A plausible explanation of Trump-Russia connections based on what is public so far is this- that for various reasons, Trump and his friends want Putin’s Russia and the United States to be best friends forever.
This extreme desire might militate against good policy, the US national interest, the security and integrity of Europe, US economic interests and even survival of Western liberal democracy, but they can’t (yet) be prosecuted for it.
Reasons for this extreme desire of Trump and his friends to cohabit with Putin’s Russia could be these:
1. Money. Trump has decades-old business ties to wealthy Russians, and they have kept him from becoming totally insolvent. He owes them big. This was not illegal when he was a private citizen. As President, he knows no one can compel him to be transparent about it.
2. Trump hero-worships Putin. His Russian and American associates knew how to play him into having that sentiment. Is his sentiment illegal?
3. Europe is an old man. Trump, Bannon and others consider that European countries including Germany, France and the UK are lost causes as allies in an existential war with Islam. The more these European countries uphold liberal principles of religious pluralism and equal rights, the more they become a threat to the US in this much-desired war.
Putin, on the other hand, is a strongman, has no respect for religious pluralism and equal rights, and fights radical Islam with his bare hands(they think). So Putin is a true ally and old man Europe is not.
From Trump’s viewpoint, this implies:
a. If members of the Trump’s campaign colluded or co-ordinated with Russian entities on Wikileaks revelations about Hillary Clinton, they were not doing anything wrong. After all, Putin is a good man and Hillary Clinton should be in jail.
b. If the Trump administration makes concessions to Russia on Ukraine, Crimea and sanctions, that is not illegal, just the US government making foreign policy choices.
c. EU should be ‘deconstructed’ too. If Trump and his administration badmouth NATO and generally leave European countries unprotected and vulnerable to Putin’s machinations, this is just Bannon’s, ahem, Trump administration’s choice of foreign policy. The European Union is an administrative behemoth and should be ‘deconstructed’ just like the American administrative apparatus.
d. Russia has lots and lots of oil, which presents lucrative profit opportunities — in line with the ‘we should have kept the oil’ priorities of Trump as was the appointment of Rex Tillerson. Trade with the European Union is not a big priority because ‘EU regulations’ and ‘multilateral trade agreements’(poison to Bannon). Again, not illegal.
In short, Trump is aggrieved — in being pro-Putin, and courting him for various causes over the heads of jail-bird Hillary Clinton and the ineffective Europeans, he has been making good choices for the United States, not illegal ones.
So, in summary, Trump, the Trump campaign and key parts of the Trump White House might be colluding with, and even be sold out to Putin and his agenda on the Presidential election, on foreign policy, on alliances with Europe, on trade and economy.
This might be unseemly. This might mean that the American people’s sovereignty over their government’s decision-making on all these matters is dangerously compromised. But it might not be illegal.
Ignorance, ideological blindness, oversimplification of complex issues, personal biases, making terrible choices as President of the world’s sole superpower, all, may not be prosecutable, despite the damage it can do to US interests and to the world. This might all come down to something like Al Capone and his taxes.