Why would witnesses who refused to be interviewed previously suddenly be willing to talk as the investigation was about to end?
I can think of two main reasons. The first is that they want to delay the release of the report, the same way they did on the Hillary email investigation. Besides delaying the writing of the report, it requires investigators to re-interview witnesses.
The second reason is the rats see the ship is sinking and they want their side to come out instead of depending on people with ulterior motives who might want to push the blame off on them.
Key witnesses sought for questioning by Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz early in his investigation into alleged government surveillance abuse have come forward at the 11th hour, Fox News has learned.
Sources familiar with the matter said at least one witness outside the Justice Department and FBI started cooperating — a breakthrough that came after Attorney General William Barr ordered U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead a separate investigation into the origins of the bureau’s 2016 Russia case that laid the foundation for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
While the investigative phase of the inspector general’s long-running probe is said to be complete, the sources said recent developments required some witnesses to be reinterviewed. And while Barr testified that he expected the report into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse to be ready in May or last month, multiple sources said the timeline has slipped.
“The wheels of inspector general investigations move very, very slowly,” former senior DOJ official Tom Dupree told Fox News.