FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith will soon plead guilty to a felony in federal district court after he allegedly made false statements in connection with an FBI application to surveil Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
The case was brought by U.S. Attorney John Durham as part of his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe – an investigation that was initiated by Attorney General Bill Barr.
Writing for Lawfare, Barbara McQuade and Chuck Rosenberg note that the statute Clinesmith will plead guilty to is the same statute Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to twice in federal court. “One element of the statute to which Clinesmith will plead guilty requires that his false statement be ‘material.’… that means that his false statement had a ‘natural tendency’ to influence a pending matter (here, the surveillance application to the court) or was ‘capable’ of influencing that matter. This is typically an easy element to meet,” McQuade and Rosenberg write. Continue reading.