Why would the Americans pay any attention to our Kadr settlement debacle when they have their own debacles to fixate upon?  

I don't know if the Russians manipulated the election.  The information they released didn't force anyone to vote one way or the other.  Some might even argue it allowed voters to exercise a more informed vote.

On the other hand, the Russians clearly gave the impression of manipulating the election, which is highly problematic.  And the cover-up is just making things worse.  Nixon didn't fall because of the third-rate burglary; he fell because of the cover-up.  

That said, I do think Trump is playing chess here.  He is sacrificing pawns to protect the king, except in this instance he wants to sacrifice the other side's knight.  He can;t do that directly, so will he sacrifice his bishop to take out the other side's knight?  How many more sacrifices before he runs out of pieces?  Stay tuned...