This is exactly how intelligence services work: gather compromising information, sit on it, use it to threaten those in power to gain influence, release it to undermine public confidence and establish threat credibility for subsequent targets.
There's a good Black Mirror episode that illustrates this.
Russia's game is to discredit the US. Start by getting a buffoon and his cronies elected, then humiliate them while they represent the US (or threaten them with humiliation).
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