Posted on 03/18/2026 3:12:00 PM PDT by CFW
Anewly released document from Sen. Chuck Grassley adds a significant and troubling dimension to what was previously known about the conduct of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, a central figure in the surveillance of Trump campaign associates during the Russia collusion investigation. Clinesmith had already pleaded guilty to falsifying evidence in connection with a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant targeting Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The new information shows that his misconduct was not limited to a single target, but was part of a broader, systematic pattern of abuse that extended to another investigation against Trump adviser Walid Phares.
Phares, a scholar of jihadist ideology who advised both the Romney campaign in 2012 and the Trump campaign in 2016, has received far less public attention than Page. Yet the newly disclosed material reveals that the same investigative approach was applied in his case. The Grassley document shows that Clinesmith played a central role in the FISA process targeting Phares over alleged foreign ties. As with the Page surveillance, the Phares warrants were repeatedly renewed, even though investigators had found no evidence supporting the allegations.
What makes this especially troubling is not simply that the investigations came up empty, but that Clinesmith knew they had while the surveillance was still ongoing, according to the whistleblower cited in Grassley’s letter. Rather than ensuring that the court and the Department of Justice were fully and accurately informed, the newly uncovered report suggests he withheld critical exculpatory findings that undermined the legal basis for continued monitoring.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
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Of course he did.
Who were the legal beagles who let him off?
I want all of them to get the electric chair.
I’d pay to watch smoke come out of their ears.
Everyone who is surprised by this should never be allowed outside without a keeper.
The worst people you will ever meet in your life are those who are convinced of how their position is virtuous and that they know better.
Transparency helps prevent this sort of nonsense, but in today's government everything gets a secret stamp slapped on it. The ability to hide away ones actions, but also to diffuse responsibility (decisions by committee) only aggravates this situation.
What do you expect from the Political Party that held humans as Slaves and even started a War to keep them??
“In the words of the whistleblower, “there were no corroborating facts that tied [Phares] to certain facts that we thought were originally true … there was nothing confirming [Phares] received a large money payment, and nothing confirming [Phares] had a meeting in another country for the purposes of the initial allegation.”
Despite this, Clinesmith is described as having prevented these conclusions from being sent to the DOJ officials responsible for presenting the FISA renewal applications, telling colleagues directly, “We can’t send this to DOJ.” According to the report, Clinesmith then “set up a meeting with DOJ and led a discussion on the FISA renewal.””
TYhey are evil criminals, through & through to their very core.
Yes, and?
All of this and much more....still there are many people who think that the left wouldn’t frame the political opposition for crimes, steal an election, or even attempt to assassinate the President.
“The record makes clear that Clinesmith’s role was neither peripheral nor isolated. His involvement across multiple FISA matters, combined with the allegation that he concealed material information not just from the court but even from colleagues within the government, demonstrates conduct that was sustained and deliberate, far beyond a single lapse in judgment as the public narrative has suggested. He was a central operator exploiting the system at its most vulnerable point, repeatedly misleading the court and hiding the truth from within the government itself.
The obvious question is why Durham treated this as a narrow, isolated offense. If Clinesmith’s role in the Phares case was deliberately concealed from Durham and his team, it raises serious questions about who was doing the hiding and what else may have been suppressed.”
Wow.
announced John H. Durham, Special Attorney to the Attorney General.
Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the guilty plea proceeding occurred via videoconference before U.S. District Judge James E. BOASBERG.
Boasberg invited him in the front door by facilitating the whole FISA warrant scheme, waited patiently while he filled his pillowcase with valuables and took an extra minute to smear the place with f*ces, then held the back door for him, helped him into the get away car to speed away into lucrative employment at a private lw firm and >lecturing<
(i’ll bet it’s aboutethics, John Dean II)
If there is one person in this country who should be hanging from a tree branch it’s Clinesmith. An FBI lawyer deliberately
altering an email to justify the most restrictive judicial warrant available to undermine the President of the United States. It just doesn’t get any worse than that. He got barely a slap on the wrist.
I like that electric chair idea from earlier in the thread.
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