Eugene Robinson Photo

The FBI is investigating whether persons involved with President Trump’s campaign collaborated with Russian officials to help Trump win the election. Let that sink in for a moment. Then take a deep breath, exhale, and try to imagine where this might lead.

FBI Director James Comey confirmed Monday what we suspected: An active probe of Russia’s election meddling, which includes “investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

Hours earlier, Trump had fired up his Twitter account in a vain attempt to make the whole thing go away. He began his tweet by saying, “The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign.”

That was a lie, perhaps designed to reassure the president’s loyal supporters, perhaps to salve his own bruised ego. “The Democrats” didn’t make up anything. The intelligence community has reached the conclusion that the Russian government actively tried to meddle in the election — initially, perhaps, to weaken confidence in our political process, but later to boost Trump’s chances of winning.

To this end, according to the intelligence assessment, the Russians hacked into the internet communications of prominent Democrats and party institutions — including the Democratic National Committee — and orchestrated a series of leaks timed to do maximum political damage to Hillary Clinton.