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Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

January 30, 2023

This is a timeline of events related to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

It includes events described in investigations into suspected inappropriate links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials until July 2016, with July 2016 through election day November 8, 2016, following.[1] Events and investigations also occurred during the presidential transition from November 9, 2016, to January 20, 2017, and continued through the first and second halves of 2017; the first and second halves of 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, largely as parts of the Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation, the Special Counsel investigation, multiple ongoing criminal investigations by several State Attorneys General, and the investigation resulting in the Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election.

Relevant individuals and organizations

This is a list of individuals and organizations that have been involved in the events related to either the election interference that Russia conducted against the 2016 U.S. elections and/or the resulting investigations into suspected inappropriate links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials. Seth Abramson estimated more than 400 people could be listed here.[2]: 3 

A–E

F–M

N–R

S–Z

Before Donald Trump's 2016 candidacy

1977

  • According to former KGB major Yuri Shvets, Trump became the target of a joint Czech intelligence services and KGB spying operation after he married Czech model Ivana Zelnickova[9] and was cultivated as an "asset" by Russian intelligence since 1977: "Russian intelligence gained an interest in Trump as far back as 1977, viewing Trump as an exploitable target."[10]

1986

1987

1991

1996

  • Trump returns to Russia, visits Moscow with Howard Lorber and Bennett S. LeBow[19] to scout potential properties for "skyscrapers and hotels",[20] registers his trademark, and makes connections with the development company Bayrock Group (which would result in Trump Soho) and Felix Sater, who became crucial to later Trump Moscow talks.[21][17] Trump subsequently announces a plan to invest $250 million in Russia and brand two luxury residential buildings in Moscow, which doesn't come to fruition.[2]: 14  Other people on the trip include Leon Black of Apollo Global Management, Ron Bernstein, Theodore Liebman, and Matthew Calamari.[22]: 649  During the trip, Trump brings two women he met the night before to a business meeting, and begins a long-term relationship with a former "Miss Moscow".[22]: 650–655  In 2020, the Senate Intelligence Committee reports that it is unable to determine whether Russia has compromising material involving Trump and the three women.[23]

2000

2001–2004

2004

2005

  • Trump gives Bayrock Group an exclusive deal to build a Trump-branded property in Moscow.[28]
  • Kilimnik leaves the IRI to work for Manafort in Ukraine.[27]
  • June 23: Paul Manafort and a business partner, Rick Davis, propose a plan to Oleg Deripaska under which they would influence news coverage, business dealings, and politics in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and the United States "to benefit President Vladimir Putin's government".[29][30]: 131  They eventually sign a $10 million contract that starts in 2006 using LOAV Ltd. instead of Davis-Manafort; they maintain a business relationship until at least 2009.[29]

2006

2007

  • Manafort and Richard Davis found Pericles Emerging Markets, an investment fund solely backed by Deripaska.[33][34][30]: 131 
  • October 15: Trump praises Putin in an interview on CNN.[35]
  • 2007–2012: Manafort receives $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions.[34]
  • November: Trump attends the Millionaire's Fair in Moscow, where he announces that Trump Vodka will expand its distribution into Russia, his first foray into the Russian market.[36][37][38]
  • November 20 Manafort receives his first payment from the Ukrainian Party of Regions.[39]
  • December 19: Trump sends Putin a congratulatory letter for being named Time magazine's "Man of the Year". He writes, "As you probably have heard, I am a big fan of yours!"[22]: 417–418 [40][41]

2008

  • 2008:
    • Around 2008, Trump Jr. travels to Russia a half-dozen times in 18 months, looking for deals.[42]
    • Deripaska transfers $18.9 million to Pericles Emerging Markets to purchase Black Sea Cable. It is unclear what happened to the money: Deripaska demands an accounting of the funds in 2013, sues Pericles in 2014, and sues Manafort in 2018.[33][34][43]
    • A spokesperson for Deripaska denies he ever hired Manafort's consulting company.[29]
  • 2008–2013: Carter Page is an "operational contact" for the CIA, which means the agency can ask him for information he already knows but not task him with gathering information.[44]
  • July: Trump sells the Palm Beach estate Maison de L'Amitie to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for a record $95 million. Trump bought the property for $41.35 million three years earlier and made only minor improvements.[45] According to Cohen, Trump later tells his associates that he believes Putin was behind Rybolovlev's purchase.[46]
  • September: Trump Jr., then an executive vice president of The Trump Organization, says, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets, say, in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."[47][48][49]
  • November: Davis-Manafort is disbanded shortly after the presidential election.[50]

2009

  • May: Kislyak attempts to arrange a meeting between Torshin and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin during Torshin's planned visit to Alaska on June 6.[51] Palin's office declines and suggests Torshin meet with Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell.[51] It is unclear whether the meeting took place.[22]: 577 

2010

2011

  • October 12–27: Mueller resigns his family membership from the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, and asks for a refund of the unused portion of the annual fees. Two weeks later, the club confirms the membership will end on October 31 and says he will be put on a waitlist for fee refunds, but Mueller never receives the refund. Beginning in May 2017, Trump claims this incident forms a conflict of interest that should prevent Mueller from serving as the special counsel investigating him.[61]: 80–81 [62]
  • December 8: Putin states that Clinton "set the tone for some opposition activists", and "gave them a signal, they heard this signal and started active work".[63]

2012

  • The FBI warns Representative Dana Rohrabacher that he is being targeted by Russian agents to recruit him as an "agent of influence"; that is, someone who can affect US policy.[64]
  • Italian MEP Gianni Pittella introduces Simona Mangiante, the future wife of George Papadopoulos, to Mifsud in Brussels. Mangiante worked for the European Parliament as an attorney specializing in child abduction cases.[7][65]
  • February 10: Torshin registers as a life member of the NRA using Russian diplomat Igor Matveev's address and Preston's phone number.[22]: 578 
  • April 12–15: Torshin attends the NRA annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri, with an "all access" pass.[66][67]
  • October 11: Preston applies for Torshin to receive election observer status in Tennessee.[51]
  • October 25: Manafort receives the last of $12.7 million in payments from the Ukrainian Party of Regions.[39]
  • November 6: Torshin and Matveev visit Davidson and Williamson counties in Tennessee as election observers.[51]
  • November 8: Torshin visits the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia.[66]
  • December 14: President Barack Obama signs the Magnitsky Act into law to punish Russian officials responsible for human rights violations.[68]

2013

  • Apparent security hackers gain access to the Trump Organization's domain registrar account at GoDaddy and register hundreds of "shadow" subdomains with IP addresses located at a company in St. Petersburg Russia known for hosting websites containing malware. Most of the subdomains are created in August. By November 1, 2017, the subdomains disappeared after the Trump Organization was notified of the issue, although the organization denied that any breach occurred.[69]
  • January: Carter Page, a petroleum industry consultant, passes documents about the oil market to Victor Podobnyy, a Russian intelligence agent. He later claims the documents were public information. Podobnyy is charged with being an unregistered foreign agent in 2015.[70]
  • March 13: The FBI interviews Manafort about his offshore business dealings.[71]
  • March 19: Manafort has dinner with Rohrabacher as part of his lobbying efforts for the government of Ukraine. Vin Weber, a partner at Mercury Affairs, is also in attendance.[72] Three days later, Manafort gives Rohrabacher a $1,000 campaign contribution.[73] Richard Gates, Manafort's deputy, pleads guilty in 2018 to lying about the meeting to the FBI.[72]
  • April 13: Two agents of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) discuss recruiting Page.[74][75]
  • May 3–5: Butina and Torshin attend the NRA convention in Houston, Texas.[76][77]
  • June: Flynn travels to Moscow at Major General Igor Sergun's invitation. Kislyak helps arrange and coordinate the trip. Flynn visits the GRU headquarters, where he meets with GRU officials, briefs GRU staff, and presents a professional development class on leadership.[22]: 753 
  • June 15–18: Attending the Miss USA 2013 pageant, Trump dines with Aras Agalarov, Emin Agalarov, and Rob Goldstone in Las Vegas.[78] The next day he announces that Miss Universe 2013 will be held in Moscow.[78] He sends Putin a letter inviting him to the pageant[79] and asks on Twitter whether the Russian president will be his "new best friend".[80]
  • July 3: Carter Page schedules a dinner with potential investor Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg to pitch his fledgling natural gas business. It is unclear whether the meeting took place.[81]
  • August: Eric Trump tells author James Dodson, "We don't rely on American banks [...] We have all the funding we need out of Russia", and says, "We go there all the time". In May 2017, Eric Trump calls this "fabricated" and an example of why people distrust the media.[82][47][83][84][85]
  • August 25: Page sends a letter to an academic press in which he claims to be an adviser to the Kremlin.[86]
  • Early October:
    • Butina makes a presentation on "Right to Bear Arms" to the Association for the Promotion of Weapons Culture in Israel. Her presentation includes a slide claiming her organization has cooperation agreements with similar organizations in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Estonia, and she informs the group that it also has a cooperation agreement with the NRA. Another slide states it has a cooperation agreement with the International Defensive Pistol Association, which the Texas-based organization denies when asked in 2018.[87]
    • Torshin or Butina invites Keene to the November "Right to Bear Arms" conference in Moscow.[22]: 580 
  • October 17:
    • In an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, Donald Trump says he has conducted "a lot of business with the Russians" and that he has met President Vladimir Putin.[88][89]
    • Erickson begins an email conversation with Butina to make arrangements for his and Keene's trip to Moscow.[22]: 580  Erickson informs Butina that Keen may have a "formal diplomatic meeting" after they arrive on October 30.[22]: 580–581 
  • October 30: After Keene and Erickson arrive in Moscow, Keene dines with Torshin and his wife.[22]: 581 
  • October 31 – November 1: Keene, Alan Gottlieb, and Paul Erickson attend the "Right to Bear Arms" conference in Moscow where they meet with Butina and Torshin.[58] Gottlieb and Keene are invited speakers at the event.[90][66][91] Keene is scheduled to speak on the second day.[22]: 581  Gottlieb and his wife dine with Torshin and Butina, and receive "gifts that [display] research into their interests". In 2017, Gottlieb tells The Washington Post, "They wanted to keep communications open and form friendships."[58]
  • November 1: Keene is scheduled to meet with Peskov, though he later tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that he does not recall meeting with any government officials while in Moscow.[22]: 581 
  • Early November: Butina and Erickson discuss holding an NRA-hosted event in Moscow in 2014, an idea raised by Torshin and Keene during the "Right to Bear Arms" conference. The proposed event would honor "Right to Bear Arms," Torshin, and General Mikhail Kalashnikov. Putin would be an invitee. Erickson describes the idea as having "HIGH importance to the NRA". Later, Keene tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that the plans were dropped partly because Kalishnikov died in December 2013.[22]: 584 
  • November 3: Butina emails Erickson asking him to not publish photographs of Keene and Torshin dining together because she needs "time to think how to position this".[22]: 581 
  • November 6: Erickson begins assisting Butina with a visa application so that she can visit the NRA.[22]: 581  This is the first occurrence of Butina using the NRA as a reason for visiting the U.S., but there is no evidence she made the trip.[22]: 581 
  • November 7: Butina again emails Erickson to dissuade him from publishing the photographs because she is concerned about attracting attention.[22]: 581 
  • November 9–11: The Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant is held in Moscow, sponsored by Sberbank.[82] According to various reports, the event's $20 million licensing fee is paid by a Moscow real estate development firm called the Crocus Group, whose president is Aras Agalarov and vice president is his son, pop singer Emin Agalarov.[36][92] One VIP guest is Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, an alleged Russian mobster and fugitive who was recently indicted for running a high-stakes illegal gambling ring out of a Trump Tower apartment in New York City.[93] While Putin does not attend, the event is attended by Vladimir Kozhin,[93] the head of the Kremlin's property department,[94] which is responsible for development projects.[95] After the event, Trump tells Real Estate Weekly, "the Russian market is attracted to me. I have a great relationship with many Russians".[47][96] During the trip, Trump meets Herman Gref, the CEO of state-controlled Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, and other oligarchs close to Putin.[97] Agalarov and Gref co-host a dinner for Trump at the Moscow branch of Nobu, which is owned by Agalarov.[98] Afterwards, Trump tweets to Agalarov, "I had a great weekend with you and your family. You have done a FANTASTIC job. TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next."[98][99]
  • November 12: The Moscow Times reports that Trump is in talks with Russian companies to build a new Trump tower in Moscow.[100]
  • November 21: The Euromaidan starts when President Yanukovych suspends preparations for the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union.[18]: 150, 157 [101]
  • December 10: John Bolton promotes gun rights in Russia in a video made for Butina's "Right to Bear Arms" organization that is shown to members of the Duma.[102][76][22]: 582  Bolton made the video at the request of Keene, who was himself asked to find someone by Butina and Torshin, though Keene didn't mention Torshin by name.[22]: 582 
  • December 13: Keene emails Butina to follow up on the Bolton video and ask Butina and Torshin for advice on inviting Rogozin to the NRA's Las Vegas event in 2014. Butina responds that she and Torshin think it is a good idea.[22]: 583–584 
  • December 23: Trump, Trump Jr., Emin Agalarov, and Kaveladze reach an agreement for the Trump Tower Moscow project under which the Trump Organization would receive a 3.5% commission on all sales.[30]: 67–68 

2014

  • 2014:
    • Butina tells an American Facebook friend who complained about California's gun restrictions that he should "hold demonstrations" for gun rights.[103]
    • Patten provides lobbying and consulting services to the Ukrainian Opposition Bloc political party and Lyovochkin, a party leader, without registering as a foreign agent. He travels many times to Ukraine to meet with Lyovochkin and Kilimnik.[104]
    • Patten works for Cambridge Analytica to hone their microtargeting operations during the 2014 midterm elections.[105]
  • January 2: Keene, who is also the opinion editor for The Washington Times, publishes in the newspaper a piece on Kalashnikov written by Torshin and partly translated by Erickson and Butina.[22]: 584 [106]
  • Early 2014: Erickson meets Butina in Israel, where they become romantically involved.[22]: 582 
  • Before January 24: The Crocus Group sends The Trump Organization a proposal to build a 194-meter tall building with 800 units at the Crocus City site in Moscow where the Miss Universe pageant was held. Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov sign the proposal.[30]: 68 
  • February 1–4: Kushner and Ivanka Trump travel to Russia on a four-day trip at the invitation of Dasha Zhukova, a longtime friend of Ivanka and the wife of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.[107] They attend a gala fundraiser for the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow along with Vekselberg, other oligarchs, Russian government officials, and their families.[107] Ivanka and Emin Agalarov tour the proposed Trump Tower Moscow site at Crocus City.[30]: 68  In 2016–17, Kushner omits the trip from his security clearance applications.[107]
  • February 10: In a Fox and Friends phone interview, Trump says Putin contacted him while he was in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.[108]
  • March 6:
  • March 21: Trump posts two tweets praising Putin regarding "Russian Empire"[111][112] on the day the Russian Federal Assembly ratifies the Treaty on Accession of the "Republic of Crimea", formalizing the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.
  • April:
    • The Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) creates a department called the "translator project". The department's focus is on interfering in the U.S. election.[113][114]
    • The Obama administration receives a report from a well-connected Russian source that Russia is building disinformation infrastructure to disrupt the political systems in the United States and Europe.[115]
  • Early April: Erickson and Keene help Butina secure a visa for her visit to the U.S., including Keene making a "standard call" to the office of Congressman Edward Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.[22]: 584–585 
  • April 12: Asked about Putin by Eric Bolling on the Fox News show Cashin' In, Trump says Putin has taken the mantle from Obama. He continues, "Interestingly, I own the Miss Universe pageant, and we just left Moscow. He could not have been nicer. He was so nice and so everything. But you have to give him credit that what he's doing for that country in terms of their world prestige is very strong."[116]
  • April 24: Butina presents NRA president Jim Porter with an honorary membership in "Right to Bear Arms".[117][118]
  • April 25–27: Butina and Torshin attend the NRA annual conference in Indianapolis. Butina attends several meetings as a guest of Keene.[119][120]
  • May: The IRA begins its election interference campaign of "spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general".[113][114]
  • May 27: Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon, Trump again claims to have spoken to Putin. "I own the Miss Universe [pageant]. I was in Russia. I was in Moscow recently. And I spoke indirectly and directly with President Putin who could not have been nicer. And we had a tremendous success."[121]
  • June 2: BuzzFeed News reports on a cache of Internet Archive emails leaked by Russian hackers. The emails reveal a well-funded effort to recruit and train online trolls to post comments on top American websites.[122][123]: 24–28 
  • June 3: Kaveladze emails Trump Jr. and others about design elements and architectural details for Trump Tower Moscow.[30]: 68 
  • June 4–26: Aleksandra Krylova and Anna Bogacheva, two IRA employees, travel to the U.S. to collect intelligence. Maria Bovda, a third employee, is denied a visa.[113] All three are indicted in February 2018 for their work on election interference.[114]
  • June 10: Trump Jr. emails Kaveladze and others about design elements and architectural details for Trump Tower Moscow.[30]: 68 
  • June 16: Trump Jr. emails Kaveladze and others again about design elements and architectural details for Trump Tower Moscow.[30]: 68 
  • Mid 2014: Dutch intelligence gains access to Russian hacking group Cozy Bear, which later, together with Fancy Bear, hacked the DNC servers. They were able to photograph each hacker, get their names, and compile dossiers on each, as they were watching the Russians perform their hacking operations in real time.[124]
  • July 2: The FBI interviews Richard Gates about his international business dealings.[71]
  • July 7: The Trump Organization sends Crocus Group a set of questions about the "demographics of these prospective buyers" in the area around the proposed Trump Tower Moscow site, the development of neighboring parcels, and concepts for redesigning portions of the building.[30]: 68 
  • July 22: Laurence Levy, a lawyer with the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, advises Rebekah Mercer, Steve Bannon, and Alexander Nix on the legality of their company, Cambridge Analytica, being involved in U.S. elections. He advises that Nix and any foreign nationals without a green card working for the company not be involved in any decisions about work the company performs for any clients related to U.S. elections. He further advises Nix to recuse himself from any involvement with the company's U.S. election work because he is not a U.S. citizen.[125][126]
  • July 30: The FBI interviews Manafort about his international business dealings.[71][30]: 132 
  • August 4: The Trump Organization requests from Crocus Group the specifications for a Marriott-branded tower under construction near Crocus City.[30]: 68 
  • August 7: Lieutenant General Flynn retires from the U.S. Army.[127]
  • August 26: Butina invites Keene to the September "Right to Bear Arms" conference in Moscow. Keene declines citing travel conflicts and the upcoming midterm elections, but promises to attend the 2015 conference.[22]: 585 
  • Late 2014: Butina resigns from her position as the head of "Right to Bear Arms".[128]
  • September–November: The Trump Organization becomes less and less responsive to emails from the Crocus Group about the Trump Tower Moscow project, with the last response sent on November 24. Discussions end in the planning stage with no construction occurring.[30]: 68  The death of Tamir Sapir, a potential funding source for the project, may be a contributing factor in the project's collapse.[129]
  • September 3: Paul Erickson attends a "Right to Bear Arms" forum in Moscow where he is a featured speaker.[119][130][131]
  • September 11: The IRA spreads a hoax they created about a fictitious chemical plant fire in Centerville, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, purportedly started by ISIS. The hoax includes tweets and YouTube videos showing a chemical plant fire. Centerville is home to many chemical plants, but the plant named in the tweets does not exist. Initial tweets are sent directly to politicians, journalists, and Centerville residents.[132]
  • September 21 – October 11: The Material Evidence art exhibition is displayed at the Art Beam gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. It portrays the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine in a pro-Russian light. It is promoted by Twitter accounts that also spread the September 11 chemical plant fire hoax.[132] The exhibition is partly funded by the IRA.[133]
  • October 8: A Defense Department lawyer informs Flynn in writing that as a retired officer he is bound by the emoluments clause of the U.S. constitution because he can be recalled to service at any time.[134] On April 27, 2017, Flynn comes under investigation for possibly receiving emoluments from Turkey and Russia.[134]
  • November 21: Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele discuss cultivating Deripaska as a U.S. intelligence asset.[135]
  • November 26–30: An unnamed IRA employee travels to Atlanta.[113][114]
  • November 27: A tweet allegedly from a woman in New York City claims that she had food poisoning from a turkey she bought at Walmart. Within hours, there are numerous similar postings on Tumblr and Twitter making similar claims, Wikipedia articles about the incident, and a story on an alleged news site. All are created by the IRA in what is later believed to be a test to gauge how easily they can manipulate Americans.[136][123]: 53 
  • December 1: Butina emails Erickson asking him to help two Russian firearms companies, the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry and the Vyatsko-Polyansky Engineering Plant, attend the April 2015 NRA conference.[22]: 585–586 
  • December 13:
    • The IRA uses Twitter to spread a hoax about an Ebola outbreak in Atlanta. Many of the Twitter accounts used in the September 11 chemical plant fire hoax also spread this hoax. The hoax includes a YouTube video of medical workers wearing hazmat suits.[132]
    • Using a different set of Twitter accounts, the IRA spreads a hoax about a purported police shooting of an unarmed black woman in Atlanta. The hoax includes a blurry video of the purported event.[132]

