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The sentencing hearing included an impassioned speech by Page, in which the energy industry analyst complained that his life had been turned upside down by the media storm that followed the public disclosure of the fact that he was at the center of the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s potential influence on the Trump Campaign.
Clinesmith pleaded guilty last August to a misrepresentation charge in a plea deal with John Durham, then Attorney General William Barr appealed in 2019 to investigate the origins of the Trump inquiry -Russia. Barr formally appointed Durham as special advocate last fall, in an apparent attempt to complicate any attempt by a new administration to shut down the Durham inquiry.
Prosecutors argued that Clinesmith’s misconduct was so serious that he deserved between three and six months or so in prison. Clinesmith’s attorneys demanded that he be spared jail. The maximum sentence on the misrepresentation charge is five years in prison, although judges generally convict under federal guidelines which required Clinesmith to serve between zero and six months in prison.
Clinesmith has become something of a poster child for Republicans criticizing Special Advocate Robert Mueller’s investigation and the FBI investigation that preceded it. Indeed, many critics of Mueller – including Trump – have suggested that Clinesmith was only the first of many government officials likely to be charged with crimes related to the initiation or conduct of the investigation.
At a press conference last year, Trump called Clinesmith a “corrupt FBI attorney” and predicted further prosecutions.
“So that’s just the beginning, I guess, because what happened should never happen again,” Trump said.
The texts and other messages Clinesmith sent in 2016 contributed to the suspicion that his actions were part of a deliberate effort to smear Page and target the Trump campaign.
Among the messages uncovered in an Inspector General’s report was one sent the day after Trump was elected in 2016:
“Who knows if the rhetoric about deporting people, walls and shit is true. I honestly feel like there will be a lot more gun issues as well, the fools eventually won, ”Clinesmith wrote. “This is the taste of steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost, they have to face an incumbent in 4 years. We have to fight this again. Pence is also stupid.
Two weeks later, when a colleague asked Clinesmith if he was rethinking his commitment to serve in the Trump administration, Clinesmith replied “No” and added “Long live the resistance.”
Prosecutors said in a written sentencing submission that political bias may have led to Clinesmith’s misconduct.
“It is plausible that his strong political views and / or personal dislike for the current president made him more willing to engage in the fraudulent and unethical conduct to which he pleaded guilty,” wrote the prosecutors. “While it is impossible to know for sure how these views might have affected his tortious conduct, the defendant has made it clear that he does not discharge his important responsibilities in the FBI with professionalism, integrity and objectivity required of such a sensitive post.
However, the FBI lawyer alone could not have done much to affect or fuel the Trump-Russia investigation, as he played a relatively minor role in the investigation. Additionally, his email change came in June 2017, when Page’s surveillance by the FBI ended.
Indeed, when Boasberg granted Page permission to speak at Friday’s hearing, the judge told Page to limit himself to comments on the impact of the June 2017 FBI surveillance request, not the three. previous surveillance orders the FBI had won to snoop on Page.
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