A paid dossier, a fired FBI chief, and a 'soft coup' that nearly toppled a presidency.
Who drives the story
Ex-MI6 Russia hand running Orbis Business Intelligence in London, hired to prove Trump's ties to Moscow. He becomes 'desperate' to stop Trump, and his unverified memos end up powering an FBI investigation he can no longer control.
Former Wall Street Journal reporter who co-founded Fusion GPS and shopped the Trump opposition file from the Free Beacon to the Clinton campaign. Under congressional testimony he concedes his star spy's sources were 'a random group of people.'
FBI Director who briefs Trump on the dossier and runs the early Russia probe. Fired by Trump in May 2017, his dismissal detonates the special counsel investigation.
Former FBI Director appointed special counsel in May 2017 with a team heavy on Democratic donors. After two years and no conspiracy finding, he stumbles through his own congressional testimony.
Trump's first National Security Adviser, caught in an FBI interview where agents never warned him lying was a crime. He pleads guilty and becomes the plot's first scalp.
The target: a candidate the Kremlin allegedly 'cultivated,' then a president hunted by his own intelligence agencies. He survives the plot but spends his term crippled by it.
Also in the story
FBI agent who interviewed Flynn and texted Lisa Page that the bureau would 'stop' a Trump presidency. His messages turn the investigation's bias from suspicion into evidence.
How they are connected
Christopher SteeleDonald Trump
Ex-MI6 Russia hand running Orbis Business Intelligence in London, hired to prove Trump's ties to Moscow.
Former Wall Street Journal reporter who co-founded Fusion GPS and shopped the Trump opposition file from the Free Beacon to the Clinton campaign.
FBI Director who briefs Trump on the dossier and runs the early Russia probe.
Trump's first National Security Adviser, caught in an FBI interview where agents never warned him lying was a crime.
FBI agent who interviewed Flynn and texted Lisa Page that the bureau would 'stop' a Trump presidency.
FBI agent who interviewed Flynn and texted Lisa Page that the bureau would 'stop' a Trump presidency.
Go deeper
Opposition research as statecraft · The Deep State and the 'soft coup' · Institutional trust and its collapse · The Blob fights back
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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