(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)Yesterday, the Washington Post shocked many Democrats by stating the Inspector General’s report, which is expected on December 9, will name an FBI “line attorney” who is being criminally charged for altering the FISA documents. This news rattled those in the mainstream media, who are still claiming the president colluded with the Russians. Well, it’s much worse than that. Now, we know the name of this FBI official, who also worked for Robert Mueller. Don’t miss this.
Thanks to the sleuthing of conservative reporters who have been glued to this case, we now have the name of the “line attorney” from the FBI who altered the FISA documents on Carter Page to obtain the FISA warrant.
The original WaPo article by Devlin Barrett which broke yesterday noted the FBI official was actually a “line-level” lawyer who worked “under FBI Agent Peter Strzok.”
At 12:15 am, the WaPo article was significantly edited, and two more journalists (Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky) were added to the byline. Unfortunately, no explanation or notation of the changes was given. However, that said, the edit(s) helps to reveal the identity of the FBI lawyer. The updated article removed the references to Peter Strzok.
“If you have followed the case closely, the intentional removal of Peter Strzok in combination with the explanation of the lawyer’s FISA responsibilities; and in combination with prior reporting of FBI lawyer 2; it seems pretty obvious the line-level lawyer is Kevin Clinesmith,” Conservative Treehouse reports.
“If the WaPo article had added all the detail and left in how the line-level attorney worked for Peter Strzok everyone would have known who it was. Hence they put in more details about his activity but removed the Strzok reference,” CTH adds.
So, who is Kevin Clinesmith? Well, Rep. Mark Meadows outed him in 2018 as a rogue anti-Trump attorney working on the biggest cases at the FBI.
“Attorney 2, identified by Rep. Mark Meadows this week as Kevin Clinesmith, was ousted from the [Mueller] investigation in February [2018] after the inspector general found his [anti-Trump] messages,” Washington Times reports.
“Mr. Clinesmith also sent co-workers political jokes about Mr. Trump, including one instant message after the election saying, ‘I am so stressed about what I could have done differently,”‘ Washington Times adds.
According to the report, Mr. Clinesmith worked on the 2016 probe into Hillary Clinton’s email use, then worked on the FBI’s original investigation into the Trump campaign and, eventually, with the special counsel’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.
Pro-Trump historian Victor Davis Hanson also noted in March 2018: “Another lead attorney on Robert Mueller’s team had also previously been assigned to the investigation of the Clinton emails. After the election, the unnamed Mueller team member, later revealed to be Kevin Clinesmith, had bragged in a text to an FBI attorney acquaintance of his opposition to Trump: ‘Viva le [sic] resistance.'”
The day after Trump won the 2016 election, Clinesmith posted this instant message to a friend: “I’m just devastated. I can’t wait until I can leave today and just shut off the world for the next four days…I just can’t imagine the systematic disassembly of the progress we made over the last 8 years. [Obamacare] is gone. Who knows if the rhetoric about deporting people, walls and crap is true. 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, they have to deal with an incumbent in 4 years. We have to fight this again. Also Pence is stupid.”
Clinesmith added: “And it’s just hard not to feel like the FBI caused some of this. It was razor thin in some states. Plus my god damned name is all over the legal documents investigating his [Trump’s] staff. So who knows if that breaks to him, what he is going to do.”
The inspector general also described Clinesmith as the primary FBI attorney assigned to the Russia investigation when it started.
According to the WaPo article, “Horowitz found that the employee [Kevin Clinesmith] erroneously indicated he had documentation to back up a claim he had made in discussions with the Justice Department about the factual basis for the [Carter Page FISA] application. He then altered an email to back up that erroneous claim.”
If he’s altering an email, it sounds to us like Clinesmith is modifying communication with an FBI source to construct a citation for a claim within the FISA application, and perhaps that FBI source is Christopher Steele. Again, this is purely speculation on our part.
Conservatives began lighting up social media with Kevin Clinesmith details including reporter Paul Sperry, who tweeted: “REWIND: ‘FBI Attorney 2’ Kevin Clinesmith was among 5 FBI agents DOJ IG Horowitz referred for investigation for sending pro-Clinton, anti-Trump political messages over FBI phones and computers. Clinesmith worked C.I. cases under Strzok, including Crossfire Hurricane/Carter Page.”
REWIND: "FBI Attorney 2" Kevin Clinesmith was among 5 FBI agents DOJ IG Horowitz referred for investigation for sending pro-Clinton, anti-Trump political messages over FBI phones and computers. Clinesmith worked C.I. cases under Strzok, including Crossfire Hurricane/Carter Page
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) November 22, 2019
“Meet former FBI dork named Kevin Clinesmith. One of Peter Strzok’s do boy lawyers. The proof he said he had, pertaining to the validity of the FISA app, only existed in his little mind. He also got caught tampering with evidence when he changed things in his ‘proof’ email,” tweeted Tehvul Garcia.
Meet former FBI dork named Kevin Clinesmith.
One of Peter Strzok's do boy lawyers. The proof he said he had, pertaining the validity of the FISA app, only existed in his little mind. He also got caught tampering with evidence when he changed things in his "proof" email. pic.twitter.com/i15YbUogt6— Tehvul Garcia (@tehvul) November 22, 2019
“BREAKING: ICIG Michael Atkinson, who modified whistle-blower forms & allowed hearsay CIA leaker, was chief legal counsel for DOJ-NSD over #KevinClinesmith & #SallyMoyer who may have FALSIFIED @FBI DOCUMENTS to Obtain ILLEGAL #FISA WARRANTS Against @realDonaldTrump campaign!” tweeted John Basham.
BREAKING: ICIG Michael Atkinson, who modified whistle-blower forms & allowed hearsay CIA leaker, was chief legal counsel for DOJ-NSD over #KevinClinesmith & #SallyMoyer who may have FALSIFIED @FBI DOCUMENTS to Obtain ILLEGAL #FISA WARRANTS Against @realDonaldTrump campaign! pic.twitter.com/ym6mqF0gxz
— John Basham (@JohnBasham) November 22, 2019
Michael Atkinson, was the Inspector General Adam Schiff and his cohorts went to with their whistleblower complaint. Why? Well, it is obvious to us now that Atkinson is one of the deep state operatives who is part of the coup attempts.
Atkinson is the IG who modified the whistle-blower forms and allowed a hearsay CIA whistle-blower complaint, and he was the chief legal counsel for the head of the DOJ-NSD at the time Clinesmith was altering documents to obtain the bogus FISA warrant on Carter Page. He was Clintsmith’s boss. Pretty sketchy, right?
By all accounts, Kevin Clinesmith is pretty low hanging fruit. We are certainly hoping IG Horowitz isn’t offering up Clinesmith in an attempt to let the big-named coup plotters like James Comey and John Brennan off the hook. So, we all await the December 9 unveiling of his IG report and can only pray the right people are all brought to justice.
