U.S. Attorney John Durham isn’t expected to release his report on the origins of the Russia investigation before the presidential election, Axios reports.
A senior White House official and a congressional aide told the outlet that Attorney General William Barr has started informing top Republicans that the review won’t be released before Nov. 3.
“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.
Sources familiar with the conversations told Axios that Barr is telling members of the GOP that they need to be patient and that Durham is working in a deliberate, calculated manner.
Sources say Durham is focused on winning prosecutions and isn’t motivated by politically imposed deadlines.
A former Justice Department official told Axios that Durham “has a reputation for being thorough, but also somewhat slow, in part because of the big tasks he's undertaken."
The official referenced Durham’s lengthy look into the CIA’s use of torture, which took years to complete.
"It comes with the territory of a sprawling investigation that every stone you turn over needs to be fully scrutinized," the former official noted.
President Donald Trump has recently expressed frustration about how long the investigation is taking to complete.
"To be honest, Bill Barr is going to go down as either the greatest attorney general in the history of the country or he’s going to go down as, you know, a very sad situation," Trump told Fox Business on Thursday.
"He’s got all the information he needs. They want to get more, more, more. They keep getting more. I said, 'you don’t need any more.'"
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