNanyMouse, that meaninginhistory link was terrific, thanks.

    Roy Nathanson, I agree about the astounding lack of leaks in the Durham investigation and about the operational discipline in aid of a genuine de-politicization. I believe Barr’s organization will prosecute crime that was in furtherance of a political end, but will not attempt to criminalize the political end for its own sake.

20. From the linked article: “Clinesmith is accused of altering an email that said Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was not a source for the CIA, even though Page had had a relationship with the agency.”

    Terribly worded! The original email did not say “Trump campaign advisor Carter Paige was not a source for the CIA…,” although this sentence, which leads the second paragraph of the article, reads as though this were the case.
    It should be written to make clear that Clinesmith is accused of altering an email that verified that Carter Page WAS a source for the CIA (which was vital information because the FISA warrants were sought on the basis that Page’s level of contact with Russians raised suspicions). The altered email Clinesmith and others then used to obtain the fourth FISA warrant read that Page was NOT ever a covert American source in his dealings with Russians.
    From an article I read in the Federalist, Clinesmith excuses his altering of the email by claiming that a prior phone call with the emailer led him to believe that Page wasn’t really an asset/source in any significant sense of the word. The person he says he spoke with denies that any such phone call even took place. In any case, the question of Page’s potential as an approved CIA source had long been under consideration during the course of the surveillance and Clinesmith would have also had to disregard all of that info in order to “innocently” alter the email.

21. Breakdown of the plea deal from an intel analyst, J E Dyer.
    Worth reading the whole thing.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/08/14/as-durham-starts-his-clock-on-spygate-cnn-clarifies-what-that-intel-assessment-on-2020-election-interference-was-for/

    My only difference with Dyer’s opinion (I never question her analysis) is her conclusion that media gaslighting will not affect public perception once the rest of the plea deals and then indictments come down.

    “Along with Durham’s roll-out, we can expect the media to increase the volume on “alternative fiction” efforts. But it will be so glaringly evident that that’s what they are, there will be hardly any reason to bother examining them.”

    As many here have shown, the capacity of the Democrats and NeverTrumpers to ignore plain evidence is staggering.

22. RigelDog on August 15, 2020 at 2:03 pm said: — referencing a Federalist post, which would most likely be this one.

    https://thefederalist.com/2020/08/14/clinesmith-charging-documents-fbi-withheld-pages-cia-work-from-fisa-court-then-lied-about-it/

    Mollie Hemingway gathers up all the loose threads and adds some things I haven’t seen before, too many to excerpt.
    Pretty clear why Durham went after Clinesmith for his “innocent mistake.”

23. Oh, there will be more to come.

24. Corruption is baked into the cake of goverment. What is new is the mask has been revealed. Most will choose to ignore it.

25. Breaking: from shipwreckedcrew – the Information was filed, but not the Plea that normally would accompany it.
    ???
    https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/08/15/fbi-attorney-clinesmith-did-not-enter-a-guilty-plea-on-friday-to-the-filed-information-that-is-not-normal/

    Normally the Information and a Memorandum of Plea Agreement are filed simultaneously, and the filing of the two documents is the basis upon which the district judge to whom the case is assigned will schedule a hearing to for entry of the guilty plea. The arrangements are normally coordinated in advance of the filing — a simple telephone call to the Chambers of the assigned Judge is all that it takes after the papers are filed. Typically the hearing takes place the same day as the filing where — as here — the filing happens in the morning.

    But no Plea Agreement was filed yesterday.

    He speculates about one thing that could have been a good reason, but it is only speculation at this point.
    Stay tuned—

26. Another important bit of information from shipwreckedcrew, who is writing a lot of good stuff on the Deep State Coup.

    https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/08/07/lets-clear-up-a-misconception-there-is-no-doj-policy-restricting-indictments-prior-to-an-election/

    There is a policy that prohibits the taking of any overt enforcement action for the purpose of affecting an election. That is prohibited. But that policy doesn’t prohibit taking the same enforcement action when there is no such nefarious intention.
    …
    This relates directly to the matters now under investigation by Durham. But the policy only “recommends” Durham consult with Public Integrity, it does not require him to do so, nor does it prohibit him from acting based on some arbitrary date and the calendar and the prospect that one side or the other might be politically embarrassed by DOJ action such as the return of an indictment against loyalists of one particular party.
    …
    Again, from Comey and Preet Bharara — Obama’s US Attorney for the Southern District of New York — the only “explicit policy” is about crimes involving the election process. And even the “unwritten guidance” only concerns not indicting political candidates.

    Attorney General Barr has said on multiple occasions that the Durham investigation is not examining possible criminal charges for anyone running for office. That satisfies the “unwritten guidance”. The investigation does not involve election process crimes. That satisfies the DOJ’s explicit policy restrictions. So what else might there be?

    There isn’t anything.
    …
    The prosecutor should take “significant investigative steps … when the case is ready, not earlier or later.”

