| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Will the Dam Break After Clinesmith's Plea? |
| 2020-08-19 |
| [Real Clear Politics] News reports have downplayed the significance of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith’s guilty plea, acknowledging he altered an official document in the government’s Trump-Russia collusion probe. There has been some coverage, mainly because it is so rare to see FBI agents charged with a felony and because it is the first tangible result of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s sprawling investigation of the investigators. But mainstream news outlets have minimized its importance. It’s only one count, they say, and it deals with a relatively minor crime by a mid-level figure. That’s spin, and it’s wrong. This plea is like finding water seeping from the base of a dam. The problem is not one muddy puddle. The problem is that it foreshadows the dam’s failure, releasing a torrent. That’s what the Clinesmith plea portends. WHAT DID CLINESMITH ADMIT? Clinesmith acknowledges he altered an email from the CIA to the FBI, answering a question about Carter Page. Page is an American citizen and a Naval Academy graduate who spent considerable time in Russia. His time abroad raised a question for the FBI’s counter-intelligence division. Was Page a Russian agent? Or was he on our side, helping the U.S. gather intelligence about the Kremlin? The CIA would know. The answer mattered because the FBI and Department of Justice were preparing warrants to spy on Page as a hostile foreign agent. The CIA gave them a clear answer in August 2016, before the first warrant was issued: Page was working for us. That answer was given to a still-unnamed FBI case agent, and we don’t know what he did with it. Did he show it to those preparing the warrant applications? Why else would he even ask the CIA for the information? In 2017, after Clinesmith was tasked to the Mueller investigation, their team asked him to clarify Page’s relationship with U.S. intelligence. That’s when he took the CIA document and added a single word, "not." The altered document said Carter Page was not a CIA asset. It was a deliberate lie. Clinesmith is pleading guilty to inserting that word and changing the document. That’s a felony. What made his crime more significant is that the altered document was then presented to the secret court overseeing actions taken under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The special counsel included it in the fourth FISA application to spy on Page. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #10 *Sigh* Concur with #5 NN21's offering. If Biden wins -- fizzle, then silence. If Trump is reelected -- Kabuki Theater with an expanding cast of disposable pawns. |
| Posted by: magpie 2020-08-19 12:32 |
| #9 Nothing will truly happen until the election. Then if Trump wins, sometime after new years the dam will break as these weasels try to save their own butts. The question is how far will it go up the chain and how much evidence will there be against those folks to do anything. They should have cut deals blaming Obama earlier in the summer. Save their buts while daring Trump to go after Obama. Media would claim it was a politically motivated witch hunt. black vote would desert Trump. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2020-08-19 11:39 |
| #8 The corruption and arrogance of the [sarc on]Entitlement Class (TM)[/sarc off] extends right into the Republican-controlled uniparty Senate, which is why there hasn’t yet been an accounting. See https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/08/18/substantive-elements-of-a-big-story-behind-the-mueller-special-counsel-purpose/#more-198023 |
| Posted by: Cingold 2020-08-19 08:12 |
| #7 NN2N1, your thoughts are a cogent summary of how I pretty much believe this will play out. Without all my incoherent cussing, of course. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2020-08-19 08:06 |
| #6 /\ NN2N1's above comment is a very likely outcome. It sort of mirrors the Jeffrey Epstein saga and conclusion. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2020-08-19 07:41 |
| #5 I'm not all that excited. I have seen this Upper level CYA political process play out too many times. What we maybe be seeing is the Deep State has found their needed and semi-willing scapegoat(s). Now the Deep State owned media can go to work to hint and argue now that ______ was the root cause of everything that transpired and _____ hoodwinked the others up and in the chain. As is usually the case. Those that get outed, charged and convicted will have a long drawn out or short hidden media process depending on which side to political spectrum they are on. Resulting in either a quick plea to bury it with a light slap. Or a long drawn out trial that the public's short attention span will get bored of and switch channels in 3 to 5 days. Both accomplishing the same goal, the Deflection of public attention from the real persons until after the election. At most we may see a few other low level flunkies, get dragged into the media mud to accomplish their deflective goals. Worry not tho. DC appointed Scapegoats that have taken the time to have well documented "protection", are often well rewarded. However, IF the person actually poses a uncontrollable threat to upper levels ... well accidents do happen. |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2020-08-19 07:15 |
| #4 And, if Trump is re-elected, just keeping them all lawyered up for the next four years will hurt their a$$es plenty. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-08-19 04:45 |
| #3 No the dam will not break - its holding out for its new Swamp King, Biden. Just look at all those former GOP people like McCain (spit) wife, Powell, and all the other swamp anti-trumpers speaking out at the DNC. Unless Trump is re-elected they will hold out in hopes that Biden and the swamp-GOP will rescue them. |
| Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 2020-08-19 04:24 |
| #2 ^ What He said. |
| Posted by: newc 2020-08-19 04:01 |
| #1 It's important because it's one of a whole cluster of lies all oriented in the direction of spying on Trump. Clinesmith didn't start this. He's too small. He was told to do it. |
| Posted by: gorb 2020-08-19 02:58 |