Quick Durham news rundown:
FISA warrants were used by members of the the intelligence community, at the behest of the Obama administration, to illegally spy on Trump (and others), in order to prevent him from being elected.
The FISA courts are these obfuscated, private courts which determine who and who cannot be spied upon. They are unlike any other court in the land, in that someone can't defend themselves in it.
They're also something of a rubber stamp factory.
To get a FISA warrant, you need to have a good reason and present your case, since basically, this court is designed to violate everyone's 4th Amendment rights by design.
One of the ways Trump was targeted was by spying on people close to him. FISA warrants allow for several "hops." So if you get a warrant to spy on, idk, Tom, and Tom talks to Harry, you can now spy on Harry as well, since Harry is now deemed a person of interest. And if Harry talks to Trump, you can now spy on Trump.
IE: The Intelligence Apparatus was ordered by Obama to spy on people in close proximity to Trump, in order to hide the fact that Trump was the intended target of the spying.
Kevin Clinesmith is now pleading guilty to fabricating evidence used to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page, which was really used to spy on Trump.
And remember the stakes here: This was all to frame Trump as working with the Russians to steal the election. That's treason. That's potentially public execution. They were willing to have Trump and others executed, if need be.
Which means… this whole spying operation is actually the real treason.
Which means… we want to know how high up this goes. (In fact, we know. It goes to basically all the heads of the Intelligence community, and into the Oval Office, all the way up to Obama and Biden).
So questions now emerge:
Who knew Clinesmith fabricated this email?
Who ordered him to fabricate the email?
Clinesmith is something of an underling. Not a huge player, and will probably be imprisoned for a loooooong time. But the people above him have got to be panicking heavily right now, because their heads are next on the chopping block.
If Clinesmith agreed to plead guilty, it's because they have these people dead-to-rights, and he's only doing so to minimize his own sentence.