The GOP knew by June of 2017 that the whole Trump/Russia collusion delusion was a Hillary hit job, yet they continued to assist the Democrats to keep it going for much, much longer.
They wanted Trump crippled because they didn’t want to have to follow through on their promises to their constituents.
The GOP is “lies, all the time.”
And the reason they did so, I’ve come to believe, is that the one thing the whole ruling class values most highly is the “administrative state”, which we call the deep state, aka “the swamp”. They protect it like their own families, and while it’s OK to occasionally deal with a bad actor here or there, nothing must be allowed to tarnish or injure the agency(s). Think back, and I bet you’ll not be able to recall a single person in government other than DJT saying anything that threatens the deep state. It’s like the “mama bear” reaction whenever anyone does...