(THREAD) This is a tiny potato. This tiny potato is much larger than the "nano-potato"—the smallest conceivable potato—that is the DOJ's prosecution of Kevin Clinesmith. Read and RT this brief thread to learn all you need to know about the "small potatoes" Trump is crowing about. 
1/ Kevin Clinesmith is an FBI lawyer. He's going to plead guilty to altering one email in a case involving a former member of a presidential campaign—conduct similar to what Trump lawyer Trey Gowdy did pre-election (but against Clinton herself) and faced no punishment for at all.
2/ Barr himself says the case is "not earth-shattering." There is no evidence any additional charges are forthcoming, or that Clinesmith is cooperating with the feds and/or inculpating anyone else. Indeed, he will make his plea while maintaining that his intentions were innocent.
3/ Clinesmith is pleading to altering an email because it's the only thing he *can* plead guilty to—as he concedes he altered one email and intended to do so, but maintains his intentions in making the alteration were *innocent* (and therefore he couldn't plead to anything else).
4/ The DOJ Inspector General already found no evidence of political bias at the FBI in the Trump-Russia case—which is consistent with Kevin Clinesmith maintaining that his intent was innocent *and* the fact that he appears not to have inculpated anyone else in any FBI wrongdoing.
5/ Indeed, further proof Clinesmith did alter an email, but didn't do so as part of any broader nefarious plot, is that at the same time he sent one altered email he sent *an unaltered version of the same email* to another FBI attorney he would've known could be a future witness.
6/ I'll go further: the email was only *produced* because the FBI was acting in good faith in the Trump-Russia case—doing due diligence on a *renewal* warrant app in the Page case to determine if Page had ever done work with the CIA. The email exists because of FBI *good faith*.
7/ Page, of course, is a bad actor here. Russian intelligence tried to recruit him; he passed the first stage of recruitment by giving SVR agents nonpublic info; the FBI caught him; and even after that he *still* had contact with the Russians and called himself a Kremlin adviser.
8/ Page then spent the 2016 campaign meeting secretly with foreign nationals abroad and lying about it to media—while giving clandestine reports about Kremlin contacts to the Trump campaign. The much-maligned Steele dossier got much of its content on Carter Pager *exactly* right.
9/ So remembering that the DOJ found no political bias; that the initial Page warrant was OK; that this involves a followup warrant; that the FBI had every reason to suspect Page of CI-relevant bad conduct; and that this CIA checkin was a sign of good faith; here's what happened:
10/ The CIA confirmed to Clinesmith that Page had worked with them, and while leaving in the email that fact, Clinesmith added (apparently) 3 words to *one* of the *two* forwardings of the email—the words "as a source"—thereby minimizing Page's prior CIA involvement.
That's it.
That's it.
11/ Clinesmith admits—as he should—he was in the wrong. He also, as I said, still maintains, and will through his plea, (a) he truly believed he was ensuring the accuracy of the statement by the CIA to his FBI peers, and (b) he had no bias in doing so (which the DOJ IG confirms).
12/ But because Barr and Durham need a head on a pike, and because Clinesmith must admit he added three words to one version of an email he elsewhere forwarded unaltered, a plea must happen.
But all of this only *disproves* the Durham/Barr conspiracy theory of a vast conspiracy.
But all of this only *disproves* the Durham/Barr conspiracy theory of a vast conspiracy.
13/ To figure out how DOJ would normally handle a case like this, let's look at Trump lawyer Trey Gowdy, who knowingly lied about whether a name in a Clinton email was classified—it wasn't, and he knew it, but he said it was—so he could alter an email with a fraudulent redaction.
14/ Gowdy then used his fraudulent alteration of a Clinton email to accuse a presidential candidate of a federal felony.
Clinesmith was dealing with a man who *didn't even work for Trump's campaign anymore*.
And unlike Gowdy, he was found not to have acted with political bias.
Clinesmith was dealing with a man who *didn't even work for Trump's campaign anymore*.
And unlike Gowdy, he was found not to have acted with political bias.
15/ Gowdy—who acted with political bias and the criminal intent of fraudulently influencing an election—faced no punishment. Trump thereafter even brought him aboard his legal team. So that's how a case like this one would *normally* go at the DOJ.
But not under Trump ally Barr.
But not under Trump ally Barr.
16/ The DOJ IG had access to evidence that, in his private communications, Clinesmith did not want Trump to be elected. But he also found that that fact—and we must remember, every FBI agent has private political views and preferences—didn't influence his actions. So there we go.
17/ Everything about this case—its background; the facts surrounding the act itself; the way the case has been handled; the fact that the FBI agents Trump identifies as co-conspirators are actually deemed victims by DOJ in the Clinesmith case—undercuts Trump's conspiracy theory.
18/ There's no sign at all that this is the "tip of an iceberg"—it doesn't appear it's leading to (or exposing) anything else, which is why Barr called it "not earth-shattering." Meanwhile, Trumpists ignore 200+ indictments in the Trump-Russia case—or worse, call them immaterial.
19/ AG Barr has made clear that he is responding to far-right pressure from Trump and his allies to produce results in this case pre-election.
And yet every action in this case *violates* Barr's *own edict* not to pursue any cases pre-election that could influence the election.
And yet every action in this case *violates* Barr's *own edict* not to pursue any cases pre-election that could influence the election.
20/ In its timing; in violating Barr's own edict; in being a selective prosecution; in being fraudulently framed as a big deal pointing to something bigger; the case seems to indict the credibility/motives of Barr, the DOJ, Trump, his allies and Trump voters more than Clinesmith.
CONCLUSION/ In view of Trump's crimes—bribery; aiding and abetting; fraud(s); illegal solicitation of foreign campaign aid; obstruction; witness tampering and more—being literally too many to count, the fake build-up of this case on the far right is *spectacularly* pathetic. /end
