Will the Dam Break After Clinesmith s Plea? | RealClearPolitics
News reports have downplayed the significance of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith s guilty plea, acknowledging he altered an official document in the government s Trump-Russia collusion probe. There has been some coverage, mainly because it is so rare to see FBI agents charged with a felony and because it is the first tangible result of U.S. Attorney John Durham s sprawling investigation of the investigators. But mainstream news outlets have minimized its importance. It s only one count, they say, and it deals with a relatively minor crime by a mid-level figure.
That s spin, and it s wrong. This plea is like finding water seeping from the base of a dam. The problem is not one muddy puddle. The problem is that it foreshadows the dam s failure, releasing a torrent. That s what the Clinesmith plea portends.