Republicans believe the dossier is a key part of the Trump Russia story — after all, it involves a foreign intelligence agent (former MI6 agent Christopher Steele) digging dirt on Trump from Russians with possible ties to Vladimir Putin. Democrats have not been very interested, preferring to focus on possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and/or possible presidential obstruction of the collusion investigation.

Now, however, Republicans are heartened to hear Democrats expressing interest in learning just how the dossier came into being. It happened Thursday at the sometimes-dry Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The witness was William Browder, the businessman who crusaded for passage of the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on Russia after the killing of an anti-corruption lawyer. The sanctions enraged Putin, who retaliated by blocking American adoption of Russian babies. Putin also retaliated by launching a campaign to undermine and ultimately repeal the Magnitsky Act.