I haven't read the entire thread so I'd be interested if anyone else came to the same conclusion.
I think the trump/Russian connection is coming into focus. It appears that the Russians had intended to wage a propaganda war on the US in order to elect a president who would give better treatment to Russia.
My guess is that, besides the social media propaganda that was used, the Russians managed to gain the confidence of several US figures who all happen to be associated with or became associated with the trump campaign. It doesn't appear, at least for everyone they managed to use, that anyone was knowingly trying to act against the country. Instead it appears that these key trump insiders were nothing more than useful idiots (Carter page seems to recognize this, hence his willingness to speak in public about it but unwillingness
to say much, plus, known transcripts between spies say about as much). It appears they all fed information to trump to buy into pro Russian policies.
So it appears trump was the mark, which according to a lot of people, was because he apparently takes the opinion of the people who spoke to him last. Having been surrounded by Russian useful idiots, trump was bombarded with pro Russian policies, of which he adopted.
It also appears that the Russians, close to the election, thought Hillary was going to win, and decided to hedge their bets and start spreading propaganda pushing voter fraud in order to delegitimize hillarys presidency had she won. Again, trump parroted this talking point.
Of course when trump was told about the Russians interfering in the election he denied it and instead felt the intelligence community was biased/corrupt. My guess is that this information (Russian involvement) was given to the candidates prior to one of the debates which is why Hillary called trump a puppet and trump flew off the handle.
When trump won the presidency the IC, again tried to tell trump of the Russian involvement in the election and again trump attacked the IC and denied it. Accepting it would have meant his presidency would be in question and that's not something trump could ever admit.
In summary, Russia found some useful idiots too plant pro Russian policies into a puppet.
As far as where this goes? I think, if legit investigations continue, we will find out who these useful idiots are but no charges will be brought because they were unknowingly aiding Russia. Trump will probably lash out, either at the intelligence agencies or at Russia.
As it stands now, the damage is done and the pro Russian policies are still in.