FBI's 'Case Agent 1'Stephen Somma primarily responsible for FISA failures

guise who’s Stephen Somma?

The Justice Department Inspector 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 Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 and 2017, according to Horowitz.

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."

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."

Horowitz 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.

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.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbis-case-agent-1-stephen-somma-primarily-responsible-for-fisa-failures