I understand this. Mueller was stymied by Trump’s refusal to answer questions, hence his inability to make the connections that others had discovered. Why did he refuse to answer questions? Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear. I doubt Trump rang up his mate Vlad and requested help. I do though think they have reached an understanding that they will work together, something recent behaviour tends to support. Others working on his behalf would have ensured he maintained legal plausible deniability.
You may want to keep the two stands of the investigation separate, as Trump does, but they are intrinsically bound together. Trump did obstruct justice, he only escaped prosecution because of Barr’s intervention and him ruling that a sitting President cannot be prosecuted. Obstructing justice in these circumstances being every bit as serious as what was obstructed.
The point of this though ultimately being that to claim that the accusations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign was a “hoax” is demonstrably wrong. The Russians did interfere. Some of Trump’s team were prosecuted and convicted. That they managed to obscurate and delay is just par for Trump’s usual tactics.
One day the whole truth will be known but hoax it wasn’t.