What eventually became the "dossier" was triggered by a right-wing group doing broad oppo research on all the GOP candidates. But, when Trump became the nominee, the Democrats picked up this nascient research and hugely expanded its scope. Dems hid behind their attorneys, so they could plausibly deny/obfuscate knowledge of these efforts to the public and even the Senate Intelligence Committee.  The kicker is that while Dems have been trying to pin Russian collusion on Trump - it was these attorneys (with likely knowledge and participation of high-level Dems) who were ACTUALLY colluded with Russians in preparing the dossier. 

I bet we see Mueller indict Manafort on Monday for money laundering or something. But I wonder if we'll later see indictments of high-level Democrats for their involvement in this - and lying about it to Congressional investigators. Pretty scummy stuff. 

Then the question becomes ... will anyone care about this Dem treachery?