The Steele dossier's got another complicated and hardly easy exhausting storyline...and honestly it comes across as another case of dirty folks slinging bad dirt. It was originally commissioned, remember, by Republicans doing oppo research on Trump by Fusion GPS and then they re-sold it to Hillary and they seemed to have stacked more on upon request.

It was ultimately a political document, though. Salacious dirt and a whole lot of unsubstantiated speculation. The Feds under Mueller apparently investigated and discovered some of it was unverifiable and there were some details in it that were demonstrably false, but Mueller's case didn't really have much to do with it.

I actually think it ended up helping Trump because it got everybody sniffing down the wrong alleys, and it ended up making the press look bad when those Steele allegations ultimately fizzled. The real link wasn't some mysterious "pee tape" the Russkies supposedly had (though I have no doubt they've got plenty of stuff on the Donald since kompromat seems to be the Russian Way since Cold War times and The Donald is allegedly a very bad puppy when away from the wife), I think it was a lot more boring. I think it was mostly about money...specifically, gabs of it the oligarchs were funneling through Trump's properties and cash businesses. Russia's a kleptocracy. Dirty money is what Russia does.

Trump wasn't a politician. He's never been a politician. He doesn't think like a politician. He could care less about damage to his reputation, he'll just sling mud right back. He's a businessman. He thinks in terms of money and leverage, and always acquiring more.

The key, IMHO, was always in his taxes - which finally have seen the light of day - and in a lot of his business dealings which the Manhattan DA's office have been trying to pry loose almost from the moment Trump left office, not in any of that sordid Steele Dossier crap.