Attacks by "Cozy Bear" began in the summer of 2015. Attacks by "Fancy Bear" began in April 2016 on the DNC
So why wouldn't Russia be a country of interest
The newly-released emails show Bruce forwarded himself a spreadsheet sent by his wife titled “WhosWho19Sept2016.xlsx”
Although it wasn't universally accepted, the active russian campaign became a part of the political campaign itself. Trump and opponent Hillary Clinton traded barbs about the Russian interference during their debates.
Trump never bought into the Russian interference until recently when he admitted in a weak way that they might have interfered
Yet has he ever admitted that they help him but with Trump trying to get Russia readmitted to the G8 well I guess it did pay off for the Russians.
yes the right will try to paint something but Russian interference was known or suspect for a long time and yes the intelligence agency was aware of it and that is why Trump associates are in jail and have admitted wrong doing in relations to the Russians
Trump actions and support of Putin does not indicated anything less
Why would they not keep records and have discussion on Russian interference especially with Trumps early denials and in the end it is Trump himself who is the last one to believe it happen.
The time line is important
In April 2016, an attorney for
Hillary Clinton's campaign and the
DNC separately hired Fusion GPS to investigate Trump
The same month that the DNC and her emails were hacked
In June 2016, Fusion GPS subcontracted Steele's firm to compile the dossier
As most work is done by subcontractors, the client does know who the subcontractor is and does not care
still Steele is hired in June 2016 to do a dossier well after the russian attack is known and the the facebook and tweeter accounts are known
So the question is why the support for Trump
Also Trump people were already meeting with Russians and trying to peddle influence
He put the dossier together between June 2016 and Oct 2016 and as
much of the dossier is
UNPROVEN there are a couple of things that was proven