When President Donald Trump brought up the word “Crowdstrike” on his now-infamous July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president, he caused some head-scratching in Kyiv. According to two sources familiar with the call, aides to President Volodymyr Zelensky who listened to the call had no idea what Trump was talking about when he urged the newly elected Ukrainian leader to look into a mysterious “server” supposedly hidden somewhere in Ukraine.

At that time, Trump’s obsession with the debunked conspiracy theory was understood and embraced perhaps only by his staunchest allies—but now even they don’t appear to see the Crowdstrike theory as a viable defense in the impeachment inquiry (perhaps not least because nobody knows what the hell it is).

So, why did the Russian-friendly theory fail to gain steam?