And it will turn out that Steele didn’t even write the dossier.
The authors will be Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS and Nellie Ohr.
They used Steele’s name to hide their own role and make it appear that the contents of their fake dossier was the result of Steele’s contacts. They hired Steele for the use of his name.
I agree. And while its useful for us to pretend to believe it was based on Russian information, there were probably no Russians involved. If it was true, there might be Russian involvement, but since it was fiction, it was probably entirely written by, as you say, Ohr and Simpson.
Letting Steele sign it and sell it gives it some faux legitimacy, and blaming Russians lends protection on perjury. Both Simpson and Steele have refused to vouch for it.
That doesn’t mean there are no Russians involved at all, though. Fusion was simultaneously on contract to DNC and the Russians. Steele himself was working for Deripaska. And of course the infamous “Russian lawyer” who went to Trump Tower was Fusion.
That would be the final kiss of death.