Former FBI lawyer avoids jail time linked to Carter Page FISA case
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Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith said he altered an email used in an application to conduct surveillance on Carter Page, pictured. File Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
Jan. 29 (UPI) A former FBI lawyer avoided jail time Friday after pleading guilty to altering an email supporting the surveillance of Carter Page, former President Donald Trump s ex-campaign aide.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg sentenced Kevin Clinesmith, 38, to 12 months of probation for the crime. Clinesmith pleaded guilty in August to making false statements and faced up to five years in prison.
The J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington, D.C.
A federal judge has handed down a one-year sentence of probation to a former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to doctoring an email used to get surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser during the Russia investigation.
Kevin Clinesmith, who was also ordered to perform 400 hours of community service, told the court Friday at his sentencing hearing that he is fully aware of the significance of his actions and that he takes full responsibility. I am truly ashamed about the harms I have brought the FBI and the Justice Department through my actions, he said.
The sentence is likely to disappoint Trump supporters who have long asserted that the Russia probe was a witch hunt riddled with misconduct, particularly as it involved Page and the government s surveillance of him. The Russia investigation resulted in criminal charges against six Trump associates, but did not find sufficient evidence that Trump campaign associates had illegally coordinated with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of several months, but the judge said he did not think such a punishment was necessary in part because of Clinesmith s evident remorse and because of the way he had already been “threatened, vilified and abused on a nationwide scale.”
Ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith given probation for altering email in Russia probe
By Erin Tucker
WASHINGTON - A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
Kevin Clinesmith apologized for doctoring the email about Carter Page s relationship with the CIA, saying he was truly ashamed of what he had done. This conduct is the only stain on the defendant’s character that I’ve been able to discern, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in imposing a sentence of 12 months probation rather than the prison sentence that prosecutors had requested.
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