The defendant had altered the original June 15, 2017 email from the OGA Liaison by adding the words “and not a source” to the email, thus making it appear that the OGA Liaison had written in the email that Individual #1 was “not a source” for the OGA. Statement of Offense, United States v. Clinesmith (acknowledged by the defendant)
Official/court finding: that is the conduct the plea papers describe. On June 15, 2017, Clinesmith emailed an other-government-agency liaison asking whether Individual #1 was a source. The liaison replied the same day. On June 19, after instant messages with a supervisory special agent, Clinesmith forwarded a version of that reply with the added words. The original, the statement of offense says, did not contain “not a source.”
The Information charges that on or about June 19, 2017, he willfully and knowingly made and used a false writing, 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(3). The count is the altered email. It is not a standalone count titled “FISA fraud.” Individual #1 is the filing’s term; reporting identifies that person as Carter Page. The plea is not a finding that Page committed a crime.
The Washington Examiner had already reported, from Horowitz, that an FBI lawyer altered a document to say Carter Page was “not a source” for another agency. Daily Wire, Breitbart, and John Solomon at Just the News later wrote the charging papers. Those pieces are reporting. The words added to the email are in the primary filing.