New York Times: Justice Department secretly curtailed investigation into Trump's Russia ties

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/30/politics/trump-russia-investigation-rod-rosenstein/index.html

The US Justice Department in 2017 took secret steps to curtail the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign, former law enforcement officials told The New York Times.

According to the newspaper, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had ordered former special counsel Robert Mueller to examine "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government" and Trump's campaign, but former law enforcement officials said that privately, Rosenstein told Mueller to conduct only a criminal investigation.