Two years before the election—and at the same time as Russian operatives were setting up their cyber-warfare operation to interfere in the upcoming American election—Donald Trump’s campaign CEO Steve Bannon was using Cambridge Analytica’s social media tools to test American receptiveness to messages promoting Russian president Vladimir Puttin and “Russian expansion.”

Cambridge Analytica and the firm’s relationship with Steve Bannon has largely drifted out of the headlines, replaced by more recent outrages. But information continues to appear showing that Steve Bannon had a very special reason for creating the US company in the first place:

Under Bannon’s instruction, the firm discussed Putin with focus groups and was “also testing images of Vladimir Putin and asking questions about Russian expansion in Eastern Europe,” [Christopher] Wylie said.

Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica employee who helped implement the tools that made the company invaluable to the Trump campaign, spoke to Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. He was one of several witnesses Democrats had asked to call, before Republicans leading the committee abruptly shut down the House investigation and pushed out their memo saying that they had found no evidence of collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia.

It was Wylie who previously revealed Cambridge Analytica’s use of stolen Facebook data. He also highlighted how, in addition to Putin, the company had been testing Trump’s test phrases, like “build the wall” and “drain the swamp” a year before Trump announced as a candidate.

In addition to laying the groundwork for the Trump agenda, and spreading the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, Bannon had one other big task for Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie told House Democrats that former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon used the firm's research to discourage Democrats from voting in the 2016 election, according to testimony released Wednesday.

That’s a task that was likely made easier because Republicans had their hands on Democratic turn-out models. Models stolen from the DNC by Russian operatives.