I don’t think this will surprise anyway, but AG Barr is reportedly now saying that the Durham investigation won’t be finished and a report won’t be ready before the election:
AXIOS – Attorney General Bill Barr has begun telling top Republicans that the Justice Department’s sweeping review into the origins of the Russia investigation will not be released before the election, a senior White House official and a congressional aide briefed on the conversations tell Axios.
“This is the nightmare scenario. Essentially, the year and a half of arguably the number one issue for the Republican base is virtually meaningless if this doesn’t happen before the election,” a GOP congressional aide told Axios.
Barr has made clear that they should not expect any further indictments or a comprehensive report before Nov. 3, our sources say.
Politico first reported that Durham is not expected to release information related to the probe before Election Day and Senate Republicans were told of the intention within the last week.
The Justice Department declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
WINNING PROSECUTIONS
Barr is communicating that Durham is taking his investigation extremely seriously and is focused on winning prosecutions.
According to one of the sources briefed on the conversations Barr said Durham is working in a deliberate and calculated fashion, and they need to be patient.
The general sense of the talks, the source says, is that Durham is not preoccupied with completing his probe by a certain deadline for political purposes.
It’s very unfortunate that even a report on Durham’s investigation won’t be ready before the election. Barr was right when he said that the American people deserved to know the details of what happened.
I’m sure Barr will be criticized, perhaps even by the president, but I still feel that Barr is the real deal and trust him. While this election is crucially important, winning prosecutions is also crucial to prevent this from ever happening again and that is and should be the DOJ’s top priority. If Trump wins in November and Durham finishes and begins prosecution, we’ll all be glad to see people being prosecuted.