" The memo was sensational. There would be others, sixteen in all, sent to Fusion between June and early November 2016. At first, obtaining intelligence from Moscow went well. For around six months—during the first half of the year—Steele was able to make inquiries in Russia with relative ease. It got harder from late July as Trump’s ties to Russia came under scrutiny. Finally, the lights went out. Amid a Kremlin cover-up, the sources went silent and information channels shut down. "

― Luke Harding , Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win