The Democratic memo authored primarily by Rep. Adam Schiff does more than just shoot down every claim of the failed Nunes memo: it contains a single line that drives a golden spike between two chains of evidence. When everything is pulled together, the confirmation of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government would seem to be complete.

What’s in the Democratic memo provides an answer to a question that was raised as soon as former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was indicted. And it’s a critical question—one whose answer would seem to leave absolutely no doubt that Russia and Trump were joined in a conspiracy to defraud the United States through the distribution of stolen material. In fact, what’s in the memo seems so clear that if it’s accurate, charges should be a foregone conclusion.

In the public record, there are currently two chains of evidence. On one side is the information that was passed down to adviser George Papadopouls that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. It’s clear that Papadopoulos sent this information on to the campaign. A month later, Rob Goldstone contacted Donald Trump Jr. about “information that incriminates HIllary” sourced from the Russian government. That conversation led to the infamous Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump’s senior campaign staff—campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner—and operatives from the Russian government for the express purpose of discussing this information.

The second string of evidence begins with Julian Assange announcing that he had information that he hoped “would harm” Hillary Clinton’s chance of election. This was followed in July with the release of the first WikiLeaks documents. After their release, the Trump campaign made heavy use of WikiLeaks information in rallies and in ads. They also had conversations with WikiLeaks that included, at least, Brad Parscale, Cambridge Analytica, and Donald Trump Jr. This included cooperation with WikiLeaks on the timing of releases and led to Trump declaring his love for WikiLeaks while reading aloud from their releases at multiple rallies.

To connect these two chains of events, it would be necessary to know if the Trump campaign understood that the WikiLeaks material was the same as the “dirt” offered to Papadopoulos. And more critically, did they understand that Russia planned to use WikiLeaks to release this material?

What the Democratic memo provides is answers: Yes, and yes. Which may be why Robert Mueller is following up heavily on this point.