his allies had promoted. In January 2020, Barr prohibited the start of counterintelligence investigations related to presidential campaigns unless both the attorney general and head of the FBI signed off on those investigations. Barr defended Trump's April 2020 firing of intelligence community inspector general Michael K. Atkinson. Atkinson was the inspector general who sought to get the Trump administration to the disclose the Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint to Congress. In defense of the firing, Barr allegedly made numerous false claims about Atkinson's actions during his tenure. On May 18, 2020, Barr commented on prior investigations into potential collusion between Trump and Russia stating: "What happened to the president in the 2016 election and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent... it was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history... the law enforcement and intelligence apparatus of this country were involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless Russian collusion narrative against this president." Barr hinted in June 2020 that the Durham investigation would produce results regarding the "complete collapse of the Russiagate scandal" before the end of the summer. In July he told a Congressional committee that the results of the investigation could be released before the election, despite an informal Justice Department rule limiting release of such information. In August, Trump in public comments appeared to be getting impatient for the investigation to produce more prosecutions and suggesting that his opinion of Barr will be negatively influenced if it does not. As summer ended there were reports that Barr was pressing for the Durham investigation to release its report. Colleagues of Durham have said they believe he is under pressure to produce something before the election. A top aide in the investigation quietly resigned on September 10; she gave no reason, but colleagues said she was concerned about political pressure from Barr. On September 18, 2020, four chairs of Democratic committees asked the DOJ inspector general to open an emergency investigation because "We are concerned by indications that Attorney General Barr might depart from longstanding DOJ principles to take public action related to U.S. Attorney Durham's investigation that could impact the presidential election," adding that Barr's public comments may have already violated that policy. On November 2, 2020, the day before the presidential election, New York magazine reported that: Intervention in cases of Trump associates In the spring of 2019, Barr reportedly attempted