Ex-FBI lawyer avoids prison after admitting he doctored email in investigation of Trump's 2016...

[DonViejo]

Source: Washington Post



Ex-FBI lawyer avoids prison after admitting he doctored email in investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign

By Matt Zapotosky
Jan. 29, 2021 at 12:34 p.m. EST

The former FBI lawyer who admitted to doctoring an email that other officials relied upon to justify secret surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser was sentenced Friday to 12 months of probation, with no time behind bars.

Prosecutors had asked that Kevin Clinesmith, 38, spend several months in prison for his crime, while Clinesmith’s attorneys said probation would be more appropriate. Clinesmith pleaded guilty last summer to altering an email that one of his colleagues used in preparing an application to surreptitiously monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page during the bureau’s 2016 investigation of Russia’s election interference.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said that Clinesmith’s conduct had undermined the integrity of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approved the FBI’s application to surveil Page. “Courts all over the country rely on representations from the government, and expect them to be correct,” Boasberg said.

But Boasberg also said he agreed with a prior finding by the Justice Department Inspector General that Clinesmith and other FBI officials’ actions were not motivated by political bias, and he believed Clinesmith’s contention that he thought, genuinely but wrongly, the information he was inserting into the email was accurate. On top of his probation sentence, Boasberg ordered Clinesmith to perform 400 hours of community service.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/kevin-clinesmith-fbi-john-durham/2021/01/28/b06e061c-618e-11eb-afbe-9a11a127d146_story.html

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[Me.]

1. Do THese People Never Really Pay For Their Crimes?

[mr_lebowski]

2. Seems reasonable ... authorities need to be held accountable for pulling stuff like this

Considering the judge believed it was, essentially, an honest mistake, 1 year probation and community service seems fair.

It's not like Page spent time in jail because of incorrect info in the submission. And there was plenty of other reasons to watch that slimeball.

[LizBeth]

3. Probation and guilt is fine but, was the info correct or was it not correct info he inserted

It says he thought it was correct info. Was it correct info? The wrong was putting something in the email. I want to know if what he put in was correct info or incorrect info.

[Ford_Prefect]

4. Ouch!