The case has implications for higher-ranking figures, but the indictment is most immediately devastating to the reputation of the many famous news personalities who hyped the Steele story. They almost all look terrible today, but the response by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was a thing beyond. Whatever the category below "disgraced journalist" is, she entered it with gusto with last night's performance.

Much of the indictment concerns false statements Danchenko allegedly made to the FBI concerning his interactions with "PR Executive-1," described as a "U.S.-based individual… who was a long-time participant in Democratic Party politics and was then an executive at a U.S. public relations firm." New York Times reporter Charlie Savage received confirmation from the lawyer of a man named Charles Dolan that Dolan is, in fact, the executive: