Tyb
paulsperry / @paulsperry
12/09/2022 14:08:39
Gettr: p2182rib3ca
BREAKING: No investigator from Special Counsel John Durham's office has interviewed former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, the target of the FBI's four fraudulent FISA wiretap warrants which Durham was supposed to be investigating. Page just revealed this to me. Page was interviewed repeatedly in March 2017 by the lead agent of the Crossfire Hurricane team Steve Somma whom Page said used a false name during the interviews. Somma was singled out by the DOJ IG as the worst offender in the FISA scandal. He failed to include Page's exculpatory statements in FISA renewal applications. It's not immediately known if Durham has interviewedSomma, who appears to still be employed at the FBI
https://qagg.news/?read=GO36635
FBI's 'Case Agent 1' Stephen Somma 'primarily responsible' for FISA failures
The Justice Department watchdog referred FBI agent Stephen Somma for disciplinary review after an investigation into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses.
Somma, a counterintelligence investigator in the FBI's New York field office, was identified only as "Case Agent 1" in Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, released in December. Sources told the New York Times that Somma is that official. The FBI did not comment for the report.
Somma was “primarily responsible for some of the most significant errors and omissions" during the process of obtaining FISA warrants to wiretap Trumpcampaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 and 2017, according to Horowitz. Horowitz confirmed the FBI relied heavily upon British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s salacious and unverified dossier when pursuing the secret surveillance.
The DOJ watchdog found 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI's applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap Page, who was under suspicion of being an agent for Russia. He was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Horowitz wrote that Somma and an unnamed Staff Operations Specialist “were the original Crossfire Hurricane team members who had primary responsibility over the Carter Page investigation.” FBI documents showed that in late August 2016, Somma was told he had “not yet presented enough information to support a FISA application targeting Carter Page.” Somma told Horowitz’s investigators “that the team's receipt of the reporting from Steele [in September] supplied missing information in terms of what Page may have been doing during his July 2016 visit to Moscow and provided enough information on Page's recent activities that [Somma] thought would satisfy the Office of Intelligence.”
“Case Agent 1 said he prepared the FISA request form,” Horowitz wrote. “The FISA request form drew almost entirely from Steele's reporting in describing the factual basis to establish probable cause to believe that Page was an agent of a foreign power.
“We found no information indicating that the FBI provided the Office of Intelligence with the documents containing Page's denials before finalizing the first FISA application,” Horowitz wrote. “Instead, Case Agent 1 provided a summary that did not contain those denials to the OI Attorney and that the OI Attorney relied upon that summary in drafting the first application.”
The inspector general did not find that Somma or his immediate supervisors were politically biased. Horowitz also did not find evidence showing the “pattern of errors” were intentional, but he noted: “we also did not find his explanations for so many significant and repeated failures to be satisfactory."
Horowitz said he did not have enough information to determine “whether it was sheer gross incompetence that led to this versus intentional misconduct or anything in between.”
When questioned by a lawyer from DOJ’s Office of Intelligence about Page’s prior relationship with the CIA, Somma claimed those “interactions took place while Page was in Moscow (which was between 2004 and 2007)” and were “outside scope.” Because of this, the attorney “did not include information about Page's prior interactions” with the CIA in the FISA application. Horowitz said the information Somma provided was “incomplete, inaccurate, and in certain respects contrary to the information the other agency provided to the Crossfire Hurricane team on August 17, 2016 and that Carter Page had provided to the FBI in 2009 and 2013.” Page’s relationship with the CIA “actually overlapped with information alleged in the FISA application concerning his alleged ties to Russian intelligence officers.”
Horowitz showed that Somma omitted significant information provided by confidential human source Stefan Halper — known as “Source 2” in the report. Halper met with and recorded Page in October 2016, before the FBI filed its first FISA application. Horowitz concluded Somma failed to include key “exculpatory” information from that meeting, including Page denying meeting with Russians mentioned in Steele’s report, denying knowledge of the WikiLeaks dissemination of the DNC emails hacked by the Russians, and denying any role in the GOP platform related to Russia.
Halper, 75, a Virginia resident and Cambridge professor, worked as an FBI informant in 2016 and had discussions with at least three Trump campaign members: Page, foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos, and Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis.
