By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A former FBI lawyer pleaded guilty Wednesday to altering an email used to seek the continued surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Kevin Clinesmith, 38, admitted he doctored the email, which was submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA).
The guilty plea stems from the investigation into how the Obama administration investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The email suggested that Page was not a source for the CIA, even though he had a relationship with the agency.
Clinesmith admitted he was guilty but said he believed at the time that his statement about Page was true.
“At the time, I believed that the information I was providing in the email was accurate,” Clinesmith told Judge James E. Boasberg of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, The New York Times reports. “But I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not originally there, and I inserted that information.”
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10. He faces up to six months in jail based on sentencing guidelines.
