These indictments do not paint a conclusive picture of what went on between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia and its agents, but are likely just the tip of the iceberg. They suggest that Mr. Manafort — who conducted the first and most visible campaign to integrate Mr. Trump into the Republican Party establishment — was tainted from the start by his association with a deposed Ukrainian leader who was also a Putin puppet. It was under Mr. Manafort’s watch that the Republican platform was initially altered to remove a call to arm Ukraine to fight pro-Russian separatists.

Mr. Manafort is only one of several officials in the Trump campaign and administration with Russian ties. And there were more consequential efforts than the platform language that the Trump camp made seemingly to accommodate Russia’s interests.

For example, the administration has taken no serious action to retaliate for the Russian meddling that has been confirmed by American intelligence agencies, and it resisted more strenuous sanctions.

Congressional investigations of possible coordination between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia are reportedly floundering, as Republicans push their own investigative committees to wrap things up or to investigate bogus charges of collusion between Moscow and the Clinton campaign to obtain a dossier of damaging information against Mr. Trump. At times Republican lawmakers echo Mr. Trump’s charges that the investigations are a “witch hunt.”

Last week, perhaps in anticipation of what was coming from Mr. Mueller’s office, Mr. Trump tweeted the false claim: “It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!” For the past week, Mr. Trump, Republicans and conservative media have been pressing that bizarre claim.