To better understand the egregiousness of it all requires delving back into the scheme’s origins.
At the time, a 2016 presidential matchup between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and real estate billionaire Donald Trump may have seemed a bit unorthodox when compared to the typical national elections Americans were accustomed to. Little did the public realize that this sentiment extended far beyond normal politics, and that the prospects of a Trump presidency were something the D.C. establishment was not willing to tolerate — not Clinton herself, and certainly not the U.S. intel apparatus.
To prevent such a possibility from becoming reality, Clinton manufactured a narrative to tie Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Part of this baseless conspiracy involved her campaign’s law firm (Perkins Coie) paying opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on the New York billionaire. Enlisting the help of ex-British spy Christopher Steele, Fusion cooked up the "Steele dossier," which contained unsubstantiated and salacious allegations about Trump and Russia.