All the noise from Democrats, much of the media and even the FBI over the coming declassification of that House Intelligence Committee memo needs some context: The release is the latest act in a drama that began with grossly partisan and irresponsible conduct by . . . key Democrats, much of the media and some at the bureau.

The memo touches on the “collusion” probe, the subject of months of headlines touting supposed Trump operatives’ ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign.

Ties that President Trump has always denied, with no proof yet surfacing to contradict him.

Yet Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Dem on Intel, claimed months ago that he’d seen “more than circumstantial” proof of collusion. And The New York Times and Washington Post time and again cited anonymous intel officials — clearly FBI or ex-FBI — to report supposed Trump-Russia contacts.

For example, nearly a year ago (Feb. 14), the Times reported, “Trump Aides Had Contact With Russian Intelligence.” In June, FBI ex-chief Jim Comey said publicly that the story was “in the main . . . not true” — one of “many, many stories” that were “just dead wrong.”

Now Howie Kurtz reports in “Media Madness” that Comey’s liberal-leaning No. 2, Andrew McCabe, went to the White House that February to assure then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that “everything” in that Times story was “bulls - - t.”

Then other anonymous leaks soon led to more untrue reports that Priebus had “pressured” McCabe to publicly deny the Times story. (He did ask, at the end of the meeting McCabe had initiated — but took “sorry, no” for an answer.)

An endless drumbeat of such stories fed the false narratives first of “collusion” and then of “obstruction” — with Schiff and other Democrats fanning the flames.

That prompted Republicans in Congress to try to get to the truth. The Intel Committee memo is one fruit of that effort — a bid to put relevant hard facts on the public record. And all the GOP members of the Intel Committee put their names to the move to correct the flood of anonymous lies.

The release may be unprecedented, but so was the provocation.