U.S. Attorney John Durham is seeking a prison sentence of up to six months for Kevin Clinesmith, the former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to altering an email from the CIA regarding former Trump campaign aide Carter Pageâs past relationship with the spy agency.
Durham asked a federal judge in a court filing on Thursday to sentence Clinesmith to a jail term âbetween the middle and upper endâ of what federal sentencing guidelines recommend for the crime of making false statements in writing.
Clinesmith pleaded guilty to the charge on Aug. 19. He admitted to adding the phrase ânot a âsource’â to a June 2017 email from a CIA employee who had provided information about Pageâs relationship with the agency.
Page served as an âoperational contactâ for the CIA from 2008 to 2013.
Clinesmith, who worked in the FBIâs National Cyber Law Branch, assisted the bureauâs Crossfire Hurricane team in its investigation into the Trump campaignâs possible ties to the Russian government. As part of his legal work, Clinesmith contacted the CIA regarding Pageâs association with the spy agency.
Clinesmith, who also worked on the special counselâs team, forwarded his altered email to an FBI analyst who was putting together an application to renew a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Page.
Clinesmithâs email edit was discovered by the Justice Department office of the inspector general, which investigated the FBIâs FISA warrants against Page, as well as the validity of the Crossfire Hurricane probe.
A report from the IG said that the FBI made 17 âsignificantâ errors and omissions in FISA warrants against Page.
The IG report said that the CIA had initially told the Crossfire Hurricane team in August 2016 about Pageâs work as an âoperational contact.â The agents who received that information failed to include it in the initial FISA application against Page, which was approved on Oct. 21, 2016.
Clinesmith told the IG that the FBI finding out that Page was a source for the CIA would have âdrasticallyâ changed how the bureau handled the FISA applications.
Durham asserted in his court filing that Clinesmith was aware of the significance of Pageâs relationship with the CIA.
Clinesmith told the IG that the FBI and Justice Departmentâs office of intelligence had a âbig, big concernâ that investigators may have targeted a CIA source.