https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump%E2%80%93Russia_dossier#History
According to Steele, he soon found "troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. He said that according to his sources, "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit." He described the finding as "an extraordinary situation" and concluded it was "sufficiently serious" for him to share it with the FBI, which he did in July 2016.
Steele delivered his report as a series of two- or three-page memos, starting in June 2016 and continuing through December. He continued his investigation even after the Democratic client stopped paying for it following Trump's election. After the election, Fusion GPS co-owner Simpson "reportedly spent his own money to continue the investigation".
On his own initiative, Steele decided to also pass the information to British and American intelligence services because he believed the findings were a matter of national security for both countries. According to the testimony of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, Steele approached the FBI because he was concerned that the then candidate, Donald Trump, was being blackmailed by Russia. However, he became frustrated with the FBI, which he believed was failing to investigate his reports, choosing instead to focus on the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. According to The Independent, Steele came to believe that there was a "cabal" inside the FBI, particularly its New York field office linked to Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani, which blocked any attempts to investigate the links between Trump and Russia. In October 2016, Steele had compiled 33 pages (16 memos) and passed on what he discovered so far to a reporter from Mother Jones magazine.
In a court filing in April 2017, Steele revealed previously unreported information that in December 2016, shortly after the presidential election, he gave a copy of the 16 memos to "the senior British national security official and sent an encrypted version to Fusion GPS with instructions to deliver a hard copy to Senator McCain. McCain, who had been informed about the alleged links between Kremlin and Trump, met with former British ambassador to Moscow Sir Andrew Wood. Wood confirmed the existence of the dossier and vouched for Steele's "professionalism and integrity". McCain obtained the dossier from David J. Kramer and took it directly to FBI director James Comey on December 9, 2016. Comey has confirmed that counter-intelligence investigations are under way into possible links between Trump associates and Moscow, and CNN has reported that the FBI used the dossier to bolster its investigations."
After delivering the 16 memos, more information was received, and two more pages, the "December memo", dated "13 December 2016", was prepared. It alleged efforts by Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay those who had hacked the DNC and to "cover up all traces of the hacking operation". Cohen denies this.
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