January–June 2015

  • 2015
    • Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin's investment fund AltPoint Capital Partners purchases ByteGrid LLC, which operates some of Maryland's election systems. Potanin is described as "very close" to Putin.[137] State officials are not informed of the purchase, and remain unaware until the FBI briefs them in July 2018.[138]
    • Patten and Kilimnik start a consulting firm together in Washington, D.C., called Begemot Ventures International Ltd. The firm provides consulting services in Ukraine and lobbying services in the U.S. for Ukrainian political parties without registering as a foreign agent.[104][139] Begemot shares office space with Cambridge Analytica.[105]
  • January 19–21: Patten and Kilimnik coordinate to arrange meetings for Serhiy Lyovochkin with members of the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs committees, with officials from the State Department, and with numerous members of the U.S. media. In August 2018, Patten pleads guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent for this work.[27][139]
  • January 20: Butina emails Keene to notify him of Torshin's recent appointment as vice chairman of the Russian Central Bank, and to express concerns about the implications for Torshin's continuing relationship with the NRA.[22]: 586 
  • January 22: Butina asks Keene for assistance securing invitations for two Russian firearms companies to attend the April NRA convention. It is unknown whether the companies attended.[22]: 586 
  • January 23: A court filing by the U.S. government contains a transcript of a recorded conversation between two members of a Russian SVR spy ring, Victor Podobnyy and Igor Sporyshev. Their conversation concerns efforts to recruit "Male-1", later confirmed as Carter Page. Podobnyy calls Page an "idiot" and tells Sporyshev, "You get the documents from him and tell him to go fuck himself".[74][70][140]
  • February: Dimitri Simes meets with Putin and other Russian officials in Moscow. Simes is the publisher of The National Interest and CEO of the think tank Center for the National Interest (CNI). The Center arranges meetings between Torshin, Butina, and U.S. government officials in April, and also arranges Trump's April 27, 2016, speech at the Mayflower Hotel.[141]
  • February 5: The NRA sends invitation letters to Butina and Torshin to help them obtain U.S. visas to attend the NRA convention in April.[22]: 589 
  • February 10: Butina emails Keene and his wife with an update on Torshin's appointment. She tells them about Torshin's "recommendation" that she expand her "participation in conferences and meetings in the political circles of the Republican Party" to lay the foundation for a "trusted dialogue" between the U.S. and Russia.[22]: 586–587 
  • February 26–28: Butina attends CPAC at Keene's invitation.[117][142][22]: 587 
  • March 16: Keene sends Butina a list of "Key Conservative Meeting Dates" from the Conservative Action Project to help her make her U.S. travel plans.[22]: 589 
  • March 18: Trump announces he is forming a presidential exploratory committee.[143]
  • March 20: Butina asks Perrine for a list of U.S. governors and members of Congress that will be attending the NRA convention. Perrine responds with a publicly available list of politicians.[22]: 592 
  • March 24: Butina sends Erickson a Google-translated copy of her and Torshin's plan to use their existing NRA connections to develop an "informal channel of communication" with the new U.S. presidential administration, which they expect to be Republican. She requests $125,000 to attend a series of Republican-focused conferences and other outreach purposes.[22]: 587–588 
  • Spring:
    • U.S. Intelligence intercepts conversations of Russian government officials discussing associates of Donald Trump.[144]
    • The IRA performs its first experiment in organizing a live event. They lure Facebook users in New York City to a purported event offering free hot dogs. There are no hot dogs, but enough people show up for the IRA to consider the experiment a success.[145][123]: 46–47 
  • April
    • Flynn begins advising ACU Strategic Partners, a company seeking to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East involving a sanctioned Russian company.[146]
    • Butina and Torshin meet with Treasury undersecretary for international affairs Nathan Sheets to discuss U.S. Russian economic relations during the Obama administration. The meeting was arranged by the CNI.[141]
  • April 5: The CNI sends Butina an itinerary of events it arranged for Butina and Torshin to attend, including meetings with U.S. government officials.[22]: 589–590 
  • April 7:
    • Torshin and Butina meet with Federal Reserve vice chairman Stanley Fischer to discuss U.S. Russian economic relations during the Obama administration. The meeting was arranged by the CNI.[141]
    • Torshin and Butina participate in discussions about the "Russian financial situation and its impact on Russian politics" at a private event moderated by Hank Greenberg and organized by the CNI.[141] Keene, Grover Norquist, and CNI officials including Simes, Burt, and Paul Saunders.[22]: 590 
  • April 8: At Keene's invitation, Torshin, with Butina translating, gives remarks at the NRA's Charlton Heston Recognition Dinner.[22]: 590–591 
  • April 10: Butina, Torshin, and David Keene attend a fundraiser in Tennessee for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.[147][119]
  • April 11–12: Torshin and Butina attend the NRA convention in Nashville, Tennessee.[119] Erickson arranged the trip, and the NRA president's assistant Nick Perrine handled the itinerary.[22]: 589  Torshin briefly converses with Trump. Torshin and the Trump family dispute how much was said.[148] At a reception, Keene introduces Butina and Torshin to Governor Walker, and they give Walker a gift from Russia.[22]: 592 
  • May: Kislyak and Butina discuss Governor Walker, Keene and the NRA.[22]: 594 
  • Mid-June: Kislyak hosts Keene for lunch at the Russian embassy.[22]: 593  Afterward, Butina reaches out to Keene about the lunch, and he gives her a readout of the discussion.[22]: 594 
  • June 10: Flynn testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on nuclear power in the Middle East. He omits his work for ACU Strategic Partners from both a committee disclosure form and his testimony.[149]
  • June 12: Maria Butina argues in an article she wrote for The National Interest that only a Republican president can improve relations between the U.S. and Russia.[150][151]

