The conspiracy theory says Trump and his top associates joined Putin and Russian intelligence to hatch a plot to steal the election and then worked together throughout the process, coordinating strategy and engaging in quid-pro-quo promises. That Donald Trump is, essentially, a Russian agent.

It’s not hard to find this account online, along with a steadfast conviction it’ll all be proven (sooner rather than later).

I’m skeptical. I think you’re right that many “top level IC persons” would prefer to see the investigative process play out, but there also have been a lot of leaks over the past year. If there were smoking gun evidence of treason, it would be hard to keep it under wraps.

And also unpatriotic. If the Kremlin really were controlling the White House, it would be incumbent upon the intelligence community, the military, and government officials to do something about it as soon as possible. But Trump critics in a position to know have done the opposite. For example, in March, Senator Dianne Feinstein said she had not seen evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

That doesn’t mean everything’s kosher. Flynn, Sessions and Kushner all lied about Russia contacts. We still know very little about Trump’s finances, and it wouldn’t be shocking to find out he owes money to some Russian state banks. And a lot of the administration’s foreign policy aligns with Russian national interests, such as weakening America’s relationship with NATO allies.

But until proven otherwise, I’m going with the simpler explanation: Russia tried to influence the election without extensively coordinating with the Trump campaign; Trump and others in his administration have a genuine affinity for authoritarians and are bad at foreign policy.