I still can't believe these Clinesmith(attorney 2) conversations...
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One exchange took place November 9, 2016, the day after the presidential election, in which Attorney 2 (Clinesmith) wrote to another employee, including the following:
Attorney 2: “I am numb.”
Other employee not involved in midyear investigation: “I can’t stop crying.”
Attorney 2: “That makes me even more sad.”
Employee “Like, what happened? You promised me this wouldn’t happen. YOU PROMISED…”
Attorney 2: “I am so stressed about what I could have done differently.”
Employee: “Don’t stress. None of that mattered. The FBI’s influence.”
Attorney 2: “I don’t know. We broke the momentum.”
Employee: “That is not so….”
Attorney 2: “I’m just devastated. I can’t wait until I can leave today and just shut off the world for the next four days…I just can’t imagine the systematic disassembly of the progress we made over the last 8 years. ACA is gone. Who knows if the rhetoric about deporting people, walls and crap is true. I honestly feel like there is going to be a lot more gun issues too, the crazies won finally. This is the tea party on steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost, they have to deal with an incumbent in 4 years. We have to fight this again. Also Pence is stupid.”
Attorney 2: “And it’s just hard not to feel like the FBI caused some of this. It was razor thin in some states. Plus my god damned name is all over the legal documents investigating his staff. So who knows if that breaks to him, what he is going to do.”
He told the IG that “we tend to exaggerate some statements back and forth to one another” of his exchanges with the unnamed employee.
In a third exchange on November 22, 2016, he sent an instant message to FBI Attorney 1 commenting on the amount of money the subject of an FBI investigation had been paid while working on the Trump campaign. FBI attorney 1 responded, “Is it making you rethink your commitment to the Trump administration?” FBI attorney 2 replied, “Hell, no,” and then added “Viva le resistance.” They then talked about federal pension issues. |
