They are getting ahead of the bigger story.
The Russian troll farms indicted by Mueller were likely paid for by Deripaska, Russian mob, and the clowns who were also behind NoNames Ukrainian adventures.
Same playbook used to manipulate their elections.
I don't believe PapaD is the innocent energy consultant he claims.
Why did he lie to the FBI?
Why was he so fixated on trying to get the campaign to meet with Russians?
He was a willing part of this plot, until he got wise or someone offered him a deal.
Same with Page… and probably Manafort too.
True, that is also a possibility.
But I'm making an assumption that he lied according to the official storyline he was supposed to tell as an actor in the play, for his spook paymasters.
Only later did he realize he was being setup.