'This is how you work your way up the ladder': Durham builds case against Obama's DOJ

President Trump and legal scholars say the first prosecution from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the Russian collusion probe has set the stage for more dramatic revelations, though the guilty plea in the first case didn’t add much to what was already known about the Obama administration’s Justice Department. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith is set to plead guilty next week to making false statements, admitting in early 2017 he altered an email to say former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was not a source for the CIA, when, in fact, he was. The false assertion was used by the Justice Department to obtain the third Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for Mr. Page, keeping the FBI’s Russia probe alive.Ensnaring Clinesmith on false statements charge may be nabbing low-hanging fruit. But veteran prosecutors say it is an important tool for federal investigators to compel key witnesses to tell the truth and flip or face consequences. “This is how you work your way up the ladder,” said Andrew Leipold, a law professor at the University of Illinois and a former member of the team assembled by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr to investigate President Clinton. “It’s a time-honored practice that to get to the big fish that pulled the trigger, you work your way up,” he said. The president’s allies had hoped Mr. Durham would net bigger fish, in particular ex-FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Andrew McCabe or disgraced anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strozk. As of yet, there is no public evidence that any of the three are targets of Mr. Durham.  LINK