NBC News lists the reasons why the Russia investigation is a real thing even WITHOUT the Christopher Steele dossier.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

With the revelation that the Clinton campaign and DNC paid the money to finance the Steele dossier, Trump and his supporters now argue that he’s off the hook when it comes to the Russia investigation. “‘Clinton campaign & DNC paid for research that led to the anti-Trump Fake News Dossier. The victim here is the President.’ @FoxNews,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. But here’s a timeline to remind everyone that the Trump-Russia investigation is real — even outside of what we know about the Steele dossier: 

Jan. 6: Intel community details that Russia interfered in the 2016 election — to hurt Hillary Clinton and benefit Trump. 

Feb. 13: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigns just after the Washington Post first reported that the Justice Department had informed the White House that Flynn could be subject to blackmail after misleading statements about his interaction with Russia's ambassador. 

Feb. 14: The New York Times reports that Trump's 2016 campaign "had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials." 

Feb. 14: Then FBI Director James Comey met at White House with Trump, where Trump tells him: "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," the president says, per a memo Comey wrote about the meeting. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." 

March 1: The Washington Post reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Russia's envoy twice in 2016 -- which Sessions didn't disclose in his confirmation hearing. 

March 2: Sessions recuses himself from any federal inquiries involving Trump's 2016 campaign. 

March 20: Comey confirms his agency is investigation allegations that Trump's 2016 campaign might have contacts with Russian entities. 

May 9: Trump fires Comey. The original explanation is that it was due to how Comey handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation — and was based on the recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. 

May 10: In Oval Office meeting, Trump tells Russian officials, "I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job," he said, according to the New York Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off." 

May 11: In interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Trump said he firing Comey regardless of what Rosenstein recommended. And he suggested the Russia investigation was a reason behind the dismissal. "When I decided to [fire Comey], I said to myself, I said you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story." 

May 17: Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel in Russia probe. 

July 9: NYT reports that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer on June 9, 2016 after being promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton — "the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help." 

July 11: NYT publishes emails between Rob Goldstone ("This is obviously very high level and sensitive information, but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump") and Donald Trump Jr. ("If it's what you say, I love it." The entire email exchange is entitled: "Russia — Clinton — private and confidential." 

July 31: WaPo reports that Trump dictated his son’s misleading statement about that meeting with the Russian lawyer. 

Aug 3: WSJ reports that special counsel Mueller impaneled a grand jury in his Russia investigation. 

Aug 9: WaPo reports that the FBI searched Paul Manafort's home on July 26. 

Oct. 4: Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says his committee continues to look at whether there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. “There are concerns that we continue to pursue: collusion. The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion.” 

Oct. 25: The Daily Beast reports that the head of Trump’s data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica wrote in an email last year that he reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about Hillary Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails.

That's actually a lot, and significantly more than the Republicans typically have when they launch one of their endless investigations against Hillary Clinton or the Democrats.

The point of this article is that even without the dossier there is plenty of evidence that Trump and his people are hiding things, and also plenty of evidence that they are desperate to keep the investigators from discovering what that might be.

Remember the lesson of Watergate.

"It's not the crime, it's the coverup."