If you’re trying to get up to speed, it feels a bit like suddenly immersing yourself in theories about the Kennedy assassination. There are so many partial and equivocal facts that it’s easy for people to spin them in a partisan way, particularly if they’re hoping it will turn into another Watergate. And both sides want it to be Watergate, either for the Trump administration or for the Obama administration.

So let’s try to outline the basic facts of this story and figure out what we can say is definitely true, without stretching for interpretation or saying “if this turns out to be true.” Because that kind of speculation is about 90 percent of what we’re hearing right now. Let’s start with what we know and don’t know about the Trump campaign.