Clinesmith, who worked on the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server and on the FBI’s Trump-Russia inquiry, as well as special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, admitted in August 2020 that he falsified a document during the bureau’s efforts to renew FISA surveillance authority against Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
Clinesmith edited a CIA email in 2017 to state Page was "not a source" for the CIA when it had told the bureau on multiple occasions Page had been an "operational contact" for the agency. He was sentenced to probation in January.
After a review of how to handle Clinesmith’s standing with the D.C. bar, disciplinary counsel and Clinesmith’s lawyers signed a petition for negotiated discipline and said they "agree that the sanction to be imposed in this matter is a one-year suspension." The suspension would essentially apply retroactively from the month of his guilty plea last year, so his yearlong suspension would actually end in August.
The District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility is scheduled to hold a hearing next month, in which it can either approve or reject the slap on the wrist Clinesmith has agreed to. The agreement was first reported by Reuters on Monday.