Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty as part the investigation led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, into the origins of the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz found in his review of the origins of the investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, that Clinesmith altered a CIA email that was used to continue surveillance on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2017.
Clinesmith’s lawyer approached Durham’s office about a deal, CBS News has learned, after FBI records were declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last month that showed Clinesmith was part of a team using a 2016 defensive briefing to track Russia questions from Flynn and then candidate Trump. Clinesmith is expected to cooperate with Durham’s investigation.
Attorney General Bill Barr said Thursday there would soon be developments in the Durham probe, including one on Friday. Barr said it wouldn’t be “earth-shattering,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview Thursday, but he also added that the timeline of the investigation wouldn’t be “dictated” by the upcoming election in November.
“I have said there are going to be developments, significant developments, before the election. But we’re not doing this on the election schedule. We’re aware of the election. We’re not going to do anything inappropriate before the election,” Barr said. “But we’re not being dictated to by this schedule. What’s dictating the timing of this are developments in the case.”
He summed up the minor “development in the case” to be revealed Friday by saying it’s “not an earth-shattering development, but it is an indication that things are moving along at the proper pace, as dictated by the facts in this investigation.”
In May 2019, Barr asked Durham to further review the government’s Russia probe, after former special counsel Robert Mueller released his report. The attorney general had previously expressed concern about possible “improper surveillance” of the Trump campaign.
The review Horowitz released in December found several procedural errors but overall no “political bias” by the agency.
However, Durham questioned the conclusions of Horowitz’s report at the time.
“Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,” Durham said in December.
