For instance, Dana Milbank reports, take the "best people" the president hired for his administration. Please:

   A group called American Oversight had the foresight to make records requests for résumés of those hired by the Trump administration, and the group searched for those who worked on the Trump campaign. Among the "best" Trump hires American Oversight found:

    ●Sid Bowdidge, assistant to the secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Before working for the Trump campaign, Bowdidge, from 2013 to 2015, was manager of the Meineke Car Care branch in Seabrook, N.H. He previously was service and branch manager for tire shops. I don't know what qualified Bowdidge for his position, but I do know this: He is not going to pay a lot for that muffler. (He had to hit the road, losing his job after it was discovered he had called Muslims "maggots.")

    ●Victoria Barton, congressional relations for Regions II, V and VI, Department of Housing and Urban Development. Prior to working for the Trump campaign, Barton was an office manager and, between 2013 and 2015, a "bartender/bar manager." The expertise in housing policy possessed by Barton is no doubt invaluable to HUD Secretary Ben Carson, a retired brain surgeon.

A confidential assistant at the Agriculture Department was a cabana boy at the Westchester Country Club from 2009 to 2015. There must have been tremendous, tremendous fawning involved. There are more of the best at the link, if you care to ruin your morning.

They weren't hired for their experience or qualifications, many weren't vetted at all.

My hypothetical: Kushner was reportedly one of the fiercest advocates for the firing, and he used the quashing of the investigation as his main selling point to tRump....in writing...in front of credible witnesses.

 It appears that they have reached into the campaign and probably the administration in multiple ways on multiple levels. Thru the small fish like Page and Papadopoulos, family members Jr and Kushner, politicians like Sessions and operatives like Manafort and lets not forget Flynn.

This was a full court press by the Russians, there was no central actor(at least on this side of the pond),  

I do think Kushner is central to the Cambridge/Russian/Campaign nexus, but I see him more as a liaison then a mastermind. I do believe he was probably using his leverage to bail himself out of his financial troubles(as any grifter would) but I see it more as taking advantage of an opportunity rather than creating one.