Trump says he will confront Barr over his 'terrible' decision on Russia probe review

President hears for first time investigation into Russia probe won’t report before election

Donald Trump said it was “a disgrace” that the review of the FBI’s Russia probe is not expected to be released until after the 3 November election.

The president said he was “hearing this for the first time” when Rush Limbaugh brought the subject up during a “radio rally” for Trump on his show.

He told Limbaugh that he would confront Attorney General William Barr about the report and “say it to his face” that it was an “embarrassment”, and said it was an example of Republicans not being ruthless enough.

The attorney general has told Republicans on Capitol Hill about the delay in the release of Connecticut US Attorney John Durham’s review of the Russia investigation.

Trump and the party had hoped the possibility of bombshell findings would validate the idea that the president was smeared by Democrats and energise support ahead of the election.

“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 Republican congressional aide told Axios.

An administration source told The New York Post that the report is a byproduct of an investigation, not a goal.

The Durham review of the investigation is focussed on indictments and prosecutions, and obtained its first guilty plea in August when former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith admitted to falsifying records to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Mr Trump is demanding that Barr prosecute his political opponents over the FBI’s probe into allegations of collusion with Russia.

However, declassified documents from the investigation suggest that significant prosecutions are unlikely. The likelihood of the release of any report by Mr Durham before the election has also been seen as low for some time now — Mr Durham is also known to be slow and methodical in his approach to investigations. 

From Friday’s extensive interview with Rush Limbaugh, this appears to be news to the president, who said: “That’s going to be my first phone call … that’s a disgrace.”

Mr Barr asked Mr Durham to look into the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation in 2019. Mr Trump has been calling for prosecutions that go all the way to the top of the Democratic establishment, even suggesting that Barack Obama and Joe Biden be indicted.

On Thursday he told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business: "Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we're going to get little satisfaction unless I win and we'll just have to go, because I won't forget it."

He added: "But these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country and that includes Obama and it includes Biden. These are people that spied on my campaign and we have everything."

There is no evidence to warrant this accusation, but it is one that the president has repeated on a number of occasions.

The Durham probe is not the only investigation into the FBI, with Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham and Senate Homeland Security chairman Ron Johnson promising to release their findings ahead of the election.