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At the time of the release of Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, both Barr and Durham -- citing the ongoing nature of Durham's own investigation -- issued statements distancing themselves from the conclusion that the Russia probe was opened properly.

In the years since, Durham only secured one conviction in the course of the probe: a mid-level FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to altering an e-mail used in one of the FISA applications used to authorize surveillance against Page.

Last year, the only two other criminal cases brought by Durham ended in acquittals at trial. Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer tied to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, was found not guilty by a jury last May after Durham accused him of making a false statement to the FBI when Sussmann told a former top lawyer for the bureau that he was not acting on behalf of any client when he detailed allegations of ties between a computer server linked to Trump and a Moscow bank.

Several months later, in October, a jury acquitted intelligence analyst Igor Danchenko on charges of lying to federal investigators about information he collected for the infamous Steele Dossier that included many scandalous and unproven allegations about Trump's ties to Russia.

Some legal experts expressed concerns about the cases brought by Durham, arguing that they would discourage future potential FBI sources from bringing information forward for fear they could be targeted for prosecution.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has for the most part declined to comment on any substantive issues surrounding Durham's investigation, other than offering assurances to Congress that Durham has been given the full resources to complete his work.

For years, Trump and other conservatives have pointed to Durham's ongoing investigation with speculation that he would secure indictments against high-level former FBI officials or individuals close to former President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, or otherwise unearth damning information supporting their accusation that the FBI \"deep state\" improperly targeted Trump.

Trump fumed in the months leading up the 2020 election publicly pressured Barr to demand Durham move faster to release preliminary findings or announce high-level arrests.

In filings and other court appearances over the course of his probe, Durham at times put forward allegations and supplementary information that suggested he, too, believed the investigation into Trump was politically tainted -- though he never ultimately charged any criminal conspiracy stemming from those assertions.

The conclusion of Durham's four-year investigation stands in contrast to former special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, which resulted in indictments against 34 individuals and three Russian businesses on charges ranging from conspiracy to hacking to lying to the FBI and financial crimes. The indictments led to seven guilty pleas and five people sentenced to prison.

While Mueller's final report determined there was not sufficient evidence to charge a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, he detailed dozens of instances of contacts between people close to Trump and his campaign and Russian nationals, and found the Russian government believed it would have benefitted from Trump's presidency and that it \"worked to secure that outcome,\" with actions often welcomed by Trump's campaign.

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