How will the Russia scandal end?

1. The damage is contained to top advisers and close family members.

It says a lot about how far the story has moved within the past week that it now appears that the best-case scenario for the Trump presidency may be for the president’s oldest son, son-in-law, and one-time campaign manager to take the fall, plead guilty, or contest likely indictments without implicating the president himself. Could it happen? I suppose.

It’s possible, for instance, that when British music publicist and former tabloid journalist Rob Goldstone ended his initial email to Trump Jr. by writing, “I can also send this info to your father,” the then-candidate’s son responded by phone, in person, or in a different email chain that he wanted the future president kept ignorant of the campaign’s efforts to gain an advantage against Hillary Clinton with help from the Russian government.