MULTIPLE UPDATES: The Deep State Is Laughing At America

Kevin Clinesmith got 12 months probation and 400 hours of "community service"--I think that means he has to work for Dem political campaigns for 400 hours. Or maybe donate the time to the Southern Poverty Law Center. If you want a laugh--at your own expense and that of our country--read about it here.

The Dem who performed the ritual wrist-slap on Clinesmith--some guy called James Boasberg--teared up during the circus proceedings:

James Boasberg on Friday during Clinesmith's sentencing hearing said Clinesmith had suffered by losing his job and standing in the eye of a media hurricane. 

Boasberg gave him 12 months probation, 400 hours of community service, and no fine. 

Government prosecutors had been asking for Clinesmith to spend several months in jail. 

No word yet on whether Bluto Barr or Bullsh*t Durham think Boasberg "betrayed his office." Nor any word on whether Boasberg shed a tear for another guy who suffered real financial hardship and found himself in the eye of a true media hurricane--the like of which Clinesmith certainly never experienced but to which Clinesmith contributed by his felonious conduct--Carter Page.

Really--it's almost as if Boasberg wants us to believe that Clinesmith found himself out of his cushy federal job and in the eye of a "media hurricane" by some sort of weird accident or coincidence. He pled guilty to a felony, for goodness sake! And not just any felony, but a felony that strikes at the very heart of our rule of law, our electoral system, our constitutional right to be free of unwarranted surveillance. He did this, committed this felony, in an underhanded, dishonest way--forgery--as an officer of the court. 

Here's an alternative take on this travesty, reported by Paul Sperry--DC Fails To Disbar Anti-Trump FBI Lawyer Despite Guilty Plea:

As the U.S. government seeks prison time for a former FBI lawyer who admitted falsifying evidence to spy on a former Trump aide, the District of Columbia Bar association hasn’t begun an investigation to strip him of his law license, records show.

The defendant, Kevin Eugene Clinesmith, is still listed as an “active” attorney in “good standing” with the Democrat-controlled D.C. Bar, despite his having pleaded guilty more than five months ago to illegally altering a document used for authorization to electronically eavesdrop on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the FBI’s Russiagate probe.

A search of the D.C. Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel database of "disciplinary proceedings" turns up no such proceedings against Clinesmith, even though his guilty plea was reported to the bar and the bar's board has received at least one formal complaint demanding his disbarment.

“The only appropriate sanction for committing a serious felony that also interfered with the proper administration of justice and constituted misrepresentation, fraud and moral turpitude is disbarment,” the National Legal and Policy Center said in a complaint it filed with the bar on Sept. 10. “Anything less would minimize the seriousness of the misconduct.”

The 38-year-old Clinesmith, a registered Democrat who sent anti-Trump rants to FBI colleagues after the Republican was elected in 2016, awaits sentencing on Friday.

I'm just shaking my head. But Bluto Barr should be hanging his.

UPDATE 1: Perfect:

why doesn’t anyone trust our institutions? it’s a mystery. pic.twitter.com/daW7QBoDVD

— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) January 29, 2021

UPDATE 2: From the belly of the beastly Estabishment:

FISA vs. Liberty

A surveillance judge clarifies that the FBI can falsify evidence without much fear of punishment.

The government employees of the “resistance” who never accepted Donald Trump as our president have finally performed a useful public service. Together with the judges of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, they have demonstrated for all Americans how easy it is to turn the spying tools of the federal government against domestic political opponents.

Even after the Obama-appointed inspector general of the Department of Justice found “at least 17 significant errors or omissions” in a series of approved surveillance warrant applications to spy on Trump associate Carter Page—and even after a criminal conviction of an FBI attorney for doctoring an email to make it appear that the patriotic Mr. Page had never assisted U.S. intelligence—the FISA judges are still refusing to apply any significant punishment to the government officials who misled them.

UPDATE 3: I goofed up somehow (!). I thought that I had quoted Shipwreckedcrew's brief--so far--comment. I guess I was distracted juggling several things. Here's what he says that I found pertinent--Clinesmith never accepted responsibility for his criminal act, and Boasberg only gave him the wet noodle treatment anyway:

Prosecutors from Special Counsel John Durham’s office asked for a sentence of incarceration due to Clinesmith’s position of authority and responsibility as an FBI attorney who was obligated to provide accurate information, and the act of altering the email was inconsistent with that responsibility.  They argued further that by clinging to the excuse that he thought his alterations were consistent with the facts as he understood them, Clinesmith was not “accepting responsibility” for his criminal conduct as required by law to receive any leniency in his sentencing.

 There is simply no question but that Clinesmith committed a criminal act. And yet he continued with a totally BS claim that he "didn't mean to mislead". Nonsense. No sentient person accepts that.

UPDATE 4: From a WSJ editorial--what's not behind the paywall. Everyone is focused on the CIA email--understandably--but as I've been saying for lo these many months, it's just as big or bigger a deal that the FBI failed to disclose to the court that Page was a highly reliable FBI source until Spring 2016. Still, they're right--why should we take the FISC seriously? Or the FBI? Or DoJ? Or the Federal judiciary?

How can the American people take the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seriously when it doesn’t do so itself? That’s our view of Friday’s sentencing of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted to falsifying evidence submitted to the court for a warrant to spy on onetime Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page.

Federal Judge James Boasberg spared Mr. Clinesmith prison in favor of 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service. The judge said the evidence persuaded him that “Mr. Clinesmith likely believed that what he said about Mr. Page was true.”

In their brief, prosecutors made clear how unlikely this is. The evidence of Mr. Clinesmith’s animus toward Donald Trump is considerable. As for being an honest mistake, remember that Mr. Clinesmith changed an email confirming Mr. Page had been a CIA source to one that said the exact opposite, explicitly adding the words “not a source” before he forwarded it.

In their brief arguing for prison time, prosecutors contended that Mr. Clinesmith’s behavior “struck at the very core” of the candor the FISA court “fundamentally relies on” and “allowed the FBI to conduct surveillance on a U.S. citizen based on a FISA application that the Department of Justice later acknowledged lacked probable cause.” Prison time for Mr. Clinesmith, they said, was also necessary to “deter others from committing similar crimes.”

Friday’s sentencing will fuel cynicism about two-tiered justice. While George Papadopoulos served time in prison for making false statements to the FBI, and a federal judge refused to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn after the Justice Department said they had no basis, a top law enforcement official who abused his police powers while operating in secrecy escapes with probation.