July 2015
The attempt to implicate Libertarians, the NRA, and the GOP with Russian contacts, money, and election interference started long before Trump.
I think this was going to be part of Hillary's gun grab. And completely take over the election system to counter the threat of Russian hacking, like Obama tried to do with DHS at the end.
This, btw, is what Steele and Italy were working on in the EU.
Trump fell into a pre-existing narrative setup.
Especially when Podesta's emails were stolen, they needed expand the narrative to cover everything.