When federal prosecutor John Durham was assigned by the Justice Department in 2019 to examine the origins of the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, President Trump and his supporters expressed a belief that the inquiry would prove that a “deep state” conspiracy including Obama-era officials had worked to sabotage him. Durham appears to be winding down his three-year inquiry without anything close to the results Trump was seeking. The grand jury that Mr. Durham has used to hear evidence has expired, and while he could convene another, there are no plans to do so, reports the New York Times. Durham and his team are working to complete a final report by the end of the year.
Durham has developed cases against two people accused of lying to the FBI in relation to outside efforts to investigate purported Trump-Russia ties, but he has not charged any conspiracy or put any high-level officials on trial. The chances of any more indictments are remote. It will be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide whether to make Durham's findings public. The report will be Durham’s opportunity to present any evidence or conclusions that challenge the Justice Department’s basis for opening the investigation in 2016 into the links between Trump and Russia. Durham indicted Michael Sussmann, a prominent cybersecurity lawyer with ties to Hillary Clinton’s campaign on a charge of making a false statement to the FBI at a meeting in which he shared a tip about potential connections between computers associated with Trump and a Kremlin-linked Russian bank. Sussmann was acquitted of that charge at trial in May. Durham also indicted a Russia analyst who had worked with Christopher Steele, a former British spy who was the author of a dossier of rumors and unproved assertions about Trump. Analyst Igor Danchenko, who is accused of lying to federal investigators, goes on trial next month in Alexandria, Va.