Assange threatened Clinton long before Trump's campaign became a real thing.
In fact, people act like Trump was the first to talk about those e-mails and leaks but that's not what happened.
It would mostly play out like this:
- On 4chan/Reddit and/or other places rumors would emerge from Wikileaks that something was afoot
- Some cryptic tweeting by Assange / WikiLeaks
- A major release of e-mail dirt
- Scavino, Stone, Flynn, Don Jr. (and other Trumpers) pick it up on the web and probably pass it on to Trump
- Media picks it up, turns it into headlines
- Trump begins his rally with: "Boy, what I just read about Crooked Hillary Clinton"
The only time he beat them to the punch is when he 'asked' the Russians (after it was known they'd hacked the DNC) to release the 30k missing Clinton e-mails.
An episode that doesn't fit into the narrative is that Kushner 'tried' to set-up a back channel after the election. Which would be a complete waste of time if they were in bed with Moscow already.
Now if Manafort was the secret Russian agent totally in cahoots with the Kremlin another strange story appears. Right after the RNC speech the Trump campaign turned into a dumpster fire. Trump was visibly upset and frustrated with his campaign manager. Manafort according to his associates had pretty much given up trying to change or control Trump as he had done with Yanukovich. Trump would simply be Trump and not read the carefully prepared statements. The Trump kids who had brought Manafort on board were deeply worried about where everything was going.
Now imagine that you're Manafort, selected by the Kremlin to influence Trump and make him the puppet leader. Why would you risk losing (Manafort was clearly headed for a loss) and possibly be offed by the GRU. Who have killed for much less.
And finally. Say you are Hope Hicks and you've been with Trump for 99% of the time and you're interviewed by Mueller. You could say: "I was there when Trump called 'so and so' and said he'd get it done he was clearly influenced by the Russians." In fact any one of them could say that because all people are looking for at this point is the smoking gun that connects Trump to the Russian secret services. However, none of the Trumpers did so. In fact, even the people he fired without pay or he shat on (Sloppy Steve) did not sell-out Trump. They could make shit up and damage his presidency enough that he's forced to resign. But none of them do that.
And after all this is Donald John Trump we are talking about. The guy who has his personal lawyer pay off a porn star. The dude who organizes a cruise missile strike over Ice Cream at the Mar-a-lago and has Lou Dobbs call in on speakerphone during cabinet meetings. This is not someone who is especially careful or stealthy. But we have to accept that guys is able to keep his ties to Russia a secret? The only reason he's under scrutiny is because he failed to keep his prior questionable friends out of the spotlights. Trump was linked to the mob because he went to Baseball games and boxing matches with them. Trump is linked to Russia in part because he stars in the music video of a Russian singer who happens to the son of a influential oligarch.
I mean, if Mueller can't find the smoking gun within a year, either he's not looking good enough or it simply isn't there.