You can tell the newest revelations that the infamous Trump dossier was a joint product of the DNC, the Clinton campaign, and, unbelievably, the FBI… gee, where did I see that before?

Officials behind the now discredited "Dossier" plead the Fifth. Justice Department and/or FBI should immediately release who paid for it.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017

…because of the way the Democrats and the media are trying to run two narratives. The first, which I find most amusing having watched them and their fellow travelers literally sh** themselves over Donald Trump, Jr. meeting with contractors of Fusion GPS to discuss removing Magnitsky Act sanctions on Russia, is that gathering opposition research on a political opponent is no big deal even if you are using a foreign citizen with close links to a foreign intelligence service to pay for information created by current Russian FSB agents and former FSB agents with close links to Putin’s ruling circle. In a different, more gentle time, this would have brought screams of COLLUSION!! and RUSSIA IS NOT OUR FRIEND1!!11!!! But today we are told that such oppo is just fine.

The second theme they are pushing is that the dossier was actually started by Republican opponents of Trump. For instance, this from last night’s Sitution Room on the apples-and-bananas news network

After Trump’s statement, which is where the video will start playing, Blitzer says:

The president seemed to concede some of that opposition research was initiated by his Republican rivals during last year’s primaries; it might have started with the Republicans early on in the primaries.

The reason they are doing this is obvious. They are trying to claim that this crap was all started by the GOP to stop Trump and the Democrats just inherited GOP work product, dusted it off a bit, and used it to get FISA warrants on members of Trump’s campaign.

This is not true. Fusion GPS was hired by an unnamed GOP donor early in the primaries to do oppo on Trump. We don’t know who hired them–though I suspect when the judge hearing the case orders Fusion GPS’s bank records turned over to the House, we will find out–or who they worked for, but Jeb Bush is a very safe bet. That, however, is not the dossier. Fusion GPS was hired by Clinton and/or the DNC in April and in June they hired Steele. This is Steele from a depostion taken in another lawsuit:

Here's what Steele filed in London court earlier this year — Fusion hired his firm in *June*. GOP client dropped in March, we now know. pic.twitter.com/NSwlcS0Jre

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 25, 2017

This dossier is slowly but surely being revealed for what it seemed to be from Day One: a sham. Unfortunately, the political climate has enabled this document to take control of American politics and damage the administration significantly. But never lose sight of the fact that this was bought by Democrats, distributed by Democrats, and Democrats took it to the FISA court.