Here is an interesting idea: what if Bush was given credible information that the Russians were behind 9/11? What do you do with that information? Would we have been prepared to go to war with them? If not, would it be useful to put this image of Putin killing thousands of Americans into the publics mind, with no really viable means of exacting revenge? Clearly, we did face Islamic extremists. Would it not have been tempting to take on enemies we could plainly face with violence?
I think the aim on the part of the Russians was to draw us into one or more wars that we would then LOSE, weakening us, and causing a global retrenchment of the sort that followed our retreat from Vietnam. This is a guess. To do better, I would need to take the time to remember and researach what the world looked like in 2000, and then imagine what it would have looked like from the perspective of an ex-KGB director, and lifelong dedicated Communist.
That is more than I am willing to take on, so I’ll leave it here.
The point, though, is that one could plausibly see Bush covering up evidence, but not because of his own complicity in the crime. This actually makes sense to me.