All in Spying

Spygate: Leaky WaPo reporter drops book to spin Weiner laptop bungle

By TATIANA PROPHET

Washington Post reporter Devlin Barrett knows his way around Washington’s spy agencies. He knows them so well, that he was the favorite avenue for the targeted leaks of FBI attorney Lisa Page and counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, the lead agent on Crossfire Hurricane (the probe into Russian attempts to steal the 2016 presidential election).

It was Barrett who first identified Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as the target of a FISA warrant (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant) — after Lisa Page (no relation) arranged the leak by her own account, for a WaPo story in April 2017. The intent was to smear Carter Page and set the stage for the “insurance policy” that agent Strzok had referred to in his private texts with lawyer Page. It took three years for the public to learn that Carter Page had been a CIA asset all along, and that FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith altered an e-mail shared with the FISA court, to state that Page was not a CIA asset. Clinesmith pleaded guilty last month to altering an e-mail.