So, basically, the entirety of Russiagate was concocted to cover up the fact that they killed Seth Rich for stealing a bunch of their emails because they rigged the 2016 primary against Sanders. And they had to rush it out before WikiLeaks released what they knew (and is now patently obvious).
And the FBI/CIA/DOJ knew this. The media knew this. And they all kept the charade going because facing the music was simply never an option because of everything else going on that was so much worse.