Without justification and knowing full well that it wasn’t true, officials in the FBI, CIA and Justice Department spied on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. And then they used “evidence” they knew was false to launch an investigation that tried to connect Trump to Russia and eventually led to his failed impeachment.

This was an attempted coup unlike anything before in the United States of America.

The plot is starting to unfold before the public and in the court system.

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pled guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the phony investigation of links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Durham caught Clinesmith red handed.

President Trump said that this is “just the beginning” of the conspiracy to overturn a duly elected president.

The inspector general of the Justice Department referred Clinesmith, who resigned last year, for prosecution after evidence surfaced that he changed an email about former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith changed the email to indicate that Page was “not a source” for another government agency. Page was in fact a source for the CIA.

The Justice Department relied on that email to get permission from a federal court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on Page.

Durham was appointed by Attorney General Bill Barr last year to investigate the FBI’s original Russia probe after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation into whether the campaign colluded with the Russians.

This is just the first in what should be a series of indictments as the investigation rises up the chain of command toward Obama and Joe Biden.

Elected officials cannot use the government to persecute political enemies or spy on the campaigns of opponents.