2016 presidential campaign

Further information: Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign

June–December 2015

  • June 16: Donald Trump announces his candidacy for president.[152]
  • June 17: In an interview on the Fox News show Hannity, Sean Hannity asks Trump if he has talked to Putin. Trump replies, "I don't want to say. But I got to meet all of the leaders. I got to meet all—I mean, everybody was there. It was a massive event. And let me tell you, it was tremendous."[153]
  • Late June: Flynn travels to Egypt and Israel.[149] In September 2017, members of Congress present evidence to Mueller that Flynn's purpose was to promote a Russian-backed plan for the building of 40 nuclear reactors, with "total regional security" to be provided by U.S.-sanctioned Russian weapons exporter Rosoboron.[154][155][156][157]
  • July: Trump receives an invitation to Moscow for the 60th birthday of Aras Agalarov, who co-hosted the Miss Universe pageant with him in 2013.[158]
  • July onward: Thousands of fake Twitter accounts run by the IRA begin to praise Trump over his political opponents by a wide margin, according to a later analysis by The Wall Street Journal.[159][160]
  • July 8–12: Butina and Erickson attend Freedomfest 2015 in Las Vegas.[22]: 594–596 [161] They are registered to attend private events with Norquist, Dinesh D'Souza. and Peter Thiel.[22]: 594 
    • July 9: Butina and Erickson attend a bitcoin panel with former Overstock.com CEO Patrick M. Byrne. They greet Byrne and discuss Overstock.com's work with women in Afghanistan. Afterward, Butina sends Byrne an email drafted by Erickson thanking him for their discussion and inviting him to meet on July 12 to discuss the types of reforms Russia should embrace.[22]: 595  In 2020, a Senate Intelligence Committee report finds that Butina and Erickson were interested in Byrne as a possible conduit to Senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul.[22]: 595–596 
    • July 11: Butina attends FreedomFest in Las Vegas, where Trump is speaking and taking questions. She asks Trump his stance on continuing sanctions; he replies he knows Putin and doesn't think sanctions are needed.[55] Reviewing a video of the encounter, Bannon says, "Trump had a fully developed answer".[162]
  • July 13: Butina is present at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's presidential candidacy announcement.[55] At Torshin's request, she writes an analytical assessment of Walker's candidacy.[22]: 592–593 
  • July 15: George Papadopoulos contacts Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski about joining the campaign as a policy advisor.[163][30]: 81 
  • July 17: Keene sends Torshin a letter introducing Rohrabacher and suggesting they meet during the congressman's August trip to Moscow.[22]: 596 
  • July 24: Rob Goldstone emails Trump's assistant Rhona Graff, suggesting that Emin Agalarov could arrange a meeting between Putin and Trump.[164][165]
  • Summer: Hackers linked to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) gain access to the Democratic National Committee's computer network.[166] Dutch intelligence services gain access to Russian hacking group Cozy Bear in mid-2014 and later alert their U.S. counterparts that Cozy Bear, together with Fancy Bear, have penetrated the Democratic National Committee (DNC) servers.[124]
  • July 31: Flynn gives a speech to Kaspersky Government Security Solutions, a subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab, for which he is later paid $11,250.[22]: 755 [167]
  • August:
    • Papadopoulos emails Michael Glassner, the executive director of Trump's campaign committee, expressing further interest in joining the campaign as a policy advisor. He continues corresponding with Glassner and Lewandowski for months, but is repeatedly told no position is available for him.[163]
    • Flynn travels to New York City to meet Trump for the first time.[168]
  • August 3: Torshin and Butina discuss Rohrabacher over Twitter direct messages. He tells Butina that he believes Rohrabacher is "under the watch" of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[22]: 597 
  • August 4–6: Rohrabacher and Behrends travel to Russia.[169] While there, Rohrabacher meets Butina and Torshin for breakfast.[170] In July 2018, Rohrabacher tells Politico he dined with Butina and another congressman accompanying him on the trip.[171]
  • August 6:
    • Butina tells Keene about her breakfast discussion with Rorhabacher, including that Butina could meet with Rohrabacher in the U.S. in October.[22]: 597–598 
    • Keene sends Butina a list of proposed NRA attendees for the December "Right to Bear Arms" event in Moscow.[22]: 599 
  • August 8: Roger Stone leaves the Trump campaign. The campaign says it fired Stone, but Stone insists he quit. He subsequently gives the press a resignation letter that the campaign says it never received.[172]
  • August 12: Butina and Torshin discuss plans for the NRA trip to Moscow, including possibly hosting "high level meetings" if the delegation is sufficiently "respectable".[22]: 599 
  • August 15 The FBI Washington field office contacts technical staff at the DNC headquarters to alert them that their computer systems have been penetrated and data compromised by the Russians.[173]
  • August 17: Konstantin Rykov, the founder of the Russian online newspaper Vzglyad, registers two domain names: Trump2016.ru and DonaldTrump2016.ru.[30]: 66 
  • August 18: Georgi Asatryan of Vzglyad emails Hope Hicks to arrange an in-person or phone interview with Trump. According to the Mueller Report, the proposed interview never occurs.[30]: 66 
  • August 20: Kislyak meets with Keene and Allan Cors at the NRA headquarters.[22]: 593 
  • August 21: Sessions makes his first appearance at a Trump campaign rally.[174]
  • September:
    • An FBI special agent reports to the DNC that at least one of its computer systems has been hacked by an espionage team linked to the Russian government. The agent is transferred to a tech-support contractor at the help desk, who makes a cursory check of DNC server logs and does not reply to the agent's follow-up calls, allegedly because of a belief that the call might have been a prank.[175]
    • Jill Stein speaks briefly with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a Russia Today gala in New York City.[176] She is an invited guest at the event.[22]: 805 
    • The FBI and Ohr try to recruit Deripaska as an informant on the Kremlin and Russian organized crime in exchange for a U.S. visa. Steele helped set up the meeting.[135]
    • A New York architect completes plans for a bold glass obelisk 100 stories high in Moscow, with the Trump logo on multiple sides.[177]
    • Cohen attempts to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin during the United Nations General Assembly session, with Trump asking for status updates several times. After phone calls and emails, a Russian official finally tells Cohen that such a meeting would not follow protocol.[61]: 141–142 
    • The IRA begins posting videos on YouTube primarily aimed at African-Americans, eventually posting over 1,100 videos with 43 hours of content on 17 YouTube channels. The politically oriented videos are anti-Clinton, and some videos discourage African Americans from voting or encourage voting for Jill Stein.[123]: 58 
  • September–October: The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website primarily funded by billionaire Paul Singer, hires Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump. Initially a Marco Rubio supporter, Singer continues to fund the research after Rubio withdraws from the race.[178][179]
  • September 11: Trump speaks at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv via satellite. The organizer of the event, Victor Pinchuk, donates $150,000 to Trump's charity, the Trump Foundation.[180][181]
  • Late September: Felix Sater meets with Michael Cohen on behalf of I.C. Expert Investment Company to discuss building a Trump Tower in Moscow. I.C. Expert is a Russian real estate development corporation controlled by Andrei Vladimirovich Rozov. Sater agrees to find a developer and arrange for financing. Sater later contacts Rozov to propose that I.C. Expert work with the Trump Organization on the project.[182][183][30]: 69 
  • September 21: On Hugh Hewitt's radio program, Trump says, "The oligarchs are under [Putin's] control, to a large extent. I mean, he can destroy them, and he has destroyed some of them... Two years ago, I was in Moscow... I was with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals, and top-of-the-government people. I can't go further than that, but I will tell you that I met the top people, and the relationship was extraordinary."[184]
  • September 22: Cohen forwards a Trump Tower Moscow preliminary design study to Giorgi Rtskhiladze, who then emails it to his associate Simon Nizharadze, writing, ""[i]f we could organize the meeting in New York at the highest level of the Russian Government and Mr. Trump this project would definitely receive the worldwide attention."[30]: 70 
  • September 24: Rtskhiladze emails Cohen a draft letter for the Trump Organization to send to the mayor of Moscow, explaining, ""[w]e need to send this letter to the Mayor of Moscow (second guy in Russia) he is aware of the potential project and will pledge his support." Later that day he sends Cohen a translation of the letter that describes Trump Tower Moscow as a "symbol of stronger economic, business and cultural relationships between New York and Moscow and therefore United States and the Russian Federation."[30]: 70 
  • September 27: Rtskhiladze emails Cohen a proposal for the Trump Organization to partner with Global Development Group LLC on the Trump Tower Moscow project. He describes Global Development as controlled by Nizharadze and the architect Michail Posikhin. In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller's team that he declined the proposal and decided to continue with Sater's proposed partner, I.C. Expert Investment Company.[30]: 69–70 
  • October: For his July 31 remarks during a cybersecurity forum in Washington, D.C., Flynn receives $11,250 from Kaspersky Government Security Solutions Inc., the American subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab, owned by Eugene Kaspersky.[167][185]
  • October 5: Flynn gives an interview to Russia Today in which he criticizes the U.S. approach to ISIS and suggests the U.S. work with Russia to confront the group.[22]: 755 [186] After the interview, his son, Flynn Jr., receives an invitation from Russia Today for Flynn to be a guest of honor at their December gala in Moscow.[22]: 755 
  • October 6: Butina sends Torshin a list of seven potential members for the NRA Moscow delegation, including Cors and his wife, Goldschlanger and his daughter, and Keene and his wife.[22]: 600–601 
  • October 9: Sater emails Cohen about his plans to meet with and persuade Andrey Molchanov to provide the land for a Trump Tower in Moscow.[182][183]
  • October 12: Cohen has a series of email exchanges with Felix Sater about developing a Trump property in Moscow.[158] Sater tells Cohen that VTB Bank will fund the project, and that his associates will be meeting with Putin and a deputy on October 14.[182][183]
  • October 13: Sater sends Cohen a letter of intent signed by Andrey Rozov for Trump to sign to move the Moscow project forward.[187][183]
  • October 14: Russia Today invites Stein to its anniversary gala in Moscow.[22]: 805 
  • October 19: Butina emails Erickson asking how influential Cors, Keene, Goldschlager, and Liberatore are in U.S. politics, stressing that they need politically important people to attend the December conference in Moscow.[22]: 599 
  • October 20: Flynn gives a speech to Volga-Dnepr Airlines for $11,250.[22]: 755 
  • October 25: Butina invites incoming NRA President Pete Brownell to join the NRA Moscow delegation in December so that he can meet Russian gun manufacturers and retailers.[22]: 599 
  • October 28:
    • Trump signs a letter of intent (LOI) to construct a Trump-branded building in Moscow hours before the third Republican presidential debate, a fact made public in August 2017.[188][189][182][183][190] The LOI proposes that the tower have "[a]pproximately 250 first class, luxury residential condominiums" and "[o]ne first class, luxury hotel consisting of approximately 15 floors and containing not fewer than 150 hotel rooms." The Trump Organization would receive 1%–5% of all condominium sales and 3% of all rental and other revenues, and 20% of the operating profit.[30]: 71 
    • Stein and Nadia Ivanova of Russia Today discuss arranging meetings for Stein with Russian government officials during Stein's upcoming trip to Moscow, including with Putin and Lavrov. According to Stein, she makes her request through Russia Today because she has contacts there and doesn't know anyone at the Russian embassy.[22]: 805–806 
    • Erickson and Butina dine with Keene at the University Club of Washington, DC. According to the Senate Intelligence Committee, they may have discussed Keene's desire to interview Putin for The Washington Times while in Moscow.[22]: 602 
  • November: Trump associate Felix Sater emails Trump lawyer Michael Cohen: "Michael, I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putin's private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin [...] Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this".[191][36] Sater also tells Cohen that the Kremlin's VTB Bank is ready to finance a Trump Tower project in Moscow.[82]
  • November 2:
    • Cohen emails the Trump Tower Moscow letter of intent to Rozov.[30]: 69 
    • Butina asks Torshin how to arrange an interview for Keene with Putin. He responds that an interview is unlikely, but says he will pass on the request to Peskov.[22]: 602 
  • November 3:
    • In an email to Cohen, Sater predicts that building a Trump Tower in Moscow will help Trump's presidential campaign. "I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected."[158][183]
    • The IRA Instagram account "Stand For Freedom" attempts to organize a confederate rally in Houston, Texas, on November 14. It is unclear whether anyone showed up. The Mueller Report identifies this as the IRA's first attempt to organize a U.S. rally.[192][30]: 29 
  • November 9: Stein again emails Ivanova asking for help arranging meetings with Lavrov and Putin.[22]: 806 
  • November 9–19: Russia Today arranges Stein's trip to Moscow and offers to pay for it. Stein declines and refuses to be paid for participating on panels at the event. Her campaign pays for the trip.[22]: 807 
  • November 10: At the Republican debate in Milwaukee, Trump claims that he met Putin in a green room and "got to know him very well" while waiting to record their 60 minutes interviews that aired on September 27. Fact checkers quickly point out that Trump and Putin could not have met in the green room because Trump was interviewed in New York City and Putin was interviewed in Moscow.[193]
  • November 11: Flynn signs a contract with Russia Today to speak at its December gala in Moscow.[22]: 756 
  • November 12–16: Torshin and Butina discuss how to arrange a meeting with Rogozin requested by the NRA delegation since Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions. Butina says the delegation still wants the meeting despite the sanctions.[22]: 602–603 
  • November 13:
    • Butina tells Torshin that Simes banned CNI personnel from talking to her because he thinks she is an SVR agent.[22]: 590 
    • Ivanova tells Stein that a meeting with Lavrov and Putin is unlikely, but Stein will be seated at Putin's table at the gala. She offers meetings with Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chair Aleksey Pushkov and Federation Council Committee on International Affairs chair Konstantin Kosachev.[22]: 806–807 
    • Concerned that Cors may not be able to attend the NRA Moscow trip, Butina emails David and Donna Keene to persuade Cors to attend. She highlights "high level special events" Torshin arranged, writing that the Russian figures involved wanted to meet the "head of the most powerful political organization in America. She mentions private meetings with Russian Security Council First Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Rogozin, Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Defense chairman Pavel Gusev, head of Putin's presidential campaigns Igor Pisarsky, and oligarch and patron of "The Right to Bear Arms" Konstantin Nikolaev.[22]: 599–600 
  • November 16: Lana Erchova (a.k.a. Lana E. Alexander) sends an email to Ivanka Trump in which she offers the services of her husband, Dmitry Klokov, to the Trump campaign.[194][30]: 72  According to the Mueller Report, Klokov is the "Director of External Communications for PJSC Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System, a large Russian electricity transmission company, and had been previously employed as an aide and press secretary to Russia's energy minister."[30]: 72–73  Ivanka forwards the email to Cohen.[30]: 73  In July 2018, Erchova tells Mueller's team that Russian officials wanted to offer Trump "land in Crimea among other things" and an "unofficial meeting with Putin".[30]: 73  At least until August 2018, Cohen mistakenly thinks Klokov is the Olympic weightlifter of the same name.[194][30]: 73 
  • November 18:
    • IC Expert, the developer for the Trump Tower Moscow project and a signatory to Trump's letter of intent,[195] receives a non-revolving line of credit from Sberbank for 10.6 billion rubles.[citation needed] IC Expert provides 100% of its equity to secure the line of credit.[citation needed] Sberbank agrees to finance 70% of the Trump Tower Moscow project, its largest commercial real estate loan to date.[81]
    • Klokov writes in an email to Cohen that he is a "trusted person" offering "political synergy" and "synergy on a government level" to the Trump campaign. He suggests that Cohen travel to Moscow and meet with him and an intermediary. He says the conversations could facilitate an informal meeting between Trump and Putin, and that any such meeting must be separate from any business negotiations, though it would lead to high-level support for projects.[30]: 73 [194]
  • November 19:
    • The IRA creates the @TEN_GOP Twitter account. Purporting to be the "Unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans," it peaks at over 100,000 followers.[196]
    • Julian Assange privately tells a group of core WikiLeaks supporters that he prefers the GOP win the election because Clinton "is a bright, well connected, sadistic sociopath" who will have "greater freedom to start wars than the GOP and has the will to do so".[197]
    • Kolokov writes in an email to Cohen that a properly publicized meeting between Trump and Putin could have a "phenomenal" impact "in a business dimension" and boost the "level" of projects if he receives Putin's endorsement.[30]: 73–74  Cohen rejects Kolokov's offers, writing, ""[c]urrently our LOI developer is in talks with VP's Chief of Staff and arranging a formal invite for the two to meet."[30]: 74 [194] In September 2018, Cohen tells Mueller's team that he rejected the offers because he was already pursuing business with Sater and understood Sater had Russian government connections of his own.[30]: 74 
    • Erickson emails Brownell about a meeting with "Russia's highest leader". Brownell responds with interest and forwards the email to his Director of Compliance. Erickson also informs Brownell that he (Brownell) will not be able to meet with Rogozin because of U.S. sanctions.[22]: 603 
  • November 24: Perrine informs Butina that Brownell will join the NRA delegation in December.[22]: 599 
  • November 25:
    • In an email to Brownell, Erickson writes, "most of the FSB agents 'assigned' to her [Butina] want to marry her", saying that is why she was able to arrange a tour of a Russian arms factory for the NRA delegation.[198]
    • Perrine sends Keene an itinerary for the NRA's Russia trip that includes meetings with Lavrov and Rogozin.[22]: 604 
    • Unable to attend the NRA Moscow trip, Cors writes a letter to Torshin designating Keene and Joe Gregory as official representatives in Moscow for the NRA.[199]: 18–19 
  • December: Unable to find a position in the Trump campaign, Papadopoulos joins the Ben Carson campaign.[163]
  • December 1:
    • Sater emails Cohen, asking, "Please scan and send me a copy of your passport for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."[30]: 76 
    • Russia Today announces that Flynn will be speaking at its gala.[22]: 756 [168]
  • December 2:
    • Trump tells the Associated Press that he is "not that familiar with" Felix Sater and refers questions to his staff.[200][183]
    • Flynn and his son, Michael G. Flynn (called "Jr."), visit Kislyak at his home.[201]
  • December 3: Barbara Ledeen, a longtime staffer for Senator Chuck Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee and wife of close Flynn associate and Iran–Contra affair figure Michael Ledeen, sends Peter W. Smith a 25-page proposal for finding Clinton's missing emails.[202][30]: 62  The proposal posits that Clinton's private email server was hacked and proposes, among other things, contacting foreign intelligence services to determine if they have any copies of Clinton's emails.[30]: 62  At the time, her investigation is not connected to the Trump campaign, though she gives Flynn regular updates throughout the summer of 2016.[30]: 62  Smith forwards the email to Jonathan Safron and John Szobocsan.[203][30]: 62–63 
  • December 8: Flynn and his son travel to Moscow to attend the Russia Today gala.[22]: 757 
  • December 8–13: Outspoken Trump supporter Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke and his wife,[22]: 598  former NRA President David Keene, future NRA President Pete Brownell, NRA Golden Ring of Freedom Chair Joe Gregory, major NRA donors Hilary[204] and Arnold Goldschlager, Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore[205] and his wife,[22]: 598  and NRA member Paul Erickson travel to Moscow for the "Right to Bear Arms" convention. They meet Russian government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin[206] and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions. Butina accompanies the delegation on a tour of the gun manufacturer ORSIS, where they meet with the company's executives, including Svetlana Nikolaev, president of ORSIS's parent company and wife of billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev. They also meet with Torshin and Sergei Rudov, the head of the Saint Basil the Great Charitable Foundation. They attend a party at a Moscow hunting club hosted by Torshin and Gusev. Clarke later files an ethics report showing that Butina's organization, "Right to Bear Arms", covered $6,000 of his expenses.[55][147][207][208][209] Butina covers some of the cost of Liberatore's attendance, and is subsequently reimbursed $6,000 by the NRA from its president's budget.[210][211] After the Lavrov meeting, Butina emails Torshin, writing, "We should let them express their gratitude now, and put pressure on them quietly later."[212] In May 2018, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch denies there was an NRA trip to Moscow, then clarifies in July 2018 that it wasn't an official trip.[130][213][214] A 2019 report by the Democratic Minority of the Senate Finance Committee concludes that despite the public denials, internal NRA documents show the trip was an officially sanctioned event that may have imperiled the NRA's tax-free status.[215][211]
  • December 9: Stein flies to Moscow with her communications director.[22]: 807 
  • December 10:
    • Stein and Flynn spend the day attending the Russia Today gala. Stein participates on a panel called "Frenemies: defining foes and allies in proxy politics" with Cyril Svoboda, Willy Wimmer, and Ken Livingston.[22]: 807–808 
    • Stein attends a cocktail reception before the gala dinner where she socializes with former governor Jesse Ventura and his wife, and networks with "the peace community".[22]: 808 
    • Flynn gives a paid speech on world affairs in Moscow, at a gala dinner organized by RT.[216] Flynn had appeared on RT as an analyst after retiring from the U.S. Army. Putin is the dinner's guest of honor.[217] Flynn is seated next to Putin; among the 10 people seated at the head table are Stein, Wimmer, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, and members of Putin's inner circle, including Sergei Ivanov, Dmitry Peskov, Vekselberg, and Alexey Gromov.[218][219][22]: 757–758, 808  Other dinner attendees include Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, former U.S.S.R. president Mikhail Gorbachev, other RT officials, and U.S. embassy spokesman William Stevens in his official capacity.[22]: 758,802  For his speech, Flynn nets $33,500 of the $45,000 paid to his speakers bureau.[220] For all of 2015, Flynn receives more than $65,000 from companies linked to Russia.[221] On April 25, 2017, Flynn's lawyer claims that Flynn briefed the Defense Intellignece Agency on the trip both before and after.[222]
    • ABC News reports that Trump denied knowing Sater under oath in a 2013 video deposition even though Sater was involved in several of his high-profile projects. Trump testified, "If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like." On December 30, Sater tells Cohen that he helped bury the story.[183][223][224]
  • December 11:
    • Stein has lunch with Pushkov and is told Kosachev cannot attend.[22]: 809 
    • RT leads a tour of the Kremlin with Stein and other guests of the gala.[22]: 809 
    • Flynn and his son leave Moscow.[22]: 757 
  • December 13: Stein returns home from Moscow.[22]: 809 
  • December 16: Smith declines to help Ledeen's endeavor to find Clinton's emails because he feels the search isn't viable at the time.[30]: 63 
  • December 19: In an email to Cohen, Sater talks about securing financing from VTB, a Russian bank under American sanctions.[158][30]: 76  Sater also asks for Cohen's and Trump's passport information so that VTB can facilitate obtaining visas.[30]: 76  VTB would be issuing the invitation, he writes, because "[p]olitically neither Putins office nor Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot issue invite, so they are inviting commercially/ business."[30]: 76  He writes that they will be invited to the Russian consulate that week to receive an invitation and visas for traveling to Russia.[30]: 76  Cohen sends images of his own passport but not Trump's.[183][225][30]: 76 
  • December 21:
    • Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta receives an email, which is later leaked by WikiLeaks, advising the campaign on how to handle Trump, recommending that the "best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin".[226]
    • Sater texts Cohen asking again for a copy of Trump's passport.[30]: 77  Cohen replies, "After I return from Moscow with you with a date for him."[30]: 77  In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller's team that Rhona Graff provided Trump's passport to Cohen's office, but the Mueller Report says the team could not find any evidence of a copy being sent to Sater.[30]: 76-77 
    • On Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko's behalf, Mira Duma emails Ivanka Trump an invitation for Donald Trump to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Duma is acquainted with Ivanka from the fashion industry.[30]: 78 
  • December 30: Cohen emails Sater complaining about the lack of progress on the Trump Tower Moscow project. Sater responds that he helped bury an ABC News story in which Trump denied knowing him.[183][223] Cohen tells Sater in a text message that he will set up a meeting with Russian government officials himself.[30]: 74 
  • December 31: Sater tells Cohen that Genbank (Генбанк [ru]), recently put under U.S. sanctions, will be the new funder for the Trump Tower Moscow project.[183]
  • Late 2015 – early 2016: Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump are included on emails about the Trump Tower Moscow project. Ivanka Trump recommends an architect.[183][227]

January–March 2016

  • January:
    • Flynn applies to renew his security clearance for five years. In an interview with security investigators he claims U.S. companies paid for his trip to the RT dinner in Moscow. Documents subsequently obtained by the House Oversight Committee show that RT paid for the trip.[228]
    • FBI initiates tax evasion and money laundering investigation regarding payments from the Ukrainian government to Paul Manafort.[229]
  • January 3: GRU chief Sergun dies from a reported heart attack. Flynn reaches out to Kislyak to express his condolences.[22]: 758 
  • January 7: Ivanka Trump forwards to Rhona Graff the December 21 invitation for her father she received from Duma on Prikhodko's behalf.[30]: 78 
  • January 11: Cohen tries to send an email to Dmitry Peskov asking to be connected to Putin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, but it bounces because of a typo in the email address.[30]: 74 
  • January 14:
    • Cohen emails Peskov atinfo@prpress.gov.ru seeking help to jump-start the Trump Tower Moscow project because "the communication between our two sides has stalled", but does not receive a response.[158][183][230][231][30]: 74  In August 2017 Peskov tells CNN that Cohen's email "went unanswered [because it] was solely regarding a real estate deal and nothing more."[230]
    • Graff responds to Duma's December 21 email that Trump is "honored to be asked to participate in the highly prestigious" St. Petersburg Forum, but must decline the invitation because of his "very grueling and full travel schedule." Graff asks Duma if she should "send a formal note to the Deputy Prime Minister," and Duma replies that that would be "great."[30]: 78–79 
  • January 16: Cohen emails at Peskov at Pr_peskov@prpress.gov.ru, the correct address he mistyped on January 11, and repeats his request to speak with Ivanov.[183][30]: 74  Later Cohen tells Congress and Mueller's team that he received no response to this email and abandoned the Trump Moscow Project. He later admits to federal prosecutors that he did receive a response and continued working on the project and keeping Trump updated on progress into June 2016.[232][30]: 74–75 
  • January 19: Konstantin Sidorkov, executive at VKontakte (commonly called VK, Russia's equivalent of Facebook), emails Trump Jr. and social media director Dan Scavino offering to help promote Trump's campaign to its nearly 100 million users. Goldstone brokered the overture.[158] Sidorkov emails again on November 5, 2016.[233]
  • January 20:
    • A Russian social media company emails Trump Jr., Trump's personal assistant, and Scavino about setting up a page for Trump's campaign.[158]
    • Peskov's personal assistant Elena Polikova sends an email to Cohen from her personal account asking him to call her on her personal phone number, which she provides.[30]: 75  Cohen calls her and explains the nature and status of the project, and asks for assistance with securing land and financing.[30]: 75 [183][234] The conversation includes a discussion of giving Putin a $50 million penthouse in the tower as a gift.[183][234] Later Cohen tells prosecutors that Polikova took notes, asked detailed questions, and said she needed to follow up with people in Russia.[30]: 75 
  • January 21: Sater texts Cohen asking for a call. He writes, "It's about Putin they called today."[30]: 75 [61]: 136 [183] Sater emails Cohen a draft invitation from Genbank for Cohen to visit Russia, which Sater says is being offered at the behest of VTB, and asks Cohen if any changes need to be made.[30]: 75  Sater and Cohen work on edits for the next few days.[30]: 75 
  • January 22: Based on a tranche of leaked papers from the Kremlin, The Guardian reports that in a January 22 meeting, the Russian government decided to use "all possible force" to ensure a "mentally unstable" Donald Trump will win the presidential election. They believe that Trump will help secure Russia's strategic objectives, among them "social turmoil" in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.[235]
  • January 25: Sater sends Cohen a signed invitation from Andrey Ryabinskiy of the company MHJ to travel to "Moscow for a working visit" about the "prospects of development and the construction business in Russia," "the various land plots available suited for construction of this enormous Tower," and "the opportunity to co-ordinate a follow up visit to Moscow by Mr. Donald Trump."[30]: 75 [61]: 136 [183] In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller's team that he didn't use the invitation to travel to Moscow because he didn't receive any concrete proposals for suitable land plots.[30]: 75-76 
  • January 26: Sater asks Cohen to take a call from Evgeny Shmykov, who is coordinating their project in Moscow. Cohen agrees.[183]
  • January 30: Carter Page emails senior Trump Campaign officials, including Glassner, informing them that his discussions with "high level contacts" with "close ties to the Kremlin" led him to believe "a direct meeting in Moscow between Mr[.] Trump and Putin could be arranged."[30]: 98 
  • February–April: Papadopoulos works for the same company as Mifsud, the London Centre of International Law Practice.[65][236]
  • February 2: Trump comes in second in the Iowa caucuses. In 2017 Cohen asserts that all efforts on the Trump Tower Moscow project ended before this date.[183]
  • February 4: Papadopoulos contacts Lewandowski via LinkedIn and emails Michael Glassner about joining the Trump campaign.[30]: 82 
  • February 4–5: Kremlin information security adviser Andrey Krutskikh tells the Infoforum 2016 conference in Moscow that Russia's new "information arena" strategies are equivalent to the 1940s nuclear bomb tests that put the Soviet Union on equal footing when talking to the United States.[237]
  • February 4–6: Papadopoulos reaches out to the London Centre of International Law Practice (LCILP) looking for a job because his role at the Carson campaign is over. He takes a position at the ICILP's London office.[30]: 81–82 
  • February 10: IRA instructs workers to "use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them)."[158]
  • February 28: Sessions formally endorses Trump.[174]
  • February 29:
    • Manafort submits a five-page proposal to Trump outlining his qualifications to help Trump secure enough convention delegates and win the Republican presidential nomination. Manafort describes how he assisted several business and political leaders, notably in Russia and Ukraine.[238]
    • Trump receives a letter from Aras Agalarov expressing "great interest" in Trump's "bright electoral campaign."[158]
  • March: Carter Page begins working for the Trump campaign as an unpaid foreign policy adviser.[239][240][241]
  • Early March: Papadopoulos tells Glassner he is free again to join Trump's campaign. Glassner connects Papadopoulos with campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis. Clovis tells Papadopoulos that improving Russia relations is a top foreign policy goal for the campaign.[163]
  • Clovis recommends Carter Page to the campaign.[242]
  • March 2:
    • Assange consoles a core WikiLeaks supporter who is upset about Clinton's success in the primary elections the day before, writing, "Perhaps Hillary will have a stroke."[197]
    • Papadopoulos again emails Glassner about joining the Trump campaign. Joy Lutes responds to Papaoapoulos that Glassner instructed her to introduce him to national co-chair and chief policy advisor Sam Clovis.[30]: 82 
  • March 3:
    • Sessions is appointed to the Trump campaign's national security advisory committee.[174]
    • Clovis researches Papadopoulos on Google. Clovis is impressed with his past work at the Hudson Institute and arranges a phone call for March 6.[30]: 82 
  • March 6: Clovis asks Papadopoulos to join the Trump campaign as a foreign policy advisor after discussing the position in a phone call.[30]: 82 [243][244][245] The campaign hires Papadopoulos on Ben Carson's recommendation.[246] Papadopoulos is told that a priority of the campaign is a better relationship with Russia.[158][30]: 82 
  • March 12: Russian-American Simon Kukes donates $2,700 to the Trump campaign. It is his first-ever political donation. In 2017, his 2016 political donations become a subject of the Mueller investigation.[247]

