The left is making excuses for outrageous abuse of the FISA court to spy on Trump and his assoicates

NY Post Editorial:

Democrats — and their puppets in the media — are pooh-poohing news that anti-Trump ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith will plead guilty to lying in Robert Mueller’s Russiagate probe.

They want you to believe it was all “an innocent mistake.” Don’t buy it. This is an outrageous case of official abuse.

Clinesmith, for starters, was not a bit player in Crossfire Hurricane — nor was he innocent. He changed an e-mail to delete the fact that Trump aide Carter Page had provided information to the CIA. His clear goal was to make Page’s interactions with foreigners look more suspicious — as if he was trying to hide information, rather than feeding intelligence to the United States. Clinesmith’s ultimate goal: further a dubious investigation of President Trump, whom he despised.

If the roles were reversed and a pro-Trump lawyer lied to hide info and promote an unwarranted investigation, Democrats would be screaming bloody murder.

Clinesmith also worked with another disgraced FBI official, Peter Strzok, to arrange sending an agent into the Trump-Michael Flynn counterintelligence briefing. He was one of the FBI lawyers who took part in interviews with George Papadopoulos in February 2017 and was a material part of the FISA process to obtain wiretaps.

Later, he himself was so concerned about his role in framing the Trump campaign that he wrote fretful text messages: “I am so stressed about what I could have done differently,” he sighed. “Plus, my god damned name is all over the legal documents investigating [Trump’s] staff.”

It’s beyond doubt that Clinesmith longed to see Trump toppled: In a Nov. 22, 2016, text message discussion about Trump, Clinesmith cheered: “Viva le Resistance!”...

This was not a minor crime or a mistake.  It was a deliberate attempt to facilitate a coup attempt against the President.  It appears to be part of a treasonous plot against the President.  I suspect he was not the only one at the FBI who knew their spying was wrong.

...
In fact, contrary to the unsubstantiated assertion from the Times, the charging documents highlight that all four of the applications to spy on Carter Page painted a false picture of the Trump affiliate. While the fourth application included outright falsified evidence regarding Page helping the CIA during the relevant time period, the other three withheld that information even though it was known to the Crossfire Hurricane team within days of opening an investigation on the Trump campaign and months before the first application to spy on Carter Page was granted.
...
Contrary to the New York Times reporting that Clinesmith’s deception was not part of any wider misconduct, Inspector General Horowitz’s report shows otherwise. “We found that, although this information [of Page’s cooperation with the CIA] was highly relevant to the FISA application, the Crossfire Hurricane team did not engage with the other agency regarding this information,” he wrote. He further noted that the “factual basis supporting probable cause” to spy on Page relied upon Page’s contacts with known Russian intelligence officers, along with since-debunked claims made in four portions of the Steele dossier, a collection of drunken brainstorming and unsubstantiated gossip that was used as part of an anti-Trump operation of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Page, a Naval Academy graduate who was accused in the media of sedition against his country, had candidly discussed those contacts with an FBI asset and the CIA had told the Crossfire Hurricane team that on August 17, 2016. Horowitz listed this failure to inform the spy court of these facts that undermined their probable cause claim as the first of 17 major omissions and errors that corrupted the FBI’s spying on the Trump campaign.
...

 The Times appears to be trying to excuse its own egregious conduct in the plot to overthrow the President.  The media became co-conspirators in the plot and most of them have never corrected their stories.

Instapundit:

IN OTHER NEWS, CAPONE ASSOCIATE CRITICIZES DOJ FOR PROSECUTING DILLINGER: Mueller deputy Weissmann criticizes DOJ for bringing case against ex-FBI lawyer.