If you've found yourself wondering "what is driving all of this Russian hacking/collusion" story, here's your answer: GOP Senators want FISA applications related to Russian hacking.
The Russian-Trump Collusion narrative can be traced back well before the election, specifically related to the DNC server hacks with this quote aired on July 27, 2016:
Russia... if you're listening... I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.
This quote is still used as fuel for the Russia-Trump collusion narrative, effectively deflecting the reason for the quote from now-President Trump:
'What were the contents of the 30,000 emails that were illegally stored and destroyed on Hillary Clintons private email server?'
That question has yet to be answered, and may never be since the evidence was destroyed, with hammers in some instances.
Later in the election campaign, Clinton escalated the narrative to the point where she was openly advocating for a direct military response in response to cyber attacks.
Russia's hacked into a lot of things. China's hacked into a lot of things. Russia even hacked into the Democratic National Committee. Maybe even some state election systems? So we've gotta step up our game. Make sure we are well defended and able to take the fight to those who go after us.
As president, I will make it clear that the United States will treat cyber attacks just like any other attack. We will be ready with serious political, economic, and military responses.
So as far back as August 31st, Hillary Clinton was promising a military response to claims of Russia hacking the DNC servers, which resulted in at least one batch of emails released through WikiLeaks.
According to a CNN post, the DNC hired cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike implicated Russia as being responsible for the hacks as early as April 2016, which doesn't even begin to question that Russia was solely behind the DNC hacks,
When the DNC's computer technician discovered the breach in April 2016, much of the damage had already been done. The DNC notified the FBI and hired the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which quickly identified two culprits with links to Russia. They were dubbed "Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear" -- and both were familiar foes for cybersecurity experts.
In a Slate piece focusing on CrowdStrike and it's cofounder Dmitri Alperovitch.
At six o'clock on the morning of May 6, Dmitri Alperovitch woke up in a Los Angeles hotel to an alarming email. Alperovitch is the thirty-six-year-old cofounder of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, and late the previous night, his company had been asked by the Democratic National Committee to investigate a possible breach of its network.
What happened in the month between the hack being discovered and CrowdStrike investigating the breach?
This article indicates that the discovery of the hacks were reactionary rather than preventative.
CrowdStrike security expert had sent the DNC a proprietary software package, called Falcon, that monitors the networks of its clients in real time. Falcon "lit up," the email said, within ten seconds of being installed at the DNC: Russia was in the network.
How did they know it was Russia?
The analyst said there was no doubt. Falcon had detected malicious software, or malware, that was stealing data and sending it to the same servers that had been used in a 2015 attack on the German Bundestag. The code and techniques used against the DNC resembled those from earlier attacks on the White House and the State Department. The analyst, a former intelligence officer, told Alperovitch that Falcon had identified not one but two Russian intruders: Cozy Bear, a group CrowdStrike's experts believed was affiliated with the FSB, Russia's answer to the CIA; and Fancy Bear, which they had linked to the GRU, Russian military intelligence.