Add to the list of your suspect observations those of Steele and his dossier. He was hired by Republicans before he was hired by Democrats. And his dossier was largely accurate—surprisingly so given that the target was (at the time) a wealthy, media-savvy businessman and television celebrity.
The dossier was oppo research. There’s literally nothing controversial about any of it, other than it was leaked and its target successfully spun the few disputed claims into evidence of mass political conspiracy.
The DNC hired them to do a forensic analysis of their email servers after they learned they may have been hacked. Forensic analysis is one of the security services CrowdStrike provides, they also provide defensive services to detect intrusions or attempts.
The dossier was oppo research. There’s literally nothing controversial about any of it, other than it was leaked and its target successfully spun the few disputed claims into evidence of mass political conspiracy.