The outcome of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal probe into the origins of the Russia investigation against President Donald Trump may be the “October surprise” that changes the course of the 2020 presidential election. Or it may not.

As the candidates head into the home stretch of what is already predicted to be the most hotly contested presidential election in modern history, Durham continues his investigation into whether there was a concerted effort to derail Trump’s 2016 campaign and later his presidency. That investigation has yielded only one criminal charge so far. Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty last month to falsifying a CIA email in order to obtain a wiretap against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Republicans are eager to prove that the entire probe into whether Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election was ginned up by Democrats. Only the willfully blind deny the many signs pointing in that direction. And if indeed it is true that this was a carefully perpetrated hoax, then it amounts to nothing short of a coup to overthrow the duly elected president of the United States.

The trouble is in the timing of Durham’s eventual report.

Democrats and their Leftmedia allies are sure to paint any further revelation or indictment by Durham as an attempt to influence the 2020 election. Of course, if there are more guilty parties out there to be discovered, then the public deserves to know before they cast their votes on November 3, or in many cases in the weeks leading up to Election Day.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is confident that Durham will provide an interim report in the coming days, but the U.S. attorney and his team have indicated they will not be rushed to judgment for the sake of politics.

Democrats and the media are trying to portray exactly the opposite sentiment. They have latched onto the recent resignation of federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy from Durham’s team as proof that investigators are trying to ram a final report through before the election. Dannehy, according to various Leftmedia outlets, dropped out because she felt pressured by Attorney General William Barr to produce a report before the election, regardless of whether the investigation had reached its natural conclusion. Dannehy has worked with Durham for decades, and her real reasons for resigning are unclear, though the media is pushing its own narrative to discredit the report before it is released.

Barr recently indicated that there were several factors at play in the timing of Durham’s investigation. “You need strong evidence of intent, it seems to me, before you can charge that kind of crime, so developing that evidence is a time-consuming process,” Barr said. Attorneys get involved, people plead the Fifth Amendment, and document requests are challenged. “It’s not something that can be done quickly.” The pandemic also played a major role in dragging out the investigation, postponing meetings and hearings for months.

Lack of cooperation and stonewalling by Democrats may be the biggest reason behind the seeming lack of progress in Durham’s investigation. It was learned recently that 31 government-issued cellphones used by Robert Mueller’s team were wiped clean of data, supposedly by accident. Really? Thirty-one phones were all accidentally wiped of data and reset? Hardly a coincidence considering the whole Clinton email-server fiasco. What is it with Democrats and technology?

The phones used by the Mueller team would have provided valuable information as to how his investigation, which led to Trump’s impeachment, came together and who was involved. This fiasco lends a lot of weight to the belief that Democrats are running out the clock on Durham’s investigation. If Joe Biden should win the election, the investigation will summarily end, and evidence of a coup will likely be buried forever. If Trump wins, then Democrats will come together and find another way to attack him in his second term.