  • March 14:
    • Papadopoulos first meets Mifsud while in Rome on a trip to visit officials affiliated with Link Campus University as part of his LCILP job.[243][248][30]: 82–83  After Papadopoulos mentions his position with the Trump campaign, Mifsud shows more interest and offers to introduce him to European leaders and others with contacts to the Russian government.[30]: 83 
    • Kushner attends a CNI lunch for Henry Kissinger at the invitation of CNI board member Richard Plepler. Kushner uses it as an opportunity to seek Simes's assistance in securing foreign policy professionals' support for the Trump campaign.[249][30]: 104 
  • March 15:
    • Trump closes in on the Republican nomination, having won five primaries.[250]
    • In Moscow, Russian military intelligence hacker Ivan Yermakov, working for Fancy Bear, begins probing the DNC computer network.[250]
    • In St. Petersburg, shift workers posing as Americans follow instructions to attack Clinton on Facebook and Twitter.[250]
  • March 16:
    • The FBI releases its Report of Investigation on Flynn's security clearance renewal application.[228]
    • WikiLeaks publishes a searchable archive of 30,000 Clinton emails that had been released by the State Department in response to a FOIA request.[251][30]: 44–45  Internal WikiLeaks messages indicate the purpose of the archive is to annoy Clinton and establish WikiLeaks as a "resource/player" in the election.[30]: 44–45 
  • March 17:
    • According to Trump's written answers to Mueller's team, Prikhodko sends another invitation for Trump to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to Rhona Graff.[30]: 79 
    • Papadopoulos returns to London from his Rome trip.[30]: 84 
  • March 19: Podesta is asked to change his email password in an apparent phishing attempt, believed to be spearheaded by Russian hackers. They gain access to his account,[166] and proceed to steal the entire contents of his account, about 50,000 emails.[158]
  • March 21:
    • In a Washington Post interview,[252][253] Trump names members of his foreign policy team, including Papadopoulos and Page.[158][30]: 84, 98  Page had helped open the Moscow office of investment banking firm Merrill Lynch and advised Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, in which Page is an investor. He had blamed 2014 US sanctions relating to Russia's annexation of Crimea for driving down Gazprom's stock price.[254]
    • Russian hackers steal over 50,000 emails from Podesta's account.[255]
  • March 24:
    • In London, Papadopoulos meets Mifsud and Olga Polonskaya, who falsely claims to be Putin's niece.[256] Polonskaya tells Papadopoulos that she is a friend of the Russian ambassador in London and offers to help establish contacts with Russia.[30]: 84  Papadopoulos leaves the meeting with the expectation that he will be introduced to the Russian ambassador, but it never occurs.[30]: 84  Polonskaya is in regular email contact with Papadopoulos, in one message writing, "We are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump".[248]
    • Papadopoulos emails Trump campaign officials about his new Russian contacts.[158] He emails Trump's foreign policy team that he met with Putin's niece and the Russian ambassador in London, and claims the ambassador also acts as the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia.[30]: 84  He writes that the Russian leadership wants to meet with campaign officials in a "neutral" city or Moscow "to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump", and that Putin and the Russian leadership are ready to meet with Trump.[30]: 84  Clovis replies that he thinks any meetings with Russians should be delayed until after the campaign has a chance to talk with NATO allies and "we have everyone on the same page."[30]: 85  In 2018, Papadopoulos tells the House Judiciary Committee that he lied about meeting the Russian ambassador.[22]: 476 
    • Papadopoulos searches Google for information on Polonskaya and discovers that she is not Putin's niece.[30]: 84 
  • March 25: Lawyer Alexandra Chalupa, who worked in the White House Office of Public Liaison during the Clinton administration and has strong ties to the Ukrainian-American community, shares with the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. her concerns that Manafort may get involved with the Trump campaign. Chalupa had become familiar with Manafort's activities in Ukraine while researching the turmoil in the country over the previous two years for a pro bono client.[257]
  • March 26: Papadopolous searches the Internet for Andrei Klimov and Ivan Timofeev. Mifsud introduces Papadopolous to Timofeev on April 18.[22]: 477 
  • March 28:
    • Manafort is brought on to the campaign to lead the delegate-wrangling effort.[158] According to Gates, Manafort travels to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to ask for the job, without pay, and is hired on the spot.[30]: 135  In 2018, Gates tells Mueller's team that Manafort's intention was to monetize his relationship with the new administration should Trump win.[30]: 135 
    • Clovis emails Lewandowski and other campaign officials praising Page's work for the campaign.[30]: 98 
  • March 29:
    • On Stone's recommendation,[258] Manafort joins the Trump campaign as convention manager, tasked with lining up delegates.[259]
    • Polonskaya attempts to send Papadopoulos a text message that was drafted by Mifsud. The message addresses Papadopoulos's "wish to engage with the Russian Federation."[30]: 87 
    • The Trump campaign announces that Manafort will be the campaign's Convention Manager.[30]: 134 [260]

  • March 30:
    • Chalupa briefs the DNC's communications staff on Manafort's and Trump's ties to Russia.[257]
    • Gates sends four memoranda written by Manafort to Kilimnik for translation and distribution. The memoranda, addressed separately to Deripaska and Ukrainian oligarchs Lyovochkin, Akhmetov, and Boris Kolesnikov, describe Manafort's new role with the Trump campaign and express his willingness to continue consulting on Ukrainian politics. Manafort follows up with Kilimnik on April 11 to ensure the messages were sent and seen by the recipients.[30]: 135 

  • March 31:
    • At the first meeting of Trump's foreign policy team, which includes Trump and Sessions, Papadopoulos speaks of his connections with Russia, and offers to negotiate a meeting between Trump and Putin.[158][261][30]: 86  The meeting is held at the yet-to-open Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C.[163] Sessions later states he opposed the idea,[248][262][263][264] and two people who were present support his assertions, but differ in what he objected to and how strongly.[30]: 86  In late summer 2017 Papadopoulos and Gordon tell Mueller's team that Trump was "supportive and receptive to the idea of a meeting with Putin," and that Sessions supported Papadopoulos's efforts to arrange a meeting.[30]: 86  Papadopoulos's lawyers assert in a September 2018 court filing that Trump nodded in agreement to the offer, and that Sessions said the campaign should look into it.[265]
    • Graff prepares a letter for Trump's signature that declines Prikhodko's March 17 invitation to St. Petersburg because of Trump's busy schedule, but says he otherwise "would have gladly given every consideration to attending such an important event."[30]: 79 
    • New York investment banker Robert Foresman emails Graff seeking an in-person meeting with Trump. The email is sent after Trump business associate Mark Burnett brokers an introductory phone call. Foresman writes that he has long-standing personal and professional expertise in Russia and Ukraine, and mentions that he was involved with setting up an early private back channel between Putin and former president George W. Bush. He also writes about an "approach" he received from "senior Kremlin officials" about Trump. He asks Graff for a meeting with Trump, Lewandowski, or "another relevant person" to discuss the approach and other "concrete things" that he doesn't want to discuss over "unsecure email."[30]: 79 
  • Spring:
    • U.S. intelligence officials' suspicions of Russian meddling in the presidential election grow after their counterparts in Europe warn that Russian money might be flowing into the election.[144]
    • Stone tells associates he is in contact with Assange.[266]

April 2016

  • April:
    • Between April and November 2016, there are at least 18 further exchanges by telephone and email between Russian officials and the Trump team.[267]
    • Hackers linked to the GRU gain access to the DNC computer network.[166]
    • Russian social media company SocialPuncher releases an analysis showing that Trump has quoted or retweeted Twitter bots 150 times since the beginning of 2016.[268][269]
    • The IRA starts buying online ads on social media and other sites. The ads support Trump and attack Clinton.[113][114]
    • Marc Elias, a lawyer at Perkins Coie and general counsel for the Clinton campaign, takes over funding of the Fusion GPS Trump investigation. He uses discretionary funds at his disposal and does not inform the campaign about the research.[270][271][179]
    • The intelligence agency of a Baltic state shares a piece of intelligence with the director of the CIA regarding the Trump campaign. The intelligence is allegedly a recording of a conversation about Russian government money going to the Trump campaign.[272]
    • Stone first told one of Trump's top aides WikiLeaks had plans to leak information during the presidential race, kickstarting the campaign to take advantage of the expected releases.[273][274][275]
  • April 1: Carter Page is invited to deliver a commencement address at the New Economic School in Moscow in July.[158][30]: 98–99 

  • April 1–3:
    • Rohrabacher meets with Natalia Veselnitskaya in Moscow to discuss the Magnitsky Act. Vladimir Yakunin, under U.S. sanctions, is also present.[276][277] Rohrabacher later says he met Yakunin at the request of Kislyak.[278] He also meets with officials at the Russian Prosecutor General's office, where he receives a document full of accusations against Magnitsky. U.S. Embassy officials are worried Rohrabacher may be meeting with FSB agents. The meeting at the prosecutor's office is not on his itinerary.[276] The document is given to Rohrabacher by Deputy Prosecutor Viktor Grin, who is under U.S. sanctions authorized by the Magnitsky Act. Rohrabacher subsequently uses the document in efforts to undermine the Magnitsky Act.[278] His accepting the document from Grin, a sanctioned individual, and using it to influence U.S. government policy leads to a July 21, 2017, complaint being filed against Rohrabacher and his staff director, Paul Behrends, for violating Magnitsky Act sanctions.[279]
    • While in Moscow with Rohrabacher, Rohrabacher's aide Paul Behrends introduces Congressman French Hill to Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin.[280][277] Veselnitskaya gives Hill a document nearly identical to the one Grin gave to Rohrabacher.[281]
  • April 3: The IRA Twitter account @TEN_GOP announces that the Tennessee Republican Party endorses Trump.[30]: 22 
  • April 4:
    • A rally is held in Buffalo, New York, protesting the death of India Cummings. Cummings was a black woman who had recently died in police custody. The IRA's "Blacktivist" account on Facebook actively promotes the event, reaching out directly to local activists on Facebook Messenger asking them to circulate petitions and print posters for the event. Blacktivist supplies the petitions and poster artwork.[282]
    • Graff emails her March 31 letter for Prikhodko to Jessica Macchia, another executive assistant to Trump, to print on letterhead for Trump to sign.[30]: 79 
    • Graff forwards Foresman's March 31 email to Macchia.[30]: 79 
  • April 6:
  • April 10: Carter Page and Papadopoulos arrange a Skype call in which they discuss outreach to Russia and the Caucasus.[22]: 479 
  • April 10–11: Papadopoulos learns of Polonskaya's attempt to send him a text message on March 29 and sends her an email to arrange another meeting. She responds that she is "back in St. Petersburg" but "would be very pleased to support [Papadopoulos's] initiatives between our two countries" and "to meet [him] again." Papadopoulos replies that she should introduce him to "the Russian Ambassador in London" to talk to him or "anyone else you recommend, about a potential foreign policy trip to Russia." Mifsud is copied on the email exchange. Mifsud writes, "This is already been agreed. I am flying to Moscow on the 18th for a Valdai meeting, plus other meetings at the Duma. We will talk tomorrow." Polonskaya responds that she has "already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request," that "we are all very excited the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump," and that "[t]he Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced."[30]: 87 
  • April 11: Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik exchange emails about whether recent press coverage of Manafort joining the Trump campaign can be used to make them "whole" with Deripaska. Manafort is in debt to Deripaska for millions of dollars at the time.[33] Kilimnik confirms to Manafort that Deripaska is aware Manafort is on Trump's campaign team.[158]
  • April 12:
    • Russian hackers use stolen credentials to infiltrate the DCCC's computer network and install malware.[158]
    • Papadopoulos and Mifsud meet at the Andaz Hotel in London.[30]: 88 
  • April 16: A rally protesting the death of Freddie Gray attracts large crowds in Baltimore. The IRA's Blacktivist Facebook group promotes and organizes the event, including reaching out to local activists.[283]
  • April 17: Veselnitskaya's lawyer Mark Cymrot emails her that Ahkmetshin boasted that he recruited Sessions to launch an investigation into U.S. sanctions against Russia.[284]
  • April 18:
    • While in Moscow, Mifsud introduces Papadopoulos to Ivan Timofeev via email. Timofeev is the program director of the Kremlin-sponsored Valdai Discussion Club and a member of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). Papadopoulos and Timofeev communicate for months over email and Skype about potential meetings between Russian government officials and members of the Trump campaign. Later records indicate that Timofeev discussed Papadopoulos with former Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov.[256][248][245][30]: 88  In August 2017, Papadopoulos tells Mueller's team that he believed at the time his conversations with Timofeev were monitored.[30]: 88 
    • Russian hackers break into the DNC's computers.[158]
  • April 19:
    • Russian hackers create a fictitious online persona, "Carrie Feehan", to register the domain DCLeaks.com, paid for in bitcoin, to release stolen documents.[255][158]
    • The IRA purchases its first pro-Trump ad through its "Tea Party News" Instagram account. The Instagram ad asks users to upload photos with the hashtag #KIDS4TRU to "make a patriotic team of young Trump supporters."[285]
    • Papadopoulos meets with Oleg Lebedev, a Russian Trump supporter, at the Byzantium Café in London. Papadopoulos thinks Lebedev is in the oil business in Moscow and has contacts in the Russian government. They met through Lebedev's wife, Maria Alxopoulou.[22]: 485 
  • April 19–21: Israeli embassy in London political counselor Christian Cantor introduces Papadopoulos to Australian High Commission to London political counselor Erika Thompson by email. Papadopolous and Thompson arrange to meet on April 26.[22]: 487 
  • April 20:
    • Sater texts Cohen asking when he is going to travel to Moscow.[30]: 77 
    • Chalupa receives from the administrators of her email account the first in a series of messages warning that "state-sponsored actors" were trying to hack in to her emails.[257]
  • April 21: A staffer at the CNI photographs a detailed outline of the foreign policy speech Trump was scheduled to deliver on April 27, which was sitting on the desk of Simes, the Center's president. The House Intelligence Committee would later investigate Simes' involvement in drafting the speech.[286]
  • April 22: After talking on Skype, Ivan Timofeev thanks Papadopoulos via email "for an extensive talk" and proposes meeting in London or Moscow.[158][22]: 483 
  • April 23: A small group of white-power demonstrators hold a rally they call "Rock Stone Mountain" at Stone Mountain Park near Stone Mountain, Georgia. They are confronted by a large group of protesters, and some violent clashes ensue. The counterprotest was heavily promoted by IRA accounts on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, and the IRA website blackmatters.com. The IRA uses its Blacktivist account on Facebook to reach out, to no avail, to activist and academic Barbara Williams Emerson, the daughter of Hosea Williams, to help promote the protests. Afterward, RT blames anti-racist protesters for violence and promotes two videos shot at the event.[282]
  • April 25:
    • Timofeev emails Papadopoulos that he spoke "to Igor Ivanov[,] the President of RIAC and former Foreign Minister of Russia," and relays Ivanov's advice that a "Moscow visit" should be arranged through the Russian Embassy in Washington because it is a political matter.[30]: 88 [22]: 483–484 
    • Before the second Mifsud meeting, Papadopoulos emails Stephen Miller, informing him that "[t]he Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready" and that "[t]he advantage of being in London is that these governments tend to speak a bit more openly in 'neutral' cities."[256][158][30]: 89 
    • Foresman emails Graff to remind her of his March 31 email seeking a meeting with Trump, Lewandowski, or another appropriate person.[30]: 79–80 
  • April 26:
    • Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News is the first to report on Manafort's legal dispute with Deripaska in the Cayman Islands.[287]
    • Papadopoulos meets Mifsud in London again at the Andaz Hotel. Mifsud claims that he has learned that Russians are in possession of thousands of stolen emails that may be politically damaging to Clinton.[288][248][256][30]: 88–89 [22]: 486  This is the first of at least two times the Trump campaign is told Russia has "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Two months later the Russian hacking is publicly revealed.[158]
    • Papadopoulos meets with Erika Thompson.[22]: 487 
  • April 27:
    • Trump, Sessions and Jared Kushner greet Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. This contact is repeatedly omitted from testimony or denied.[253][289][290] Kushner and Sessions knew in advance that the CNI invited Kislyak to the event.[30]: 106  Mueller's team did not find any evidence that Trump or Sessions conversed with Kislyak after Trump's speech.[30]: 107  Afterward, Kislyak reports the conversation with Sessions to Moscow.[291] Kushner is the first to publicly admit the Kislyak meeting took place in his prepared statement for Senate investigators on July 24, 2017.[292] Also in attendance are the ambassadors from Italy and Singapore, who are major players in the upcoming sale of stakes in Rosneft.[2]: 124 
    • Trump speaks[293] at the Mayflower Hotel at the invitation of The National Interest, the magazine of the CNI.[141] He delivers a speech that calls for improved relations between the US and Russia. The speech was edited by Papadopoulos,[248][30]: 98  though his edits were largely rejected by Stephen Miller,[22]: 491  and crafted with the assistance of Simes[2]: 126  and Richard Burt.[294] Burt is a board member of the CNI and a lobbyist for Gazprom.[295] Papadopoulos brings the speech to the attention of Mifsud and Polonskaya, and tells Timofeev that it should be considered "the signal to meet".[248] Simes later moves to Moscow.[296][unreliable source?]
    • Papadopolous and Timofeev speak over Skype. Papadopoulos finds Timofeev's formal tone to be "strange" and hears static noises suggesting the call is being recorded.[22]: 485 
    • Papadopoulos emails Stephen Miller that he has "some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right."[256]
    • Papadopoulos tells Lewandowski via email that he has "been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host [Trump] and the team when the time is right."[245][30]: 89 
    • Graff sends Foresman an apology and forwards his March 31 and April 26 emails to Lewandowski.[30]: 80 
    • Chalupa discusses her Manafort research with Ukrainian investigative journalists at an event organized by the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress.[257][297]
  • Late April: The DNC's IT department notices suspicious computer activity. Within 24 hours, the DNC contacts the FBI, and hires a private cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, to investigate.[298]
  • April 29: DNC staffer Rachel Palermo notifies her colleagues by email that their Factivists blog has been "compromised" and includes the new password.[299][300]
  • April 30: Foresman sends Graff another email reminding her of his meeting requests on March 31 and April 26. He suggests an alternative meeting with Trump Jr. or Eric Trump so that he can tell them information that "should be conveyed to [the candidate] personally or [to] someone [the candidate] absolutely trusts".[30]: 80 

