Brian Auten – FBI
An FBI intelligence analyst who allegedly “failed to advise” others at the FBI about inconsistencies in the Steele dossier, the controversial report the bureau used to investigate Trump. Auten, an expert on Russia, pushed aggressively for surveillance warrants against Trump adviser Carter Page, according to the inspector general. He urged colleagues at the FBI in a Sept. 19, 2016, email to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Page based on information in the dossier. Auten conducted a January 2017 interview with Steele’s primary source, Igor Danchenko, in which Danchenko said aspects of the dossier appeared to be exaggerated or inaccurate.