A dizzying flurry of headlines, leaks and legal action over the past several days have shined new light on contacts between Trump associates and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who in 2016 released Hillary Clinton campaign emails that U.S. officials say were stolen by Russian operatives. Democrats say they strengthen the case -- widely dismissed by Republicans -- that the Trump campaign was aware of or even helped to coordinate the email dumps.

"It's always smelled like collusion," Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview. But after this week's developments, he said, "It doesn't smell less like collusion. It smells more."