Good interview but I think Codevilla underestimates the degree of treachery present in the Russia hoax from the very beginning. He seems to think it started small with limited aims and then kind of got out of hand. I think it was big and deep from the beginning and I think the upcoming investigations are going to show this very clearly.
But it could have started out much bigger as you say, but I think because they thought he was a joke living a pipe dream it started out much smaller than we may think. Hopefully we will fund out how it started, and soon. 8>)
Big, deep, and multinational....