Lindsey Graham's probe of FBI and Mueller is running out of time

The clock is ticking on Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham’s investigation into alleged misconduct by top US intelligence officials during their probes in 2016 and 2017 into possible ties between Donald Trump and Russia. At the same time, Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department is also investigating the origins of the FBI’s 2016 counterintelligence probe — codenamed “Crossfire Hurricane” — on ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, and the decision to name a special counsel, Robert Mueller, to continue that probe. Both these conditions — the running clock and Mr Durham’s ongoing criminal probe — leave Mr Graham’s hands tied as he tries to pin down critical testimony from the key players behind Crossfire Hurricane before filing a report on his conclusions in October. Without any such testimony filling in the “why” or “how” of the FBI’s and special counsel’s actions during their inquiries into the Trump-Russia allegations, the report is likely to deploy mostly inferential gymnastics based on a limited set of facts about the FBI’s haphazard use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants, and highlight Mr Mueller’s failure to indict anyone on Mr Trump’s team for conspiracy with the Russians as an ex post facto denouncement of the initial justification for the probe itself. What Mr Graham’s insistence on pursuing the probe shows is that Republicans believe keeping the Mueller investigation and the 2016 FBI investigations in the political limelight actually benefits them politically.