    So whenever you see a left-wing former Obama DOJ official claim that Durham and Barr would be violating DOJ policy by bringing any indictments between now and November, blow them up on Twitter — and link this story.

    THERE. IS. NO. SUCH. POLICY.

27. Drew Holden’s work was, IIRC, mentioned by someone else here.
    It is the Epic Thread featured in this post.
    https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/08/15/epic-thread-exposes-how-wrong-democrats-and-the-media-were-about-fbi-corruption/

    To drive the point home of just how bad the responses to the corruption were prior to this news [Clinesmith’s possible plea], Drew Holden (better known on Twitter as keeper of the receipts) has put out a thread showing past Democrat and media reactions. It’s something to behold.

    Drew’s closing Tweet: “The great irony here of course is that all of these people did exactly what they accused Trump (wrongly) of doing: making the FBI into a political issue rather than trying to get to the truth.
    Something tells me we’re a long way from getting there, but getting closer…”

    Bonchie at RedState concludes:

    The amount of gaslighting and purposeful obtuseness that has been employed over the last several years is just incredible. (Most of) these people are not dumb. They could see what we all saw, yet for purely political reasons they acted blind to it all. Not only that, they chastised and tried to shame anyone who would dare speak the truth. There’s a bit of poetic justice in seeing their narrative blow up in their faces.

28. @ Aesop, on J.E. Dyer’s hopes:
    “the capacity of the Democrats and NeverTrumpers to ignore plain evidence is staggering.”

    To me, it’s been a given, for years.
    For most Dems, it’s a religion, they have nothing else to live for.
    Tho she didn’t specify this, I’ll bet that by “so glaringly evident”, she mainly meant to Indies, and Dersh-type Dems.

29. On the hacking claims (incl. on Henry, CrowdStrike), see the years-long work of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (containing Bill Binney, Ray McGovern, etc.), incl. their claims that the Podesta stuff was leaked, not hacked.
    Their latest statement on this stuff is at
    https://ConsortiumNews.com/2020/08/03/VIPS-memo-to-nancy-pelosi-did-russia-Hack-the-dnc-emails/ .

30. AesopFan,

    I’m glad you talked about this RedState article:

    https://www.redstate.com/michael_thau/2020/08/14/897459/?utm_source=whatfinger

    The author Michael Thau is to be commended. Clear and concise writing.

31. Shipwreckedcrew still on the case –
    https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/08/15/more-on-fbi-attorney-clinesmith-comments-by-his-attorney-to-the-press-have-greatly-complicated-a-guilty-plea/

    I speculated that it might have had something to do with the fact that the case was assigned via a computer program to Judge James Boasberg, who is also now the Chief Judge of the FISC — the Court misled by Clinesmith’s conduct, among other things — and that it is unlikely Judge Boasberg will remain in the case. I thought the failure to file the Plea Agreement might have something to do with waiting for the case to be reassigned. But when I saw the full text of comments made by Clinesmith’s attorney after the Information was filed, I have suspicions now that the Parties are still talking about a guilty plea, and are not yet firm on that outcome.

    He goes into the legal details extensively, citing the lawyer’s statement that we’ve already discussed here*, and concludes:

    Clinesmith’s attorney made a public statement that he said reflects Clinesmith’s view today — that he lacked intent to deceive, and that he believed his writing — the email he transmitted — was accurate when it was sent.

    That statement is not consistent with a guilty plea to a Section 1001 charge. This may be why there was no hearing yesterday, and why no Plea Agreement outlining the facts admitted to by Clinesmith has not been filed. If this is not resolved in a manner that satisfies a federal judge, Durham may have no choice but to seek an indictment of Clinesmith from a federal jury — and there are more serious charges he could bring.

    It will be interesting to see where this goes.

    *Neo quoted it in her post: “Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email. It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate. But Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility,”

    I have no idea why shipwreckedcrew is only just now parsing its meaning in re the plea deal.

32. This is the official Information filed with the court.
    https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17445533/1/united-states-v-clinesmith/

33. AesopFan, that filing is damning. Do I understand correctly that the defendant’s initial intent was to plead guilty but now he’s changed? Hopefully Mr. Clinesmith will now gain first-hand knowledge of the hell that Gen. Flynn has had to endure. I hope his constitution is strong. I know that a guilty plea would likely result in him being disbarred but he always has the option of writing a book and accepting a job at ESPN.

34. In a major respect, the meaning of the word ‘Source’ is irrelevant, to what Clinesmith’s duty was..
    When presenting *evidence* (to e.g. a court) obtained from someone else (e.g. the CIA), any *alteration* of this evidence (from its condition, when originally obtained), of any kind, must be construed as Obstruction.

    A cop’s view (of how “source” should be construed), means jack. It’s for the jury, not the cop, to assess what the CIA meant by “source”.
    Just as it would be BS, for the CPD to fold Laquan McD’s knife, and fail to inform the jury that they had obtained it in the unfolded position.

    This is Police Work 101.

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