May 2016

  • May:
    • CrowdStrike determines that sophisticated adversaries—denominated Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear—are responsible for the DNC hack. Fancy Bear, in particular, is suspected of affiliation with Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).[301]
    • Erickson contacts Trump campaign advisor Rick Dearborn. In an email headed "Kremlin Connection", Erickson seeks the advice of Dearborn and Sessions about how to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Erickson suggests making contact at the NRA's annual convention in Kentucky. The communication refers to Torshin, who is under instructions to contact the Trump campaign.[302][303]
    • At Butina's urging, Christian activist Rick Clay emails Dearborn with the subject "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite"[304] offering a meeting between Trump and Torshin.[305] Dearborn, then Sessions's Chief of Staff, sends an email mentioning a person from West Virginia seeking to connect Trump campaign members with Putin. Dearborn appears "skeptical" of the meeting request.[306] Jared Kushner rejects the request. Torshin and Trump Jr. later meet and speak at the NRA convention.[305]
    • Papadopoulos travels to Greece and meets with Greece's president Prokopios Pavlopoulos, defense minister Panos Kammenos, foreign minister Nikos Kotzias, and a former prime minister. Putin makes an official visit to Athens during Papadopoulos's trip.[307]
    • Michael Caputo arranges a meeting in Miami with Stone, Florida-based Russian Henry Oknyansky (a.k.a. "Henry Greenberg"), and Ukrainian Alexei Rasin.[30]: 61 [308] Rasin claims to have evidence showing Clinton was involved in laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars through Rasin's companies.[30]: 61  Stone turns down the offer, telling them that Trump won't pay for opposition research.[30]: 61 [308] In June 2018, after many repeated denials, Stone finally admits to knowingly meeting with a Russian national in 2016 when asked about this meeting by The Washington Post.[308] In May 2018, Caputo tells Mueller's team that he did not attend the meeting, did not know what Oknyansky was offering, and did not know payment was asked for until Stone told him later.[30]: 61  In July 2018, Oknyansky tells Mueller's team that Rasin was motivated by money, and that Caputo attended the meeting.[30]: 61  According to the Mueller Report, Mueller's team is unable to find any evidence that Clinton ever did any business with Rasin.[30]: 61 
    • A new American shell company, "Silver Valley Consulting", is set up by Russian-born accountant Ilya Bykov for Aras Agalarov.[309]
    • Patten and Kilimnik write a letter for Lyovochkin to use in lobbying a "high-ranking member" of the State Department. In August 2018, Patten pleads guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent for this work.[139]
    • The IRA releases a Google Chrome plugin called FaceMusic that ostensibly allows users to listen to free music while browsing Facebook, but also participates in a botnet.[310]
  • May 2:
    • A second rally is held in Buffalo, New York, protesting the death of India Cummings. Like the April 4 rally, the event is heavily promoted by the IRA's Blacktivist Facebook account, including attempted outreach to local activists.[282]
    • Graff forwards Foresman's April 30 email to Stephen Miller.[30]: 80 
  • May 4:
    • Timofeev emails Papadopoulos that his colleagues from the ministry "are open for cooperation."[158] Papadopoulos forwards the email to Lewandowski and asks whether this is "something we want to move forward with."[30]: 89 
    • Manafort meets with Kilimnik.[158]
    • From May 4[311] through September, a pair of servers owned by Alfa-Bank look up the Trump Organization's mail1.trump-email.com domain on a server housed by Listrak and administered by Cendyn more than 2,000 times. Alfa-Bank performs the most lookups during this period, followed by Spectrum Health, and then Heartland Payment Systems, with 76 lookups; beyond that no other visible entity makes more than two.[312] The FBI investigated the activity in the context of links between Trump associates and Russian officials and concluded that there were no such links[313] and that there might be "an innocuous explanation, like marketing email or spam".[314] This was undercut in 2021. Through September 2021, U.S. government investigators had been unable to explain the activity, which a 2018 analysis showed "reasons to doubt that marketing emails were the cause". A Senate report called it "unusual activity".[315] Also in September 2021, The New York Times reported that researchers had found that a Russian-made YotaPhone smartphone, rarely used in the U.S., had accessed networks serving the White House, Trump Tower and Spectrum, which researchers reported to CIA counterintelligence in February 2017.[316][315]
    • Trump becomes the only remaining candidate for the Republican presidential nomination when John Kasich withdraws.[317]
    • Sater texts Cohen asking when he will be traveling to Moscow. He writes that he set expectations in Russia that it would probably be after the convention. Cohen responds that he expects to travel before the convention, and that Trump will travel after he becomes the nominee.[30]: 77 [234][183]
  • May 5:
    • Papadopoulos forwards Timofeev's email to Clovis,[158][30]: 89  who replies, "[t]here are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen."[245]
    • Sater texts Cohen that Peskov would like to invite him to the St. Petersburg Forum June 16–19 and possibly meet Putin or Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He continues, "He said anything you want to discuss including dates and subjects are on the table to discuss."[30]: 77 [234][183]
  • May 6:
    • Sater texts Cohen to confirm his travel to Moscow around June 16–19. Cohen replies, "[w]orks for me."[30]: 77 
    • Papadopoulos meets with Thompson.[22]: 487 
  • May 7: Kilimnik and Manafort meet for breakfast in New York City. According to Manafort, they discuss events in Ukraine, and Manafort gives Kilimnik a briefing on the Trump campaign with the expectation that Kilimnik will repeat the information to people in Ukraine and elsewhere. After the meeting, Manafort instructs Gates to begin passing internal campaign polling data and other updates to Kilimnik to share with Ukrainian oligarchs. Gates periodically sends the data using WhatsApp.[30]: 136–137 
  • May 8: Timofeev proposes connecting Papadopoulos with another Russian official.[158]
  • May 9: Thompson thanks Papadopoulos for meeting her the previous Friday, and they arrange for Papadopoulos to meet with her boss, Australian High Commissioner to London Alexander Downer, at the Kensington Wine Rooms in London.[22]: 487–488 
  • May 10:

    • Dearborn receives an email about arranging a back-channel meeting between Trump and Putin with the subject line "Kremlin Connection." It is sent from a conservative operative who says Russia wants to use the NRA's convention to make "first contact."[158]
    • During their scheduled meeting at the Kensington Wine Rooms followed by the Waterway Pub, Papadopoulos drinks a lot and tells Downer and Thompson that the Russians have politically damaging material on Clinton. Later, Papadopoulos gives investigators conflicting accounts of how much alcohol Downer consumed. After WikiLeaks releases the DNC emails two months later, Australian officials pass this information to American officials, causing the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.[158][22]: 487–490  See Crossfire Hurricane (FBI investigation).
  • May 11: Downer informs Canberra of his interactions with Papadopoulos.[22]: 487–488 
  • May 14: Papadopoulos tells Lewandowski the Russians are interested in hosting Trump.[158]
  • May 15: David Klein, a distant relative of Trump Organization lawyer Jason Greenblatt, emails Clovis about a possible campaign meeting with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar. Klein writes that he contacted Lazar in February about a possible meeting between Trump and Putin and that Lazar was "a very close confidante of Putin." Later Klein and Greenblatt meet with Lazar at Trump Tower.[30]: 90 
  • May 16:
    • Page floats with Clovis, Gordon, and Phares the idea of Trump going to Russia in his place to give the commencement speech at the New Economic School "to raise the temperature a little bit."[158][30]: 99 
    • Dearborn receives a similar second proposal, which he forwards to Kushner, Manafort and Rick Gates. Both efforts (to arrange a back-channel meeting between Trump and Putin) appear to involve Alexander Torshin, who was instructed to make contact with the Trump campaign.[158] Kushner rebuffs the proposal.[158]
  • May 19:
    • Manafort becomes Trump's campaign chairman and chief strategist.[318] Gates is appointed deputy campaign chairman.[30]: 134 
    • Mother Jones reports that before Trump launched his campaign in 2015, Lewandowski and other political advisors suggested to Trump that they follow standard practice and hire someone to perform opposition research on him. Trump refused.[319]
  • May 19–22: The NRA annual conference is held in Louisville, Kentucky. Trump and Trump Jr. attend.[320][321][322][323] Brownell introduces Trump Jr. to Torshin and Butina during a brief encounter at an NRA fundraiser dinner on May 21.[158][199]: 69–71  The next day, an attendee of the dinner warns Trump Jr. to stay away from Butina.[199]: 71 
  • May 21:
    • Papadopoulos forwards Timofeev's May 4 email to Manafort stressing the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)'s desire to meet with Trump, writing, "Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss."[30]: 89–90  Manafort shoots down the idea in an email to Rick Gates,[163][245] with a note: "Let[']s discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the Campaign so as not to send any signal."[158][30]: 90 
    • Two competing rallies are held in Houston to alternately protest against and defend the recently opened Library of Islamic Knowledge at the Islamic Da'wah Center. The "Stop Islamization of Texas" rally is organized by the Facebook group "Heart of Texas". The Facebook posting for the event encourages participants to bring guns. A spokesman for the group converses with the Houston Press via email but declines to give a name. The other rally, "Save Islamic Knowledge", is organized by the Facebook group "United Muslims of America" for the same time and location. Both Facebook groups are later revealed to be IRA accounts.[324][325] The entire operation cost $200 and was entirely organized from St. Petersburg.[123]: 47 
  • May 22: Politico reports on Trump's past associations and dealings with the American Mafia and other criminal figures, including Sater.[326][183]
  • May 23: Sessions attends the CNI's Distinguished Service Award dinner at the Washington, D.C., Four Seasons Hotel. Kislyak is a confirmed guest with a reserved seat next to Sessions. In 2018, Sessions tells Mueller's team that he doesn't remember Kislyak being there, and other participants interviewed by Mueller's team disagree with each other about whether Kislyak was present.[30]: 107 
  • May 25:
    • The Westboro Baptist Church holds its annual protest of Lawrence High School graduation ceremonies in Lawrence, Kansas. The "LGBT United" Facebook group organizes counterprotesters to confront the Westboro protest, including by placing an ad on Facebook and contacting local people. About a dozen people show up. Lawrence High School students do not participate because they are "skeptical" of the counterprotest organizers. LGBT United is a Russian operatives account that appears to have been created specifically for this event.[327]
    • Thousands of DNC emails are stolen.[158]
  • May 26: The Associated Press reports that Trump has secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Republican nominee.[166]
  • May 27: At a rally, Trump calls Putin "a strong leader."[158]
  • May 27–28: Putin makes an official visit to Greece and meets with government leaders. His visit overlaps with a trip to Greece by Papadopoulos.[307][328]
  • May 29: The IRA hires an American to pose in front of the White House holding a sign that says, "Happy 55th Birthday, Dear Boss." "Boss" is a reference to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.[113][114]
  • May 30: The IRA creates the @march_for_trump Twitter account to promote IRA-organized rallies in support of the Trump campaign.[30]: 27 

