It might have been that they really thought Trump would lose to hilLIARy and so wanted to help him to win the primaries.
Its more like Trumps people swallowed their doubts and concerns about Manaforts foreign lobbying and went with the best soldier they could find to steer the campaign through a particularly contentious time where the leading candidate was being sabotaged by his own party
This is Manafort’s real “ crime”
He defeated the uniparty by securing Trump’s nomination