These events have all been covered in detail in this thread going back 6+ years but given the recent declassification of the Dec 9, 2016 White House meeting of NSC PC members, this timeline may help order some key events.
March 2016: Hillary Clinton Campaign's legal counsel, Perkins Coie attorney Marc Elias, hires Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS to do opposition research on Donald Trump that it had initially begun months earlier during the GOP Primaries for the "never Trump" wing of the GOP. The funding of Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie was obscured in Clinton Campaign FEC filings as "legal and compliance services." (From the Steel Dossier Wiki)
June 2016: Fusion GPS hires Christopher Steele's Orbis Business Associates to produce politically damaging information on Donald Trump.
July 2016: Christopher Steele reaches out to his FBI agent friend Michael Gaeta who is based in Rome to share with him his dossier on Trump. Gaeta had to get approval from the State Department (Assistant SecState Victoria Nuland) to travel to London to meet with Steele on July 5. Steele (probably) didn't tell Gaeta who was paying him to do the "research" on Trump and Gaeta viewed the dossier as an intelligence product and not opposition research. He notified FBI headquarters which includes Comey and McCabe and within a month also Strzok.
July 2016: FBI opens the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Russian influence on Donald Trump and Trump Campaign advisors but does not inform the Trump Campaign which includes former federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani among other former federal law enforcement officials.
August 2016: FBI requests that Steele provide all of his material and sources for the dossier to them.
Oct 2016: Christopher Steele meets with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec to show her his dossier on Trump. Steele admits to Kavalec that the dossier is a political project with a deadline of election day. Kavalec tells her boss, Nuland, that the dossier is of dubious credibility. (
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/442592-steeles-stunning-pre-fisa-confession-informant-needed-to-air-trump-dirt/) Nuland later testifies in 2018 to the Senate Intel Committee that she "actively chose not to be part of the briefing by Steele to Kavalec." She said that her response to being briefed by Kavalec was to forward the material provided by Steele to the FBI because it was not the purview of the State Department. (
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/08/12/victoria_nuland_tells_all_on_trump-russia__not_119932.html) Oct 2016: Ten days after the excerpt from the Steele Dossier and Kavalec memos stating that it is a political campaign product and not an intelligence product are forwarded to the FBI, the FBI uses the Steele Dossier allegations as a basis for requesting a warrant from the FISA court to spy on Carter Page while (Kevin Klinesmith) deliberately withholding from the FISA judge that Carter Page has previously been a human asset used by the CIA.
Dec 8 2016: President Obama directs in Intelligence Community Assessment on the evidence that Donald Trump was under the influence of the Russian government and that Russian government influence had caused him to be elected President.
Dec 9 2016: President Obama, Vice President Biden, CIA Director John Brennan, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Nuland, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and several others met at the White House as the NSC Principals Committee to discuss a "sensitive topic" which was to promote the Trump-Russia hoax and delegitimize the election of Donald Trump.
Dec 9 2016: ODNI emails senior leaders stating that, "The IC is prepared to produce and assessment at the President's request."
Follow that all up with the summary from Townhall citing Paul Sperry's X posts yesterday.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/07/21/the-dems-likely-counterpoint-on-russian-collusion-hoax-isnt-going-to-hold-up-well-n2660667