June 2016

  • June:
    • Around this time, the conspirators charged in the July 2018 indictment stage and release tens of thousands of stolen emails and documents using fictitious online personas, including "DCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0".[329]
    • The FBI sends a warning to states about "bad actors" probing state voter-registration databases and systems to seek vulnerabilities; investigators believe Russia is responsible.[330]
    • Fusion GPS hires Steele to research Trump's activities in Russia. A resultant 35-page document, later known as the Trump–Russia dossier or Steele dossier, is published on January 10, 2017, by BuzzFeed News.[331]
    • A former GRU officer arranges for Felix Sater and Michael Cohen to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which Putin regularly attends. Sater wants to use the trip to push forward the Moscow Trump Tower deal. Cohen cancels at the last minute. Sater does not attend the forum.[332]
  • Early June:
    • At a closed-door gathering of foreign policy experts visiting with the Prime Minister of India, Page hails Putin as stronger and more reliable than Obama and touts the positive effect a Trump presidency would have on U.S.–Russia relations.[333]
    • Before traveling to New York to translate at the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, Kaveladze contacts Roman Beniaminov, a close friend and aide[22]: 273  of Emin Agalarov, to find out why Kushner, Manafort, and Trump Jr. were invited to a meeting ostensibly about the Magnitsky Act. Beniaminov tells Kaveladze that he heard Goldstone and Agalarov discuss "dirt" on Clinton. In November 2017, Kaveladze's lawyer tells The Daily Beast that Beniaminov was Kaveladze's only source of information about the meeting.[334]
  • June 1:
    • Papadopoulos emails Lewandowski asking whether he wants to have a call about a Russia visit and whether "we were following up with it."[30]: 90  Lewandowski refers him to Clovis.[158][30]: 90  Papadopoulos emails Clovis about more interest from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to set up a Trump meeting in Russia.[158][30]: 90  He writes, "I have the Russian MFA asking me if Mr. Trump is interested in visiting Russia at some point."[335][336] He continues that he "[w]anted to pass this info along to you for you to decide what's best to do with it and what message I should send (or to ignore)."[30]: 90 
    • The IRA plans a Manhattan rally called "March for Trump" and buys Facebook ads promoting the event.[113][114]
  • June 3:
    • Aras Agalarov is told that the Russian government wants to give the Trump campaign damaging information about Clinton.[158]
    • Goldstone emails Trump Jr. offering, on behalf of Emin Agalarov, to meet an alleged Russian government official who "would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father", as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. responded 17 minutes later:[337][338] "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer," and schedules the meeting. Goldstone also offers to relay the information to Trump through his assistant.[339] This is the second time a Trump campaign official was told of "dirt" on Clinton.[158]
    • $3.3 million began moving between Aras Agalarov and Kaveladze, a longtime Agalarov employee once investigated for money laundering.[337]
  • June 4: The IRA email account allforusa@yahoo.com sends news releases about the "March for Trump" rally to New York City media outlets.[113][114]
  • June 5: The IRA contacts a Trump campaign volunteer to provide signs for the "March for Trump" rally.[113][114]
  • June 6:
    • Hillary Clinton becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee.
    • Trump Jr. calls two blocked numbers at Trump Tower.[340] According to CNN, the two people Trump Jr. called were NASCAR CEO Brian France and businessman Howard Lorber.[341]
    • At a primary night rally in New York, Trump promises a speech discussing information about Clinton. Trump says "I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week [June 13], and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons".[342]
    • Goldstone follows up with Trump Jr. about when Jr. can "talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info." Trump Jr. calls Emin.[158] Phone records show Trump Jr. called a blocked number before and after calls to Emin.[158]
    • According to Gates, Trump Jr. informs the participants in a regular senior campaign staff meeting that he has a lead on damaging information about the Clinton Foundation. Gates is under the impression that the information is coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan. The other meeting participants include Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Kushner, Manafort, and Hicks. Manafort, according to Gates, warns the group to be careful. In April 2018, Kushner tells Mueller's team that he doesn't remember the information being discussed before the June 9 meeting.[30]: 115 
  • June 6–7: Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov discuss setting up their June 9 meeting in three phone calls.[343]
  • June 8: The DCLeaks website comes online.[255] The Russian-controlled fake American personas "Melvin Redick", "Alice Donovan", and "Katherine Fulton" begin promoting the site on Facebook.[344]
  • June 9:
    • Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin, Kaveladze, and Anatoli Samochornov meet for lunch and discuss what to say at the upcoming Trump Tower meeting.[30]: 116–117 
    • Kushner, Manafort and Trump Jr. meet at Trump Tower with Goldstone, Veselnitskaya,[345] Akhmetshin,[346] Kaveladze,[347] and translator Samochornov.[348][349] Veselnitskaya is best known for lobbying against the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers.[350] Trump Jr. later says that he asked Veselnitskaya for damaging information about the Clinton Foundation and that she had none.[351] Samochornov, Kaveladze, and Akhmetshin later tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that Trump Jr. told Veselnitskaya to come back after they won the election.[352][349] The meeting lasts approximately 20 minutes, and Manafort takes notes on his phone.[30]: 117–118  Trump Jr. calls a blocked number before (June 6) and after the meeting. Trump spends the day at Trump Tower, where the private residence has a blocked number, and holds no public events.[340]
    • That night, Veselnitskaya, Simpson, Akhmetshin, and others attend a dinner in New York City organized by a lawyer at BakerHostetler. BakerHostetler hired Simpson in 2015 to work on the Prevezon case with Veselnitskaya. Later, Simpson tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that he was unaware of the Trump Tower meeting until it became public in 2017.[22]: 889 
  • June 9–14: Sater repeatedly tries to get Cohen to confirm his trip to Russia.[183]
  • June 11–12: The DNC expels Russian hackers from its servers. Some of the hackers had been accessing the DNC network for over a year.[353]
  • June 12: On ITV, Assange tells Robert Peston on his television show Peston on Sunday that emails related to Clinton are "pending publication" and says, "WikiLeaks has a very good year ahead."[354][355][30]: 52 
  • June 12 – July 22: According to Gates, prior to Assange's announcement, Stone tells him that something "big" related to leaked information is coming soon, and repeats the claim multiple times to Gates and Manafort through July 22.[30]: 52 
  • June 14:
    • The DNC publicly alleges that they have been hacked by Russian state-backed hackers.[354][353] Following this news, a small group of politically diverse prominent computer scientists scattered across the US, including a member Dexter Filkins calls "Max" in his October 2018 New Yorker article, begin combing the Domain Name System (DNS).[312]
    • Sater meets Cohen in the Trump Tower lobby. Cohen tells him he will not be traveling to Russia (two days before planned departure).[183][356] Cohen decided not to go because he didn't receive a formal invitation from Peskov.[61]: 137 
    • The GRU uses its @dcleaks_ persona to reach out to WikiLeaks and offer to coordinate the release of sensitive information about Clinton, including financial documents.[357][30]: 45 
    • GRU Unit 74455 (Fancy Bear) creates the Guccifer 2.0 persona and a WordPress blog for disseminating stolen DNC material.[358]
    • Fancy Bear registers the domain name ActBlues.com for a website that is nearly identical to the DCCC's donation page on ActBlue.com.[359]
  • Mid June:
    • Shortly after the DNC announced that it had been hacked, the RNC informs the FBI that some Republican campaign email accounts hosted by Smartech have been hacked. Compromised accounts include the campaign committees of "Senator John McCain, Senator Lindsey Graham, [...] Representative Robert Hurt[,] [s]everal state GOP organizations, Republican PACs, and campaign consultants." Approximately 300 emails from May through October 2015 are eventually posted on DCLeaks.com.[360][30]: 41 
    • Someone breaks into and ransacks two of Chalupa's cars, but valuables and cash are left in the vehicles. A few days later, a woman "wearing white flowers in her hair" tries to break into Chalupa's home. Aide to the Ukrainian ambassador Oksana Shulyar tells her the incidents are similar to Russian intimidation campaigns against foreigners.[257]
  • June 15:
    • "Guccifer 2.0" (GRU) claims credit for the DNC hacking and posts some of the stolen material to a website. CrowdStrike stands by its "findings identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016."[361]
    • Gawker publishes an opposition research document on Trump that was stolen from the DNC. "Guccifer 2.0" sent the file to Gawker.[255][362]
    • House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Speaker Paul Ryan meet separately with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman at the Capitol. Groysman describes to them how the Kremlin is financing populist politicians in Eastern Europe to damage democratic institutions. McCarthy and Ryan have a private meeting afterwards with GOP leaders that is secretly recorded. Toward the end of their conversation, after laughing at the DNC hacking, McCarthy says, "there's two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump...[laughter]...swear to God." Ryan then tells everyone to keep this conversation secret. A transcript of the recording becomes public a year later.[363][364]
  • June 16: Cassandra Ford of Defiance, Ohio, renames her Twitter account "@Guccifer2" after hearing about Guccifer 2.0 from her Twitter friends. A few days later, the GRU registers "@Guccifer_2" for the Guccifer 2.0 persona because @Guccifer2 was taken.[358]
  • June 17: ThreatConnect publishes its analysis of the CrowdStrike report on the DNC hack. The new report[365] provides additional data implicating Fancy Bear.[299]
  • Late June: According to Gates, Trump and Stone discuss by phone the recent release of stolen DNC material while Trump and Gates are being driven from Trump Tower to La Guardia airport. After the call, Trump tells Gates that there will be more releases of damaging information.[366][30]: 54 
  • June 19:
    • After communicating with the MFA via email and Skype, Papadopoulos tells Lewandowski by email that the MFA is interested in meeting with a "campaign rep" if Trump can't meet with them. Papadopoulos offers to go in an unofficial capacity.[335][336][30]: 90 
    • Page again requests permission from the campaign to speak at the New Economic School commencement in Moscow, and reiterates that the school "would love to have Mr. Trump speak at this annual celebration." Lewandowski responds that Page can attend in his personal capacity but "Mr. Trump will not be able to attend."[30]: 99 
    • Assange asks the London Ecuadorian Embassy for a faster Internet connection. Embassy staff help Assange install new equipment.[367]
  • June 20:
    • Aras Agalarov wires more than $19.5 million to his account at a bank in New York.[352]
    • Trump fires Lewandowski.[368] Manafort becomes campaign manager.[369]
  • June 22: WikiLeaks reaches out to "Guccifer 2.0" via Twitter. They ask "Guccifer 2.0" to send them material because it will have a bigger impact if they publish it. They also specifically ask for material on Clinton they can publish before the convention.[255]
  • June 23:
  • June 24: The IRA group "United Muslims of America" buys Facebook ads for the "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally.[113][114]
  • June 25:
    • The IRA's "March for Trump" rally occurs.[113][114]
    • The IRA Facebook group LGBT United organizes a candlelight vigil for the Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Orlando, Florida.[373][374]
  • June 29: Goldstone emails Trump campaign social media director Dan Scavino about promoting Trump on VKontakte. He says the email is a follow-up to his recent conversation with Trump Jr. and Manafort.[233]
  • Summer:
    • IRA employees use the stolen identities of four Americans to open PayPal and bank accounts to act as conduits for funding their activities in the United States.[113][114]
    • The FBI applies for a FISA warrant to monitor communications of four Trump campaign officials. The FISA Court rejects the application, asking the FBI to narrow its scope.[375] A warrant on Carter Page alone is granted in October 2016.[75]
    • Lawyer and Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Joseph E. Schmitz receives a cache of emails from a client that is purported to be Clinton's deleted 30,000 emails, acquired from a dark web forum. Schmitz meets with officials at the FBI, the State Department, and the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) in an effort to get the emails reviewed. The State Department and ICIG decline to review the emails. Schmitz's efforts are independent of the investigation by Peter Smith's team.[376]

July 2016 and after

Main article: Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections (July 2016–election day)

Post-election transition

Main article: Timeline of post-election transition following Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

