Dan Bongino: Media pushes false talking point with guilty plea expected in Durham probe

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who is expected to plead guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the investigation into links between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, was not “a low-level guy,” contrary to claims made by the left-wing media, Dan Bongino, a Fox News contributor, said Monday.

“Please don't fall for the left-wing media talking point that this lawyer was a low-level guy,” Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, told “Fox & Friends” on Monday. “He was not.”

“He was the main lawyer working on the case the FBI had to spy on Trump,” Bongino continued, urging people to “look at the FBI's own work chart.”

“Don't listen to the media that’s obsessed with lying to you about this outside of this network,” Bongino said.

Clinesmith was referred for potential prosecution by the Justice Department’s inspector general's office, which conducted its own review of the Russia investigation.

Specifically, the inspector general accused Clinesmith, though not by name, of altering an email about former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to say that he was "not a source" for another government agency. Page has said he was a source for the CIA. The DOJ relied on that assertion as it submitted a third and final renewal application in 2017 to eavesdrop on Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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Clinesmith is being charged in federal court in Washington and is expected to plead guilty to one count of making a false statement, his attorney Justin Shur told the Associated Press.

"Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email. It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate. But Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility," Shur later said in a statement.

“This is huge,” Bongino said Monday reacting to the development.

“They tell Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer, ‘Go and contact the CIA. We want to spy on Carter Page,’ who was working for the Trump campaign. ‘Find out if he was a source for another federal agency,’” Bongino said. “Think about why, right? The FBI is trying to spy on Trump. They need someone associated with Trump. Carter Page has had contact with Russians.”

“This lawyer is tasked with making sure those contacts were somehow illicit,” he continued. “Now we find out that a lot of Page's contacts with Russians were at the behest of the U.S. government where he is serving the government as a source for our government.”

He went on to say that “Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer, this upper-level lawyer, realizes now that's a problem.”

“We can't spy on the guy if he’s helping us spy on the Russians,” Bongino continued. “So what does he do? He changes a document from the CIA, the intelligence agency and says, ‘Hey, this guy is a source for us.’ And he changed it to say he's not a source for us. Can you believe this?”

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Host Brian Kilmeade noted that the investigation would have been stopped “right there.”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Bill Mears contributed to this report.