Up Your Ante

Investigating Russia:

Michael Cohen has dropped his libel lawsuits against BuzzFeed News and Fusion GPS which he filed in January claiming the Christopher Steele dossier defamed him. The move comes less than a week after McClatchy DC revealed Special Counsel Robert Mueller has proof Cohen did travel to Prague as described in Steele's memos.

Politico:
"The decision to voluntarily discontinue these cases was a difficult one," Cohen's attorney David Schwartz said. "We believe the defendants defamed my client, and vindicating Mr. Cohen’s rights was — and still remains — important. But given the events that have unfolded, and the time, attention, and resources needed to prosecute these matters, we have dismissed the matters, despite their merits."

Cohen is in court fighting to exclude potential evidence FBI agents seized in a raid on his office, home, and hotel room on April 9th.

Bloomberg Politics:
The case against Fusion GPS, which compiled the dossier, and its co-founder Glenn Simpson was filed in federal court in New York. Cohen had sued BuzzFeed, which published the dossier in its entirety, in state court in New York.

Politico:
In statements, both BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS said the suit was without merit.

"If there's one thing Democrats and Republicans agree on today, it's that the dossier was an important part of the government's investigation into potential collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia," BuzzFeed News said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Fusion GPS said: "With his decision, it appears that Mr. Cohen can now focus on his many other legal travails.”

Dropping the suits could help Cohen avoid being questioned by lawyers from Fusion GPS or having to turn over evidence related to the case — both steps that could undercut his defense in the criminal probe.
It also means one or both of at least these two things:

1. they're getting great mileage out of bashing the dossier itself - and that ties in with their story of how the Dems (ie: Hillary) "financed it as just another bit of Oppo Research" which continues to get traction, so they need to keep what they think is a great issue
2. they can't afford to be shown up as having lied about the whole thing all along - especially the bit about Cohen and the meeting(s) in Prague. 

If they press the thing, then the Steele Dossier will be more or less argued in open court, which is the one thing they know must never be allowed to happen - essentially it calls their bluff and exposes the defamation suit as a dodge.

They can't afford to have anybody look too closely at anything.