The Russians did it. The only question now is whether Americans did, too.

To be clear -- because Donald Trump continues to do what he can to muddy these waters: The Russian government, using computer technology, interfered with and tried to manipulate the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election. And we know that the purpose of that interference was to impede Hillary Clinton’s chance of winning. These things are not in dispute, having been uncovered and attested to by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and more than a dozen other agencies of the government of the United States whose job it is to know about such matters and combat them. It has been fully acknowledged by members of both parties in congress and by the Trump-appointed Secretary of Defense. And by Trump himself, notwithstanding his ongoing efforts to obfuscate the issue and blame it all on Democrat sour grapes. The debate with regard to whether this happened is over. That train has left the station.

So: Since we know with certainty what happened, the only remaining question is what role, if any, did people around Donald Trump, and/or Trump himself, play in it. Did these people, these Americans, help the Russians do what we know with certainty that they did – attack the United States? That’s what’s on the table now – not what happened, but whether Trump and company had a hand in what happened. And that’s what’s being investigated by the FBI and by committees in the House and Senate.  That's what James Comey was investigating when he was fired.

Donald Trump, instead of being outraged by all if this and vowing to get to the bottom of any sins the Russians may have committed, has done everything he can to thwart the inquiry. That Trump has something to hide that involves Russia is a conclusion that has become all but impossible to avoid.

That makes it a good time to review what is known about Trump and Russia. The New York Times recently provided this recap:

THE TRUMP FAMILY BUSINESS There may be no Trump Tower in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it is not for lack of trying. Mr. Trump and his family have sought to do business in Russia since at least the 1980s. They have also developed extensive commercial and personal relationships with politically connected Russian businessmen. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. told a real estate conference, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York,” according to eTurboNews, a travel industry news site. The author James Dodson said that another son, Eric Trump, told him in 2013 that Russians have bankrolled Trump golf courses: “Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” Eric Trump denies saying that.

In addition, Donald Trump worked with the Agalarov family, a prominent Russian business group, to host the 2013 edition of his Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Mr. Trump met more than a dozen of the country’s most prominent oligarchs while he was there, Bloomberg News reported. Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump and is a senior adviser to the president, has also been caught up in the Russia story. During the transition, Mr. Kushner met with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, as well as with the top executive of a Russian government-owned bank.

MICHAEL FLYNN Mr. Flynn, the former national security adviser, had several conversations with Mr. Kislyak during the transition in which they discussed American sanctions against Russia. Mr. Trump fired Mr. Flynn after public disclosure that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of those talks. In addition, RT, a Russian government-backed news outlet, paid Mr. Flynn $45,000 for giving a speech in December 2015 in Moscow. On the same trip, he sat next to President Vladimir Putin at an RT gala. The Pentagon is investigating whether Mr. Flynn, a retired military intelligence officer, failed to disclose and obtain approval from the State and Defense Departments before taking money from a foreign government.

JEFF SESSIONS Mr. Sessions, the attorney general, said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he did not have any contacts with Russian officials while he was actively campaigning for Mr. Trump. In fact, he met with Mr. Kislyak twice, once in his Senate office and once at the Republican National Convention.

PAUL MANAFORT Mr. Manafort, a former chairman of the Trump campaign, worked as a consultant for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine and for Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by the Kremlin. Mr. Manafort has been accused of receiving secret payments from the pro-Russia party. About a decade earlier, Mr. Manafort also worked for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Mr. Putin. The Associated Press obtained a memo he wrote to Mr. Deripaska offering a plan that he said would “greatly benefit the Putin Government.”

CARTER PAGE American officials believe that Mr. Page, a foreign policy adviser, had contacts with Russian intelligence officials during the campaign. He also gave a pro-Russia speech in Moscow in July 2016. Mr. Page was once employed by Merrill Lynch’s Moscow office, where he worked with Gazprom, a government-owned energy giant.

ROGER STONE Mr. Stone, an informal but close Trump adviser, exchanged messages last summer with Guccifer 2.0, a Twitter account widely believed to be a front for Russian intelligence operatives who were involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. During the campaign, Mr. Stone seemed to know in advance that WikiLeaks would release emails from the account of John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman.

So what?

Many Republicans and other Trump worshippers, once the fact of Russian interference in the election became unavoidable, shifted to questioning its importance. What’s the big deal if the Russians got involved in some election mischief here. Who cares if Trump and his people have financial ties to the Russian government? Is Russia so bad? Isn't this just a distraction from all the important things Trump is trying to do?

Well, again, to be clear: This event was an attack on the sovereignty of the United States of America, just as surely as if it had been done with bombs and bullets. It took aim at the very heartbeat of America, the thing that makes it what it is and the thing we have depended on for 200-plus years to provide us with the kind of life we want: the free election of the people who represent us in government. It was an attack on our country by a foreign and hostile country. If American citizens helped them do that, it’s a very big problem. (Trump enthusiasts who shrug their shoulders at all of this need to ask themselves a simple question: What if all of the above were true of Barrack Obama or Hillary Clinton?)

For an interesting take on what Russia is all about -- the Russia that Trump’s hard core would have us believe is essentially harmless – check out Joe Scarborough on the subject.