Your Guide to Understanding the Trump-Russia Saga: QuickTake Q&A

By now, few American elected leaders dispute that elements of the Russian state meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election -- though President Donald Trump has continued to say it "could have been a lot of different groups." What remains unknown, or at least unproven, is whether anybody from Trump’s winning campaign assisted in that meddling. Though Trump dismisses talk of collusion as "a total hoax," official inquiries continue and have broadened into a wide-ranging review of his business dealings. The probe advanced today with the filing of charges against Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Manafort’s business partner, Rick Gates.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a campaign to undermine "public faith in the U.S. democratic process" and the candidacy of Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, and that along the way, Putin and his government "developed a clear preference" for Trump. Russia’s efforts included hacking and leaking emails that undermined Clinton’s campaign, and using phony accounts and advertising on Facebook and Twitter to sway American public opinion.