Cambridge Intelligence Seminars, which involved gatherings of academics and intelligence officials, were put together by Halper and Sir Richard Dearlove, a former director of MI6 who spent decades with the British spy agency. Somma spoke at at least one of these seminars in November 2011, delivering a talk titled “The FBI and Russian illegals 2010” along with FBI agents George Ennis Jr. and Alan Kohler Jr.
When Halper’s role as an FBI informant was leaked to the media in May 2018, it led to accusations from Trump and Republicans in Congress that the Obama administration used Halper as part of an illegal effort to spy on the Trump campaign, dubbed “Spygate” by allies of the president.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the Defense Department's Office of Net Assessment in January asking whether any of the funds from Pentagon contracts awarded to Halper were used for the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.
Kathleen Kavalec, then the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, met with Steele on Oct. 11, 2016, 10 days prior to the first FISA application, and Kavalec forwarded her notes to the FBI. During the meeting, Steele admitted he was encouraged by his client to get his research out before the 2016 election, signaling a political motivation. Kavalec’s notes also show she found flaws with Steele’s allegations and cast doubt on his credibility.
Horowitz said an FBI liaison informed Somma in late November “that Kavalec had met with Steele, she had taken notes of their meeting, the liaison could obtain information from Kavalec about the meeting, and, according to Kavalec, the information from Steele's reporting about a Russian consulate being located in Miami was inaccurate.” But the FBI liaison “told us that he received no directives from the Crossfire Hurricane team to gather information from Kavalec regarding her contact with Steele.”
Earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that current FBI employees involved in some of the events described in the FISA report "were referred to our Office of Professional Responsibility, which is our disciplinary arm."
The FBI, Congress, and the FISA court itself have also been considering and implementing reforms following the inspector general's investigation.
Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who altered a key document in FISA filings related to is the only person publicly known to be under criminal investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a review of the Russia investigation.
"Case Agent 1" was one of 17 officials Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham asked Attorney General William Barr this month to make available for a transcribed interview for his review of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and FISA orders against Page.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbis-case-agent-1-stephen-somma-primarily-responsible-for-fisa-failures
FBI Agent Faulted In FISA Report For ‘Significant’ Errors Has Finally Been Identified as Stephen A. Somma
February 24, 2020
An FBI agent faulted for some of the most significant problems laid out in the Justice Department’s inspector general report on FISA abuse against a Trump campaign associate has been identified.
The New York Times, citing people familiar with the FBI’s Russia probe, identified Stephen A. Somma, a counterintelligence investigator who works out of the bureau’s New York field office, as “Case Agent 1” from the inspector general’s (IG) report.
The IG blasted the FBI for its handling of information used to obtain four surveillance orders against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.
“Case Agent 1” is singled in the report as being “primarily responsible for some of the most significant errors and omissions in the FISA applications.”
Somma was involved in multiple aspects of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign. (RELATED: FBI Agent Who Played ‘Significant’ Role In Surveillance Abuse Wore Several Hats In Trump Probe)
According to the IG report, he was the FBI agent who initially sought a surveillance warrant against Page. Somma pushed for a FISA warrant “almost immediately” after the FBI opened Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016, the IG said.
Somma’s initial request was rejected, but FBI lawyers later approved seeking a FISA warrant on Page after the bureau received information from former British spy Christopher Steele. In his dossier, Steele alleged that Page was a key player in the Trump campaign’s “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.
Carter Page in Washington, DC., May 29, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The IG report said the FBI failed to verify the allegations about Page before using Steele’s information in FISA applications. The special counsel’s investigation undercut the idea that Page or anyone on the Trump team worked with Russians.
Somma was in charge of verifying the accuracy of information included in the FISA applications. He was also the FBI handler for Stefan Halper, a former Cambridge professor who met with and secretly recorded Trump campaign aides Carter Page, Sam Clovis and George Papadopoulos.
The IG report said Somma failed to disclose potentially exculpatory information that Page and Papadopoulos told Halper. He also failed to disclose that the CIA told him on Aug. 15, 2016, that Page had been an “operational contact” for the agency years earlier.
