Boil the Russia scandal down to this:
To advance his family's business interests, a presidential candidate and his variously compromised underlings collaborated with a hostile foreign power to interfere with a national election, in exchange for sanctions, (money laundering and seizure), relief and the promise of a free hand in Ukraine.
That explains most of the variation in behavior of every bonehead in Trump's orbit, from Roger Stone and Paul Manafort to Michael Flynn, the president himself, and his useless adult children. In the end the lot of them will have achieved nothing other than a small and temporary boost in the fortunes of a dying, Fox News driven, white Republican minority.
Trump will leave office, whether by impeachment or at the hands of the voters with what remains of his global racketeering and money laundering business in tatters and the Republican Party reeling from its decision trade the future of conservatism to a loathsome, lifelong con man in obvious cognitive decline.