Investigations' continuing timelines

Related continuing interference

See also

References

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January 30, 2023
timeline, russian, interference, 2016, united, states, elections, this, timeline, events, related, alleged, russian, interference, 2016, united, states, elections, includes, events, described, investigations, into, suspected, inappropriate, links, between, ass. This is a timeline of events related to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections It includes events described in investigations into suspected inappropriate links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials until July 2016 with July 2016 through election day November 8 2016 following 1 Events and investigations also occurred during the presidential transition from November 9 2016 to January 20 2017 and continued through the first and second halves of 2017 the first and second halves of 2018 2019 2020 and 2021 largely as parts of the Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation the Special Counsel investigation multiple ongoing criminal investigations by several State Attorneys General and the investigation resulting in the Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election Contents 1 Relevant individuals and organizations 1 1 A E 1 2 F M 1 3 N R 1 4 S Z 2 Before Donald Trump s 2016 candidacy 2 1 1977 2 2 1986 2 3 1987 2 4 1991 2 5 1996 2 6 2000 2 7 2001 2004 2 8 2004 2 9 2005 2 10 2006 2 11 2007 2 12 2008 2 13 2009 2 14 2010 2 15 2011 2 16 2012 2 17 2013 2 18 2014 2 19 January June 2015 3 2016 presidential campaign 3 1 June December 2015 3 2 January March 2016 3 3 April 2016 3 4 May 2016 3 5 June 2016 4 July 2016 and after 4 1 Post election transition 4 2 Investigations continuing timelines 5 Related continuing interference 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksRelevant individuals and organizations EditThis is a list of individuals and organizations that have been involved in the events related to either the election interference that Russia conducted against the 2016 U S elections and or the resulting investigations into suspected inappropriate links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials Seth Abramson estimated more than 400 people could be listed here 2 3 A E Edit Aras Agalarov Azerbaijani Russian billionaire oligarch and President of the Crocus Group ru close to both Trump and Vladimir Putin Emin Agalarov Russian pop singer and son of Aras Zainab Ahmad associate of Robert Mueller Rinat Akhmetshin Russian American lobbyist and former Soviet counterintelligence officer 3 who emigrated to the U S in 1994 4 Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates Justin Amash U S Representative for Michigan s 3rd congressional district first Republican to call for Donald Trump s impeachment became an Independent July 4 2019 Greg Andres associate of Robert Mueller Tevfik Arif Soviet born Turkish real estate developer and investor founder of the Bayrock Group Andrii Artemenko Ukrainian member of parliament Julian Assange founder of WikiLeaks Arron Banks primary funder and co founder of Leave EU campaign Stephen K Bannon Breitbart News chairman 2012 2016 Trump campaign CEO August November 2016 and White House Chief Strategist January August 2017 William Barr United States Attorney General 1991 1993 February 2019 December 2020 head of the United States Department of Justice DoJ Joe Biden 46th President of the United States 2021 present Vice President of the United States 2009 2017 James E Boasberg District Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia John R Bolton National Security Advisor April 2018 September 2019 John O Brennan Director of the Central Intelligence Agency CIA 2013 2017 Richard Burr North Carolina Senator R chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Maria Butina founder of Right to Bear Arms ru and associate of Alexander Torshin Steve Calk banker who helped Paul Manafort and Rick Gates steal and launder money Cambridge Analytica a now defunct political consulting data mining and analysis firm that worked for Trump s campaign its parent company was SCL Group Christian Cantor Israeli diplomat in London Michael Caputo former chief of communications in New York for the Trump Campaign contracted to perform public relations work for Putin in 2000 5 James Clapper Director of National Intelligence DNI 2010 2017 Kevin Clinesmith FBI lawyer Hillary Clinton 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Secretary of State 2009 2013 First Lady of the United States 1993 2001 Sam Clovis former co chairman and policy adviser for the Trump campaign Dan Coats Director of National Intelligence since March 2017 Michael Cohen Donald Trump s personal attorney 2006 2018 Columbus Nova the American investment arm of Viktor Vekselberg s business empire James B Comey 7th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI 2013 2017 Concord Management and Consulting accused of funding a troll farm that interfered in the 2016 election Rafael Correa former Ecuadorian president Jerome Corsi American political commentator and associate of Roger Stone Gregory Craig former Obama White House counsel Randy Credico American perennial political candidate Rick Dearborn White House Deputy Chief of Staff January 20 2017 March 16 2018 and executive director of Trump s presidential transition team Oleg Deripaska Russian oligarch aluminum magnate with close ties to Putin Kirill Dmitriev CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Annie Donaldson former Deputy White House Counsel Alexander Downer Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Michael Dreeben associate of Robert Mueller Eric A Dubelier former Federal prosecutor and attorney for Concord Management and Consulting Yuri Dubinin Ambassador of the Soviet Union to the United States 1986 1990 Electronic Privacy Information Center DC based non profit that filed FOIA lawsuit for release of complete Mueller Report T S Ellis III a United States district judge of the Eastern District of Virginia presiding over Paul Manafort s trial in Virginia He was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and took senior status in 2007 Paul Erickson Republican activist involved in several Republican presidential campaigns and romantic partner of Maria ButinaF M Edit Nigel Farage leader of UKIP 2006 2009 2010 2016 leader of The Brexit Party since its founding in 2018 and a Member of the European Parliament since 1999 Dianne Feinstein California Senator D member of the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman 2009 2015 and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Michael T Flynn Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency 2012 2014 National Security Advisor January February 2017 Dabney L Friedrich District Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia Rick Gates deputy to Manafort during the Trump campaign Rudy Giuliani Mayor of New York City 1994 2001 and personal attorney for President Trump since April 2018 John Gleeson District Judge of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York 1994 March 2016 advisor to Emmet G Sullivan Andrew D Goldstein associate of Robert Mueller Rob Goldstone British publicist of Russian singer Emin Agalarov J D Gordon Trump transition team member and Director of National Security for the Trump campaign since March 2016 Chuck Grassley Iowa Senator R chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee 2015 2019 and President pro tempore of the United States Senate since 2019 Guccifer 2 0 a hacker alias used by the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate GRU Stefan Halper FBI informant Alvin K Hellerstein District Judge of the District Court for the Southern District of New York Hope Hicks press secretary for the Trump campaign and White House Communications Director August 2017 February 2018 Beryl A Howell Chief United States district judge for the District Court for the District of Columbia Internet Research Agency IRA a Russian entity charged with coordinating online propaganda efforts finances managed by Khusyaynova funded by Prigozhin Andrew Intrater Columbus Nova CEO cousin of Viktor Vekselberg Frederick Intrater brother of Columbus Nova CEO Andrew Intrater cousin of Viktor Vekselberg Anton Inyutsyn Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Amy Berman Jackson U S District Court Judge in the District of Columbia overseeing one of Mueller s cases against Paul Manafort Boris Johnson Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since July 2019 Jones Day law firm that worked for the Trump campaign Irakly Ike Kaveladze Georgian American senior vice president at the Crocus Group Bijan Kian also known as Bijan Rafiekian business partner of Michael Flynn and part of the Trump transition Konstantin V Kilimnik Paul Manafort s right hand man in Kyiv Ukraine alleged Russian intelligence operative 6 Sergey Kislyak Russian ambassador to the United States 2008 2017 Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova Russian accountant who managed social media troll operation finances including the IRA which interfere in 2016 elections and 2018 midterm elections called Project Lakhta Simon Kukes Russian American businessman and associate of Vekselberg German Khan Len Blavatnik Mikhail Fridman and Vyacheslav Pavlovsky ru with ties to Russian businesses and the Russian government Jared Kushner real estate investor son in law and Senior Advisor to President Trump Sergey Lavrov Foreign Minister of Russia Richard J Leon District Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia Corey Lewandowski former manager of Trump s primary election campaign until June 2016 Jessie K Liu attorney involved in the Roger Stone case Paul Manafort political consultant and former lobbyist for Viktor Yanukovych campaign manager and chairman of the Trump campaign June August 2016 and Trump convention manager March 2016 Simona Mangiante Italian lawyer and wife of George Papadopoulos since March 2018 7 Andrew McCabe Deputy February 2016 January 2018 and Acting Director of the FBI May August 2017 Mitch McConnell Kentucky Senator R and Senate Majority Leader Kayleigh McEnany White House Press Secretary since April 2020 K T McFarland political commentator and served as Deputy National Security Advisor under Michael Flynn for the first four months of the Trump administration Donald McGahn White House Counsel to President Trump January 2017 October 2018 Amit Mehta District Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia Joseph Mifsud Maltese academic and former diplomat for the Maltese government connected with Russian politicians and George Papadopoulos Andrew Miller Roger Stone s associate Andrey Molchanov member of the Federation Council of Russia since 2008 Robert S Mueller III 6th FBI Director 2001 2013 appointed special counsel for the Russian interference investigationN R Edit George Nader businessman and lobbyist who acted as the Trump campaign s liaison to the United Arab Emirates Jerrold Nadler Congressman D NY chairman of the House Judiciary Committee since January 2019 Paul M Nakasone Commander of United States Cyber Command since May 2018 National Rifle Association commonly known as the NRA Richard Neal Congressman D MA chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee since January 2019 Kirstjen Nielsen Secretary of Homeland Security December 2017 April 2019 Alexander Nix former CEO of Cambridge Analytica Sam Nunberg former political advisor to Trump campaign Devin Nunes Congressman R CA ranking member since 2019 and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee 2015 18 Barack Obama 44th President of the United States 2009 2017 Bruce Ohr director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force 2014 2017 and associate deputy attorney general 2017 Carter Page oil industry consultant former Trump campaign advisor on foreign policy Sarah Palin Governor of Alaska 2006 2009 George Papadopoulos former advisor to the Trump campaign on foreign policy Sean Parnell Governor of Alaska 2009 2014 Lieutenant Governor of Alaska 2006 2009 W Samuel Patten lobbyist and associate of Paul Manafort senior consultant for SCL Group Mike Pence 48th Vice President of the United States since January 2017 Dmitry Peskov Putin s Press Secretary and diplomat Mike Pompeo Secretary of State since April 2018 CIA director January 2017 March 2018 Reince Priebus Trump s first White House Chief of Staff former chairman of the Republican National Committee Yevgeny Prigozhin Russian oligarch who funded the IRA and owns Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering called Putin s chef Erik Prince chairman of Frontier Services Group brother of Trump Administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and founder of private military company Academi formerly known as Blackwater Vladimir Putin 2nd and 4th President of Russia James L Quarles associate of Robert Mueller Edgardo Ramos District Judge of the District Court for the Southern District of New York John Ratcliffe Director of National Intelligence May 2020 present Congressman R TX 2015 May 2020 Michele Reagan Arizona Secretary of State January 2015 January 2019 Jeannie Rhee associate of Robert Mueller Susan Rice National Security Advisor 2013 2017 Michael S Rogers Director of the National Security Agency NSA 2014 2018 Dmitry Rogozin Deputy Prime Minister of Russia 2011 2018 Dana Rohrabacher Congressman R CA 1989 2019 Rod Rosenstein Deputy Attorney General acting Attorney General for Russia Trump investigations Wilbur Ross 39th United States Secretary of Commerce since February 2017 Marco Rubio member of the Senate Intelligence Committee Republican candidate for president in 2016 Paul Ryan Speaker of the U S House of Representatives 2015 2018 S Z Edit Bernie Sanders 2016 Democratic primary presidential candidate Vermont Senator I since 2007 Sarah Huckabee Sanders White House Press Secretary July 2017 June 2019 Felix Sater Russian American former mobster real estate developer and former managing director of Bayrock Group LLC Adam B Schiff Congressman D CA Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee since 2019 and ranking member 2015 2018 Keith Schiller former Deputy Assistant and concurrent Director of Oval Office Operations and longtime personal body guard to Trump Karen Schreier District Judge of the District Court for the District of South Dakota SCL Group parent company of Cambridge Analytica Jay Sekulow chief counsel at the American Center for Law amp Justice former personal attorney of Donald Trump Jeff Sessions United States Attorney General February 2017 November 2018 Alabama Senator R 1997 2017 member of the Center for the National Interest s advisory council 2016 8 Cody Shearer political activist and former journalist author of the Shearer memo dossier that Steele passed on to the FBI Brad Sherman Congressman D CA since 1997 Dimitri Simes publisher of The National Interest and CEO of think tank Center for the National Interest CNI Glenn R Simpson co founder of Fusion GPS who hired Steele to compile damaging information on Trump and Russia Skadden New York City based international law firm Peter W Smith Republican operative and Illinois financier who had ties to Michael Flynn as early as 2015 Gordon Sondland United States Ambassador to the European Union since June 2018 Sean Spicer White House Press Secretary January July 2017 and White House Director of Communications June July 2017 Christopher Steele former British MI6 intelligence officer author of dossier on Trump and Russia Jill Stein Green Party nominee in the 2016 United States presidential election Roger Stone political consultant staffer to President Richard Nixon 1972 1974 business partner of Manafort 1980s Peter Strzok FBI agent removed from the investigation in August 2017 Emmet G Sullivan District Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia Rex Tillerson 69th United States Secretary of State February 2017 March 2018 and CEO of ExxonMobil 2006 2017 Ivan Timofeev program director of the Kremlin sponsored Valdai Discussion Club Erika Thompson Australian diplomat in London Alexander Torshin Russian Senator from Mari El Republic 2001 2015 and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia 2015 2018 Anthony Trenga District Judge of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Donald Trump 45th President of the United States 2017 2021 real estate developer 1971 2016 Donald Trump Jr Executive Director of The Trump Organization son of Donald Trump Eric Trump Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization son of Donald Trump Ivana Trump first wife of Donald Trump Ivanka Trump Advisor to the President since March 2017 daughter of Donald Trump Cyrus Vance Jr New York County District Attorney 2010 present Alex van der Zwaan Dutch attorney guilty of making false statements to the FBI Viktor Vekselberg Russian oligarch Natalia Veselnitskaya Russian attorney best known for lobbying against the Magnitsky Act Kurt Volker US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations July 2017 September 2019 Reggie Walton District Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia Jennifer Williams advisor to Mike Pence on European and Russian affairs Allen Weisselberg chief financial officer of The Trump Organization Andrew Weissmann associate of Robert Mueller Matthew Whitaker acting US Attorney General November 2018 February 2019 Andy Wigmore director of communications for Leave EU and close associate of Arron Banks Michael Wolff journalist and author of Fire and Fury about the Trump White House Christopher A Wray Director of the FBI since August 2017 Alexander Yakovenko Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom since 2011 Viktor Yanukovych President of Ukraine 2010 2014 Aaron Zebley associate of Robert Mueller Volodymyr Zelensky President of Ukraine since May 2019 Before Donald Trump s 2016 candidacy Edit1977 Edit According to former KGB major Yuri Shvets Trump became the target of a joint Czech intelligence services and KGB spying operation after he married Czech model Ivana Zelnickova 9 and was cultivated as an asset by Russian intelligence since 1977 Russian intelligence gained an interest in Trump as far back as 1977 viewing Trump as an exploitable target 10 1986 Edit Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin invites Trump on an all expenses paid trip to the Soviet Union 11 1987 Edit Konstantin Kilimnik attends the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense ru from 1987 until 1992 12 141 July Trump and his wife Ivana who spoke Russian 13 make their first visit to the Soviet Union which included the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic RSFSR 14 15 16 17 18 13 They scout potential construction sites for a Trump Tower Moscow 16 17 1991 Edit December 26 Dissolution of the Soviet Union occurs wherein the RSFSR becomes the Russian Federation commonly known as Russia 1996 Edit Trump returns to Russia visits Moscow with Howard Lorber and Bennett S LeBow 19 to scout potential properties for skyscrapers and hotels 20 registers his trademark and makes connections with the development company Bayrock Group which would result in Trump Soho and Felix Sater who became crucial to later Trump Moscow talks 21 17 Trump subsequently announces a plan to invest 250 million in Russia and brand two luxury residential buildings in Moscow which doesn t come to fruition 2 14 Other people on the trip include Leon Black of Apollo Global Management Ron Bernstein Theodore Liebman and Matthew Calamari 22 649 During the trip Trump brings two women he met the night before to a business meeting and begins a long term relationship with a former Miss Moscow 22 650 655 In 2020 the Senate Intelligence Committee reports that it is unable to determine whether Russia has compromising material involving Trump and the three women 23 2000 Edit February 14 Trump withdraws his bid for the Reform Party nomination in the 2000 United States presidential election 18 75 but writes that he cannot rule out another run for president 24 Roger Stone chaired Trump s exploratory committee 25 26 2001 2004 Edit Patten and Kilimnik work together at the International Republican Institute IRI Patten runs the think tank s Moscow office and considers Kilimnik a key employee 27 2004 Edit Manafort begins his relationship with his patron Deripaska 18 November 22 The Orange Revolution begins eventually resulting in a revote ordered by the Supreme Court of Ukraine 18 155 2005 Edit Trump gives Bayrock Group an exclusive deal to build a Trump branded property in Moscow 28 Kilimnik leaves the IRI to work for Manafort in Ukraine 27 June 23 Paul Manafort and a business partner Rick Davis propose a plan to Oleg Deripaska under which they would influence news coverage business dealings and politics in the former Soviet Union Europe and the United States to benefit President Vladimir Putin s government 29 30 131 They eventually sign a 10 million contract that starts in 2006 using LOAV Ltd instead of Davis Manafort they maintain a business relationship until at least 2009 29 2006 Edit At Donald Trump s request Sater accompanies Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr on a Moscow trip and arranges for Ivanka to sit in Putin s office chair during a tour of the Kremlin 31 2 17 January Davis introduces Senators John McCain Saxby Chambliss and John E Sununu to Deripaska at the World Economic Forum in Davos They meet at a private apartment and have dinner at Peter Munk s ski chalet Later in the month Deripaska sends Davis and Manafort a letter thanking Davis for arranging the meeting with the senators 32 2007 Edit Manafort and Richard Davis found Pericles Emerging Markets an investment fund solely backed by Deripaska 33 34 30 131 October 15 Trump praises Putin in an interview on CNN 35 2007 2012 Manafort receives 12 7 million in undisclosed cash payments from Viktor Yanukovych s pro Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions 34 November Trump attends the Millionaire s Fair in Moscow where he announces that Trump Vodka will expand its distribution into Russia his first foray into the Russian market 36 37 38 November 20 Manafort receives his first payment from the Ukrainian Party of Regions 39 December 19 Trump sends Putin a congratulatory letter for being named Time magazine s Man of the Year He writes As you probably have heard I am a big fan of yours 22 417 418 40 41 2008 Edit 2008 Around 2008 Trump Jr travels to Russia a half dozen times in 18 months looking for deals 42 Deripaska transfers 18 9 million to Pericles Emerging Markets to purchase Black Sea Cable It is unclear what happened to the money Deripaska demands an accounting of the funds in 2013 sues Pericles in 2014 and sues Manafort in 2018 33 34 43 A spokesperson for Deripaska denies he ever hired Manafort s consulting company 29 2008 2013 Carter Page is an operational contact for the CIA which means the agency can ask him for information he already knows but not task him with gathering information 44 July Trump sells the Palm Beach estate Maison de L Amitie to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for a record 95 million Trump bought the property for 41 35 million three years earlier and made only minor improvements 45 According to Cohen Trump later tells his associates that he believes Putin was behind Rybolovlev s purchase 46 September Trump Jr then an executive vice president of The Trump Organization says Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets say in Dubai and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia 47 48 49 November Davis Manafort is disbanded shortly after the presidential election 50 2009 Edit May Kislyak attempts to arrange a meeting between Torshin and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin during Torshin s planned visit to Alaska on June 6 51 Palin s office declines and suggests Torshin meet with Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell 51 It is unclear whether the meeting took place 22 577 2010 Edit The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto receives timely financing from Vnesheconombank VEB a Russian state run investment bank 52 Deripaska lends 10 million to a company jointly owned by Manafort and his wife 53 August Trump and Bannon first meet and David Bossie is present Trump says he is thinking of running for president in 2012 Bannon replies for what country 54 2011 Edit Maria Butina founds the Right to Bear Arms ru organization 55 56 2011 2013 Protests occur in Russia against its legislative and presidential election processes Putin accuses U S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of interfering in Russian politics 57 April 29 May 1 Nashville lawyer G Kline Preston IV and NRA Secretary Jim Land introduce Russian Senator Alexander Torshin to National Rifle Association NRA president David Keene at the NRA annual meeting in Pittsburgh 58 59 22 578 May 7 Keene sends Torshin a handwritten letter offering to help in his endeavors 60 October 12 27 Mueller resigns his family membership from the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling Virginia and asks for a refund of the unused portion of the annual fees Two weeks later the club confirms the membership will end on October 31 and says he will be put on a waitlist for fee refunds but Mueller never receives the refund Beginning in May 2017 Trump claims this incident forms a conflict of interest that should prevent Mueller from serving as the special counsel investigating him 61 80 81 62 December 8 Putin states that Clinton set the tone for some opposition activists and gave them a signal they heard this signal and started active work 63 2012 Edit The FBI warns Representative Dana Rohrabacher that he is being targeted by Russian agents to recruit him as an agent of influence that is someone who can affect US policy 64 Italian MEP Gianni Pittella introduces Simona Mangiante the future wife of George Papadopoulos to Mifsud in Brussels Mangiante worked for the European Parliament as an attorney specializing in child abduction cases 7 65 February 10 Torshin registers as a life member of the NRA using Russian diplomat Igor Matveev s address and Preston s phone number 22 578 April 12 15 Torshin attends the NRA annual convention in St Louis Missouri with an all access pass 66 67 October 11 Preston applies for Torshin to receive election observer status in Tennessee 51 October 25 Manafort receives the last of 12 7 million in payments from the Ukrainian Party of Regions 39 November 6 Torshin and Matveev visit Davidson and Williamson counties in Tennessee as election observers 51 November 8 Torshin visits the NRA headquarters in Fairfax Virginia 66 December 14 President Barack Obama signs the Magnitsky Act into law to punish Russian officials responsible for human rights violations 68 2013 Edit Apparent security hackers gain access to the Trump Organization s domain registrar account at GoDaddy and register hundreds of shadow subdomains with IP addresses located at a company in St Petersburg Russia known for hosting websites containing malware Most of the subdomains are created in August By November 1 2017 the subdomains disappeared after the Trump Organization was notified of the issue although the organization denied that any breach occurred 69 January Carter Page a petroleum industry consultant passes documents about the oil market to Victor Podobnyy a Russian intelligence agent He later claims the documents were public information Podobnyy is charged with being an unregistered foreign agent in 2015 70 March 13 The FBI interviews Manafort about his offshore business dealings 71 March 19 Manafort has dinner with Rohrabacher as part of his lobbying efforts for the government of Ukraine Vin Weber a partner at Mercury Affairs is also in attendance 72 Three days later Manafort gives Rohrabacher a 1 000 campaign contribution 73 Richard Gates Manafort s deputy pleads guilty in 2018 to lying about the meeting to the FBI 72 April 13 Two agents of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service SVR discuss recruiting Page 74 75 May 3 5 Butina and Torshin attend the NRA convention in Houston Texas 76 77 June Flynn travels to Moscow at Major General Igor Sergun s invitation Kislyak helps arrange and coordinate the trip Flynn visits the GRU headquarters where he meets with GRU officials briefs GRU staff and presents a professional development class on leadership 22 753 June 15 18 Attending the Miss USA 2013 pageant Trump dines with Aras Agalarov Emin Agalarov and Rob Goldstone in Las Vegas 78 The next day he announces that Miss Universe 2013 will be held in Moscow 78 He sends Putin a letter inviting him to the pageant 79 and asks on Twitter whether the Russian president will be his new best friend 80 July 3 Carter Page schedules a dinner with potential investor Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg to pitch his fledgling natural gas business It is unclear whether the meeting took place 81 August Eric Trump tells author James Dodson We don t rely on American banks We have all the funding we need out of Russia and says We go there all the time In May 2017 Eric Trump calls this fabricated and an example of why people distrust the media 82 47 83 84 85 August 25 Page sends a letter to an academic press in which he claims to be an adviser to the Kremlin 86 Early October Butina makes a presentation on Right to Bear Arms to the Association for the Promotion of Weapons Culture in Israel Her presentation includes a slide claiming her organization has cooperation agreements with similar organizations in Kazakhstan Ukraine and Estonia and she informs the group that it also has a cooperation agreement with the NRA Another slide states it has a cooperation agreement with the International Defensive Pistol Association which the Texas based organization denies when asked in 2018 87 Torshin or Butina invites Keene to the November Right to Bear Arms conference in Moscow 22 580 October 17 In an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman Donald Trump says he has conducted a lot of business with the Russians and that he has met President Vladimir Putin 88 89 Erickson begins an email conversation with Butina to make arrangements for his and Keene s trip to Moscow 22 580 Erickson informs Butina that Keen may have a formal diplomatic meeting after they arrive on October 30 22 580 581 October 30 After Keene and Erickson arrive in Moscow Keene dines with Torshin and his wife 22 581 October 31 November 1 Keene Alan Gottlieb