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Brian Cates - Political Columnist & Pundit @drawandstrike on x 301.4K followers
Created: 2025-07-21 23:45:58 UTC
In point of fact, what Clinesmith pleaded guilty to - he had to because the unaltered email was still in the CIA/NSA archives, unlike the version proffered to the FISA Court - was the deliberate alteration of an email sent to the FBI in October of 2016.
The CIA was responding to a query as to if Carter Page has a working relationship with the agency and had a history with them.
Recall in October of 2016 the FBI people working on Crossfire Hurricane were in a frantic hurry to get their FISA warrant application in and approved so they could start their legal spying on the members of the Trump campaign team prior to the November 2016 election.
One 'i' that had to be dotted and 't' that needed crossing before the warrant application could be completed was Carter Page's claim in interviews that he had been a CIA asset in the past, helping the agency take down a Russian spy ring.
You have to remember what the FBI wanted to claim to the FISA Court in it's warrant: that they had obtained 'solid and credible evidence' from the Steele Dossier that Page was a Russian asset, so they needed to get surveillance on him.
Page actually being a CIA asset with a history of assisting the agency in catching Russian spies was...shall we say...not helpful to the narrative that the FBI wanted to spin for the Court.
So it was very disconcerting when the FBI received an answer back from the CIA that, yes indeed! Carter Page did have a relationship with their agency, and had been asset in the past.
Not helpful. Not helpful at ALL.
So what did the Crossfire Hurricane team at the FBI do?
Well, it's simple. Clinesmith changed the text of the email to read out that the CIA was DENYING any relationship with Carter Page. That altered version of the CIA email was then included in the FISA warrant application.
Durham easily found the original email the CIA had sent back. Faced with the evidence, Clinesmith ADMITTED IN WRITING that he had deliberately altered the email so the FISA warrant was tainted with a falsehood.
Clinesmith having altered that email was just ONE of the major issues that later led to the FISA Court publicly affirming that the Page warrant SHOULD NOT have been granted.
Whether anyone else besides Clinesmith will ever be criminally charged for putting together a fraudulent surveillance warrant remains to be seen.
I highly doubt Clinesmith was the only member of the Crossfire Hurricane team who saw what the original CIA email said.
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