Kevin Clinesmith Biography
Kevin Clinesmith is a is a former FBI lawyer who is suspected of altering a document related to surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. He is also the author of anti-Trump and anti-Mike Pence texts that resulted in his leaving the Russia investigation.
Kevin Clinesmith Law School
Kevin attended Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan State University College of Law, and the Georgetown University Law Center. According to the Michigan Bar Association lawyer’s directory, Kevin E. Clinesmith is still licensed to practice law in Michigan and has a Washington D.C. address.
Kevin Clinesmith Wife
According to his Facebook page it appears that he is married as friends posted multiple pictures showing his wedding.
Kevin Clinesmith FBI
Kevin was an attorney with the FBI’s National Security and Cyber Law Branch and worked under FBI General Counsel James Baker and Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson. He worked on the Clinton email investigation as well as the Trump-Russia probe.
Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told lawmakers in 2018 that Clinesmith was present in the FBI’s meeting with him in February 2017. An Australian diplomat’s tip about Papadopoulos claiming the Russians had damaging information about Hillary Clinton effectively prompted the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, called Crossfire Hurricane, in July 2016.
Kevin Clinesmith Mueller Investigation
Clinesmith was assigned to and then removed from Russia probe, he was identified as FBI attorney 2. The IG report read; FBI Attorney 2 “was assigned to the Midyear investigation, the Russia investigation, and the Special Counsel investigation. We found messages in which FBI Attorney 2 discussed political issues, including three instant message exchanges that raised concerns of potential bias.”
The report read that FBI Attorney 2 was also assigned to the investigation into Russian election interference and “was the primary FBI attorney assigned to that investigation beginning in early 2017.”
The report added that he was assigned to the Special Counsel investigation once it began. He returned to the FBI in late February 2018 “shortly after the OIG provided the Special Counsel with some of the instant messages.”
Kevin Clinesmith Allegedly Altered Russia Probe Document
Kevin is accused of altering an email that was used to justify a court’s wiretap approval into Carter Page, a former advisor for Donald Trump. On November 22, 2019 the New York Times reported that investigators for the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, “uncovered errors and omissions in documents” relating to the Page wiretap, and Horowitz has referred his investigative findings against Clinesmith for possible criminal charges.
The FBI obtained a secret surveillance warrant in 2016 to monitor the communications of Page, who was never charged in the Russia investigation or accused of wrongdoing. The warrant, which was renewed several times and approved by different judges in 2016 and early 2017, has been one of the most contentious elements of the Russia probe and was the subject of dueling memos last year issued by Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee.
FBI Director Chris Wray has told Congress that he did not consider the FBI surveillance to be “spying” and that he has no evidence the FBI illegally monitored Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election. Wray said he would not describe the FBI’s surveillance as “spying” if it’s following “investigative policies and procedures.”
Kevin Clinesmith Donald Trump
It is alleged that Clinesmith is also anti-trump and allegedly was the author of anti-Trump and anti-Mike Pence texts that resulted in his leaving the Russia investigation.
According to the IG report on November 22, 2016 Kevin sent an instant message to FBI Attorney 1 commenting on the amount of money the subject of an FBI investigation had been paid while working on the Trump campaign. FBI Attorney 1 responded, “Is it making you rethink your commitment to the Trump administration?” FBI Attorney 2 replied, “Hell, no,” and then added “Viva le resistance.”
He later explained to the IG: “It’s just the lines bled through here just in terms of, of my personal, political views in terms of, or what particular preference I have. But, but that doesn’t have any leaning on the way that I, I maintain myself as a professional in the FBI.”
