The DC Bar protects its own
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Convicted for falsifying evidence Felon? No problem.
Didn't meet the filing deadline? No problem.Clinesmith was sentenced to 12 months probation last January. But the D.C. Bar did not seek his disbarment, as is customary after lawyers are convicted of serious crimes involving the administration of justice. In this case, it did not even initiate disciplinary proceedings against him until February of this year — five months after he pleaded guilty and four days after RealClearInvestigations first reported he had not been disciplined. After the negative publicity, the bar temporarily suspended Clinesmith pending a review and hearing. Then in September, the court that oversees the bar and imposes sanctions agreed with its recommendation to let Clinesmith off suspension with time served; the bar, in turn, restored his status to "active member" in "good standing."
Clinesmith confessed to creating a false document by changing the wording in a June 2017 CIA email to state Page was "not a source" for the CIA when in fact the agency had told Clinesmith and the FBI on multiple occasions Page had been providing information about Russia to it for years — a revelation that, if disclosed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, would have undercut the FBI's case for electronically monitoring Page as a supposed Russian agent and something that Durham noted Clinesmith understood all too well.