Perhaps Somma’s most egregious omission deals with an interview he conducted in January 2017 with Steele’s primary source for information in the dossier.
According to the IG report, the Steele source, referred to as “Primary Sub-Source,” told FBI agents that Steele misrepresented information attributed to him in the dossier, including about Page. The FBI and Justice Department failed to disclose the information in its final two applications for FISA orders on Page.
Largely because of the omission, the Justice Department has deemed the two orders to be invalid.
The IG report also said that “Case Agent 1” took part in five interviews with Page in March 2017.
The report says that Somma became Halper’s handler in 2011 after the FBI temporarily terminated its relationship with the informant over concerns about his interactions with a counterintelligence target.
Months after Somma began working with Halper, the FBI agent visited Cambridge in November 2011 to speak at a seminar about the FBI’s investigation into a Russian spy ring known as “The Illegals.”
The FBI has declined comment on Somma.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/02/24/case-agent-1-stephen-somma-fisa/
The report says that Somma became Halper’s handler in 2011
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Mike Solana
@micsolana
·
1h
one bizarre element of the twitter story, it's pretty clear at this point the "trust and safety" team was effectively running the entire company
==Elon Musk
==@elonmusk
Replying to
@micsolana
Absolutely! The real CEO was the head of “Trust & Safety”.
1:09 PM · Dec 9, 2022
TYVM
go do your own research and use your own discernment
you are on your own
filturd a time waster
Donald J. Trump/ @realDonaldTrump
12/09/2022 15:00:41
Truth Social: 109485492903957200
Kash Patel / @Kash
12/08/2022 16:41:21
Truth Social: 109480226433335754
How we did Hostage rescues under @realDonaldTrump: 54, not 1.
fightwithkash.com/articles/tru
Donald J. Trump reTruthed…
https://qagg.news/?read=TT3722
President Trump Interviews Freed Hostages
by: Kash Patel 08/05/2022 Source: YouTube
https://fightwithkash.com/articles/trump-interviews-freed-hostages
HAPPY TO BE AT HOME: President Trump meets with hostages freed during his administration
https://rumble.com/v1f8wc9-happy-to-be-at-home-president-trump-meets-with-hostages-freed-during-his-ad.html
Your low IQ thinking and time wasting post aren't my problem, bitch.
posts*
Cat Namus
@CatNamus
·
54m
HOLY SH*T
John Podesta’s niece was on Twitter’s Trust & Safety council and she resigned today.
Elon responded she refused to take action on child exploitation for years.
Something BIG is coming from this
https://truthsocial.com/@CatNamus/posts/109485354066346365
@BrianCates
·
17m
In the last 6 hrs, Elon forced the resignation of JOHN PODESTA'S NIECE from the Trust & Safety Council & tweeted the head of the Council was 'the real CEO'…until Elon got there & fired him & replaced him.
YOEL ROTH.
Elon demanded to know WHY the Council NEVER acted on NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS about CP on Twitter despite YEARS of complaints about it.
In response, several Council members CHOSE TO RESIGN & attacked him on the way out the door.
Musk tweeted their inaction on CP = A CRIME.
https://truthsocial.com/@BrianCates/posts/109485531218470008
fuck
Elon Musk
It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!
jack @jack
52m
Replying to @elonmusk
this is false.
Elon Musk @elonmusk
Replying to @jack
No, it is not.
When Ella Irwin, who now runs Trust & Safety, joined Twitter earlier this year, almost no one was working on child safety.
She raised this with Ned & Parag, but they rejected her staffing request.
I made it top priority immediately.
@ellagirwin
3:32 PM · Dec 9, 2022
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601313922501353472
BOOM
https://truthsocial.com/@WWGeaux1WGA/posts/109485606514154509
BV please check reports
https://truthsocial.com/@KarliBonne/posts/109485729433865692
Eliza @elizableu
18h
Twitter prioritized the censorship of non-illegal speech over the removal of child sexual abuse material at scale.
Let that sink in.
Elon Musk@elonmusk
Replying to @elizableu
Exactly correct.
4:07 PM · Dec 9, 2022
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601322576088686592
needs moar saucy details
true