and Paul Erickson attend the Right to Bear Arms conference in Moscow where they meet with Butina and Torshin 58 Gottlieb and Keene are invited speakers at the event 90 66 91 Keene is scheduled to speak on the second day 22 581 Gottlieb and his wife dine with Torshin and Butina and receive gifts that display research into their interests In 2017 Gottlieb tells The Washington Post They wanted to keep communications open and form friendships 58 November 1 Keene is scheduled to meet with Peskov though he later tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that he does not recall meeting with any government officials while in Moscow 22 581 Early November Butina and Erickson discuss holding an NRA hosted event in Moscow in 2014 an idea raised by Torshin and Keene during the Right to Bear Arms conference The proposed event would honor Right to Bear Arms Torshin and General Mikhail Kalashnikov Putin would be an invitee Erickson describes the idea as having HIGH importance to the NRA Later Keene tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that the plans were dropped partly because Kalishnikov died in December 2013 22 584 November 3 Butina emails Erickson asking him to not publish photographs of Keene and Torshin dining together because she needs time to think how to position this 22 581 November 6 Erickson begins assisting Butina with a visa application so that she can visit the NRA 22 581 This is the first occurrence of Butina using the NRA as a reason for visiting the U S but there is no evidence she made the trip 22 581 November 7 Butina again emails Erickson to dissuade him from publishing the photographs because she is concerned about attracting attention 22 581 November 9 11 The Trump owned Miss Universe pageant is held in Moscow sponsored by Sberbank 82 According to various reports the event s 20 million licensing fee is paid by a Moscow real estate development firm called the Crocus Group whose president is Aras Agalarov and vice president is his son pop singer Emin Agalarov 36 92 One VIP guest is Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov an alleged Russian mobster and fugitive who was recently indicted for running a high stakes illegal gambling ring out of a Trump Tower apartment in New York City 93 While Putin does not attend the event is attended by Vladimir Kozhin 93 the head of the Kremlin s property department 94 which is responsible for development projects 95 After the event Trump tells Real Estate Weekly the Russian market is attracted to me I have a great relationship with many Russians 47 96 During the trip Trump meets Herman Gref the CEO of state controlled Sberbank Russia s largest bank and other oligarchs close to Putin 97 Agalarov and Gref co host a dinner for Trump at the Moscow branch of Nobu which is owned by Agalarov 98 Afterwards Trump tweets to Agalarov I had a great weekend with you and your family You have done a FANTASTIC job TRUMP TOWER MOSCOW is next 98 99 November 12 The Moscow Times reports that Trump is in talks with Russian companies to build a new Trump tower in Moscow 100 November 21 The Euromaidan starts when President Yanukovych suspends preparations for the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union 18 150 157 101 December 10 John Bolton promotes gun rights in Russia in a video made for Butina s Right to Bear Arms organization that is shown to members of the Duma 102 76 22 582 Bolton made the video at the request of Keene who was himself asked to find someone by Butina and Torshin though Keene didn t mention Torshin by name 22 582 December 13 Keene emails Butina to follow up on the Bolton video and ask Butina and Torshin for advice on inviting Rogozin to the NRA s Las Vegas event in 2014 Butina responds that she and Torshin think it is a good idea 22 583 584 December 23 Trump Trump Jr Emin Agalarov and Kaveladze reach an agreement for the Trump Tower Moscow project under which the Trump Organization would receive a 3 5 commission on all sales 30 67 68 2014 Edit 2014 Butina tells an American Facebook friend who complained about California s gun restrictions that he should hold demonstrations for gun rights 103 Patten provides lobbying and consulting services to the Ukrainian Opposition Bloc political party and Lyovochkin a party leader without registering as a foreign agent He travels many times to Ukraine to meet with Lyovochkin and Kilimnik 104 Patten works for Cambridge Analytica to hone their microtargeting operations during the 2014 midterm elections 105 January 2 Keene who is also the opinion editor for The Washington Times publishes in the newspaper a piece on Kalashnikov written by Torshin and partly translated by Erickson and Butina 22 584 106 Early 2014 Erickson meets Butina in Israel where they become romantically involved 22 582 Before January 24 The Crocus Group sends The Trump Organization a proposal to build a 194 meter tall building with 800 units at the Crocus City site in Moscow where the Miss Universe pageant was held Trump Jr and Emin Agalarov sign the proposal 30 68 February 1 4 Kushner and Ivanka Trump travel to Russia on a four day trip at the invitation of Dasha Zhukova a longtime friend of Ivanka and the wife of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich 107 They attend a gala fundraiser for the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow along with Vekselberg other oligarchs Russian government officials and their families 107 Ivanka and Emin Agalarov tour the proposed Trump Tower Moscow site at Crocus City 30 68 In 2016 17 Kushner omits the trip from his security clearance applications 107 February 10 In a Fox and Friends phone interview Trump says Putin contacted him while he was in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant 108 March 6 Obama initiates international sanctions on certain Russian individuals businesses and officials in response to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea 109 Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC Trump says You know I was in Moscow a couple of months ago I own the Miss Universe Pageant and they treated me so great Putin even sent me a present a beautiful present 110 March 21 Trump posts two tweets praising Putin regarding Russian Empire 111 112 on the day the Russian Federal Assembly ratifies the Treaty on Accession of the Republic of Crimea formalizing the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation April The Russian Internet Research Agency IRA creates a department called the translator project The department s focus is on interfering in the U S election 113 114 The Obama administration receives a report from a well connected Russian source that Russia is building disinformation infrastructure to disrupt the political systems in the United States and Europe 115 Early April Erickson and Keene help Butina secure a visa for her visit to the U S including Keene making a standard call to the office of Congressman Edward Royce Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee 22 584 585 April 12 Asked about Putin by Eric Bolling on the Fox News show Cashin In Trump says Putin has taken the mantle from Obama He continues Interestingly I own the Miss Universe pageant and we just left Moscow He could not have been nicer He was so nice and so everything But you have to give him credit that what he s doing for that country in terms of their world prestige is very strong 116 April 24 Butina presents NRA president Jim Porter with an honorary membership in Right to Bear Arms 117 118 April 25 27 Butina and Torshin attend the NRA annual conference in Indianapolis Butina attends several meetings as a guest of Keene 119 120 May The IRA begins its election interference campaign of spread ing distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general 113 114 May 27 Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon Trump again claims to have spoken to Putin I own the Miss Universe pageant I was in Russia I was in Moscow recently And I spoke indirectly and directly with President Putin who could not have been nicer And we had a tremendous success 121 June 2 BuzzFeed News reports on a cache of Internet Archive emails leaked by Russian hackers The emails reveal a well funded effort to recruit and train online trolls to post comments on top American websites 122 123 24 28 June 3 Kaveladze emails Trump Jr and others about design elements and architectural details for Trump Tower Moscow 30 68 June 4 26 Aleksandra Krylova and Anna Bogacheva two IRA employees travel to the U S to collect intelligence Maria Bovda a third employee is denied a visa 113 All three are indicted in February 2018 for their work on election interference 114 June 10 Trump Jr emails Kaveladze and others about design elements and architectural details for Trump Tower Moscow 30 68 June 16 Trump Jr emails Kaveladze and others again about design elements and architectural details for Trump Tower Moscow 30 68 Mid 2014 Dutch intelligence gains access to Russian hacking group Cozy Bear which later together with Fancy Bear hacked the DNC servers They were able to photograph each hacker get their names and compile dossiers on each as they were watching the Russians perform their hacking operations in real time 124 July 2 The FBI interviews Richard Gates about his international business dealings 71 July 7 The Trump Organization sends Crocus Group a set of questions about the demographics of these prospective buyers in the area around the proposed Trump Tower Moscow site the development of neighboring parcels and concepts for redesigning portions of the building 30 68 July 22 Laurence Levy a lawyer with the law firm Bracewell amp Giuliani advises Rebekah Mercer Steve Bannon and Alexander Nix on the legality of their company Cambridge Analytica being involved in U S elections He advises that Nix and any foreign nationals without a green card working for the company not be involved in any decisions about work the company performs for any clients related to U S elections He further advises Nix to recuse himself from any involvement with the company s U S election work because he is not a U S citizen 125 126 July 30 The FBI interviews Manafort about his international business dealings 71 30 132 August 4 The Trump Organization requests from Crocus Group the specifications for a Marriott branded tower under construction near Crocus City 30 68 August 7 Lieutenant General Flynn retires from the U S Army 127 August 26 Butina invites Keene to the September Right to Bear Arms conference in Moscow Keene declines citing travel conflicts and the upcoming midterm elections but promises to attend the 2015 conference 22 585 Late 2014 Butina resigns from her position as the head of Right to Bear Arms 128 September November The Trump Organization becomes less and less responsive to emails from the Crocus Group about the Trump Tower Moscow project with the last response sent on November 24 Discussions end in the planning stage with no construction occurring 30 68 The death of Tamir Sapir a potential funding source for the project may be a contributing factor in the project s collapse 129 September 3 Paul Erickson attends a Right to Bear Arms forum in Moscow where he is a featured speaker 119 130 131 September 11 The IRA spreads a hoax they created about a fictitious chemical plant fire in Centerville St Mary Parish Louisiana purportedly started by ISIS The hoax includes tweets and YouTube videos showing a chemical plant fire Centerville is home to many chemical plants but the plant named in the tweets does not exist Initial tweets are sent directly to politicians journalists and Centerville residents 132 September 21 October 11 The Material Evidence art exhibition is displayed at the Art Beam gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City It portrays the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine in a pro Russian light It is promoted by Twitter accounts that also spread the September 11 chemical plant fire hoax 132 The exhibition is partly funded by the IRA 133 October 8 A Defense Department lawyer informs Flynn in writing that as a retired officer he is bound by the emoluments clause of the U S constitution because he can be recalled to service at any time 134 On April 27 2017 Flynn comes under investigation for possibly receiving emoluments from Turkey and Russia 134 November 21 Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele discuss cultivating Deripaska as a U S intelligence asset 135 November 26 30 An unnamed IRA employee travels to Atlanta 113 114 November 27 A tweet allegedly from a woman in New York City claims that she had food poisoning from a turkey she bought at Walmart Within hours there are numerous similar postings on Tumblr and Twitter making similar claims Wikipedia articles about the incident and a story on an alleged news site All are created by the IRA in what is later believed to be a test to gauge how easily they can manipulate Americans 136 123 53 December 1 Butina emails Erickson asking him to help two Russian firearms companies the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry and the Vyatsko Polyansky Engineering Plant attend the April 2015 NRA conference 22 585 586 December 13 The IRA uses Twitter to spread a hoax about an Ebola outbreak in Atlanta Many of the Twitter accounts used in the September 11 chemical plant fire hoax also spread this hoax The hoax includes a YouTube video of medical workers wearing hazmat suits 132 Using a different set of Twitter accounts the IRA spreads a hoax about a purported police shooting of an unarmed black woman in Atlanta The hoax includes a blurry video of the purported event 132 January June 2015 Edit 2015 Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin s investment fund AltPoint Capital Partners purchases ByteGrid LLC which operates some of Maryland s election systems Potanin is described as very close to Putin 137 State officials are not informed of the purchase and remain unaware until the FBI briefs them in July 2018 138 Patten and Kilimnik start a consulting firm together in Washington D C called Begemot Ventures International Ltd The firm provides consulting services in Ukraine and lobbying services in the U S for Ukrainian political parties without registering as a foreign agent 104 139 Begemot shares office space with Cambridge Analytica 105 January 19 21 Patten and Kilimnik coordinate to arrange meetings for Serhiy Lyovochkin with members of the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs committees with officials from the State Department and with numerous members of the U S media In August 2018 Patten pleads guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent for this work 27 139 January 20 Butina emails Keene to notify him of Torshin s recent appointment as vice chairman of the Russian Central Bank and to express concerns about the implications for Torshin s continuing relationship with the NRA 22 586 January 22 Butina asks Keene for assistance securing invitations for two Russian firearms companies to attend the April NRA convention It is unknown whether the companies attended 22 586 January 23 A court filing by the U S government contains a transcript of a recorded conversation between two members of a Russian SVR spy ring Victor Podobnyy and Igor Sporyshev Their conversation concerns efforts to recruit Male 1 later confirmed as Carter Page Podobnyy calls Page an idiot and tells Sporyshev You get the documents from him and tell him to go fuck himself 74 70 140 February Dimitri Simes meets with Putin and other Russian officials in Moscow Simes is the publisher of The National Interest and CEO of the think tank Center for the National Interest CNI The Center arranges meetings between Torshin Butina and U S government officials in April and also arranges Trump s April 27 2016 speech at the Mayflower Hotel 141 February 5 The NRA sends invitation letters to Butina and Torshin to help them obtain U S visas to attend the NRA convention in April 22 589 February 10 Butina emails Keene and his wife with an update on Torshin s appointment She tells them about Torshin s recommendation that she expand her participation in conferences and meetings in the political circles of the Republican Party to lay the foundation for a trusted dialogue between the U S and Russia 22 586 587 February 26 28 Butina attends CPAC at Keene s invitation 117 142 22 587 March 16 Keene sends Butina a list of Key Conservative Meeting Dates from the Conservative Action Project to help her make her U S travel plans 22 589 March 18 Trump announces he is forming a presidential exploratory committee 143 March 20 Butina asks Perrine for a list of U S governors and members of Congress that will be attending the NRA convention Perrine responds with a publicly available list of politicians 22 592 March 24 Butina sends Erickson a Google translated copy of her and Torshin s plan to use their existing NRA connections to develop an informal channel of communication with the new U S presidential administration which they expect to be Republican She requests 125 000 to attend a series of Republican focused conferences and other outreach purposes 22 587 588 Spring U S Intelligence intercepts conversations of Russian government officials discussing associates of Donald Trump 144 The IRA performs its first experiment in organizing a live event They lure Facebook users in New York City to a purported event offering free hot dogs There are no hot dogs but enough people show up for the IRA to consider the experiment a success 145 123 46 47 April Flynn begins advising ACU Strategic Partners a company seeking to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East involving a sanctioned Russian company 146 Butina and Torshin meet with Treasury undersecretary for international affairs Nathan Sheets to discuss U S Russian economic relations during the Obama administration The meeting was arranged by the CNI 141 April 5 The CNI sends Butina an itinerary of events it arranged for Butina and Torshin to attend including meetings with U S government officials 22 589 590 April 7 Torshin and Butina meet with Federal Reserve vice chairman Stanley Fischer to discuss U S Russian economic relations during the Obama administration The meeting was arranged by the CNI 141 Torshin and Butina participate in discussions about the Russian financial situation and its impact on Russian politics at a private event moderated by Hank Greenberg and organized by the CNI 141 Keene Grover Norquist and CNI officials including Simes Burt and Paul Saunders 22 590 April 8 At Keene s invitation Torshin with Butina translating gives remarks at the NRA s Charlton Heston Recognition Dinner 22 590 591 April 10 Butina Torshin and David Keene attend a fundraiser in Tennessee for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker 147 119 April 11 12 Torshin and Butina attend the NRA convention in Nashville Tennessee 119 Erickson arranged the trip and the NRA president s assistant Nick Perrine handled the itinerary 22 589 Torshin briefly converses with Trump Torshin and the Trump family dispute how much was said 148 At a reception Keene introduces Butina and Torshin to Governor Walker and they give Walker a gift from Russia 22 592 May Kislyak and Butina discuss Governor Walker Keene and the NRA 22 594 Mid June Kislyak hosts Keene for lunch at the Russian embassy 22 593 Afterward Butina reaches out to Keene about the lunch and he gives her a readout of the discussion 22 594 June 10 Flynn testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on nuclear power in the Middle East He omits his work for ACU Strategic Partners from both a committee disclosure form and his testimony 149 June 12 Maria Butina argues in an article she wrote for The National Interest that only a Republican president can improve relations between the U S and Russia 150 151 2016 presidential campaign EditFurther information Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign June December 2015 Edit June 16 Donald Trump announces his candidacy for president 152 June 17 In an interview on the Fox News show Hannity Sean Hannity asks Trump if he has talked to Putin Trump replies I don t want to say But I got to meet all of the leaders I got to meet all I mean everybody was there It was a massive event And let me tell you it was tremendous 153 Late June Flynn travels to Egypt and Israel 149 In September 2017 members of Congress present evidence to Mueller that Flynn s purpose was to promote a Russian backed plan for the building of 40 nuclear reactors with total regional security to be provided by U S sanctioned Russian weapons exporter Rosoboron 154 155 156 157 July Trump receives an invitation to Moscow for the 60th birthday of Aras Agalarov who co hosted the Miss Universe pageant with him in 2013 158 July onward Thousands of fake Twitter accounts run by the IRA begin to praise Trump over his political opponents by a wide margin according to a later analysis by The Wall Street Journal 159 160 July 8 12 Butina and Erickson attend Freedomfest 2015 in Las Vegas 22 594 596 161 They are registered to attend private events with Norquist Dinesh D Souza and Peter Thiel 22 594 July 9 Butina and Erickson attend a bitcoin panel with former Overstock com CEO Patrick M Byrne They greet Byrne and discuss Overstock com s work with women in Afghanistan Afterward Butina sends Byrne an email drafted by Erickson thanking him for their discussion and inviting him to meet on July 12 to discuss the types of reforms Russia should embrace 22 595 In 2020 a Senate Intelligence Committee report finds that Butina and Erickson were interested in Byrne as a possible conduit to Senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul 22 595 596 July 11 Butina attends FreedomFest in Las Vegas where Trump is speaking and taking questions She asks Trump his stance on continuing sanctions he replies he knows Putin and doesn t think sanctions are needed 55 Reviewing a video of the encounter Bannon says Trump had a fully developed answer 162 July 13 Butina is present at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker s presidential candidacy announcement 55 At Torshin s request she writes an analytical assessment of Walker s candidacy 22 592 593 July 15 George Papadopoulos contacts Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski about joining the campaign as a policy advisor 163 30 81 July 17 Keene sends Torshin a letter introducing Rohrabacher and suggesting they meet during the congressman s August trip to Moscow 22 596 July 24 Rob Goldstone emails Trump s assistant Rhona Graff suggesting that Emin Agalarov could arrange a meeting between Putin and Trump 164 165 Summer Hackers linked to the Russian Federal Security Service FSB gain access to the Democratic National Committee s computer network 166 Dutch intelligence services gain access to Russian hacking group Cozy Bear in mid 2014 and later alert their U S counterparts that Cozy Bear together with Fancy Bear have penetrated the Democratic National Committee DNC servers 124 July 31 Flynn gives a speech to Kaspersky Government Security Solutions a subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab for which he is later paid 11 250 22 755 167 August Papadopoulos emails Michael Glassner the executive director of Trump s campaign committee expressing further interest in joining the campaign as a policy advisor He continues corresponding with Glassner and Lewandowski for months but is repeatedly told no position is available for him 163 Flynn travels to New York City to meet Trump for the first time 168 August 3 Torshin and Butina discuss Rohrabacher over Twitter direct messages He tells Butina that he believes Rohrabacher is under the watch of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 22 597 August 4 6 Rohrabacher and Behrends travel to Russia 169 While there Rohrabacher meets Butina and Torshin for breakfast 170 In July 2018 Rohrabacher tells Politico he dined with Butina and another congressman accompanying him on the trip 171 August 6 Butina tells Keene about her breakfast discussion with Rorhabacher including that Butina could meet with Rohrabacher in the U S in October 22 597 598 Keene sends Butina a list of proposed NRA attendees for the December Right to Bear Arms event in Moscow 22 599 August 8 Roger Stone leaves the Trump campaign The campaign says it fired Stone but Stone insists he quit He subsequently gives the press a resignation letter that the campaign says it never received 172 August 12 Butina and Torshin discuss plans for the NRA trip to Moscow including possibly hosting high level meetings if the delegation is sufficiently respectable 22 599 August 15 The FBI Washington field office contacts technical staff at the DNC headquarters to alert them that their computer systems have been penetrated and data compromised by the Russians 173 August 17 Konstantin Rykov the founder of the Russian online newspaper Vzglyad registers two domain names Trump2016 ru and DonaldTrump2016 ru 30 66 August 18 Georgi Asatryan of Vzglyad emails Hope Hicks to arrange an in person or phone interview with Trump According to the Mueller Report the proposed interview never occurs 30 66 August 20 Kislyak meets with Keene and Allan Cors at the NRA headquarters 22 593 August 21 Sessions makes his first appearance at a Trump campaign rally 174 September An FBI special agent reports to the DNC that at least one of its computer systems has been hacked by an espionage team linked to the Russian government The agent is transferred to a tech support contractor at the help desk who makes a cursory check of DNC server logs and does not reply to the agent s follow up calls allegedly because of a belief that the call might have been a prank 175 Jill Stein speaks briefly with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a Russia Today gala in New York City 176 She is an invited guest at the event 22 805 The FBI and Ohr try to recruit Deripaska as an informant on the Kremlin and Russian organized crime in exchange for a U S visa Steele helped set up the meeting 135 A New York architect completes plans for a bold glass obelisk 100 stories high in Moscow with the Trump logo on multiple sides 177 Cohen attempts to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin during the United Nations General Assembly session with Trump asking for status updates several times After phone calls and emails a Russian official finally tells Cohen that such a meeting would not follow protocol 61 141 142 The IRA begins posting videos on YouTube primarily aimed at African Americans eventually posting over 1 100 videos with 43 hours of content on 17 YouTube channels The politically oriented videos are anti Clinton and some videos discourage African Americans from voting or encourage voting for Jill Stein 123 58 September October The Washington Free Beacon a conservative website primarily funded by billionaire Paul Singer hires Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump Initially a Marco Rubio supporter Singer continues to fund the research after Rubio withdraws from the race 178 179 September 11 Trump speaks at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv via satellite The organizer of the event Victor Pinchuk donates 150 000 to Trump s charity the Trump Foundation 180 181 Late September Felix Sater meets with Michael Cohen on behalf of I C Expert Investment Company to discuss building a Trump Tower in Moscow I C Expert is a Russian real estate development corporation controlled by Andrei Vladimirovich Rozov Sater agrees to find a developer and arrange for financing Sater later contacts Rozov to propose that I C Expert work with the Trump Organization on the project 182 183 30 69 September 21 On Hugh Hewitt s radio program Trump says The oligarchs are under Putin s control to a large extent I mean he can destroy them and he has destroyed some of them Two years ago I was in Moscow I was with the top level people both oligarchs and generals and top of the government people I can t go further than that but I will tell you that I met the top people and the relationship was extraordinary 184 September 22 Cohen forwards a Trump Tower Moscow preliminary design study to Giorgi Rtskhiladze who then emails it to his associate Simon Nizharadze writing i f we could organize the meeting in New York at the highest level of the Russian Government and Mr Trump this project would definitely receive the worldwide attention 30 70 September 24 Rtskhiladze emails Cohen a draft letter for the Trump Organization to send to the mayor of Moscow explaining w e need to send this letter to the Mayor of Moscow second guy in Russia he is aware of the potential project and will pledge his support Later that day he sends Cohen a translation of the letter that describes Trump Tower Moscow as a symbol of stronger economic business and cultural relationships between New York and Moscow and therefore United States and the Russian Federation 30 70 September 27 Rtskhiladze emails Cohen a proposal for the Trump Organization to partner with Global Development Group LLC on the Trump Tower Moscow project He describes Global Development as controlled by Nizharadze and the architect Michail Posikhin In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller s team that he declined the proposal and decided to continue with Sater s proposed partner I C Expert Investment Company 30 69 70 October For his July 31 remarks during a cybersecurity forum in Washington D C Flynn receives 11 250 from Kaspersky Government Security Solutions Inc the American subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab owned by Eugene Kaspersky 167 185 October 5 Flynn gives an interview to Russia Today in which he criticizes the U S approach to ISIS and suggests the U S work with Russia to confront the group 22 755 186 After the interview his son Flynn Jr receives an invitation from Russia Today for Flynn to be a guest of honor at their December gala in Moscow 22 755 October 6 Butina sends Torshin a list of seven potential members for the NRA Moscow delegation including Cors and his wife Goldschlanger and his daughter and Keene and his wife 22 600 601 October 9 Sater emails Cohen about his plans to meet with and persuade Andrey Molchanov to provide the land for a Trump Tower in Moscow 182 183 October 12 Cohen has a series of email exchanges with Felix Sater about developing a Trump property in Moscow 158 Sater tells Cohen that VTB Bank will fund the project and that his associates will be meeting with Putin and a deputy on October 14 182 183 October 13 Sater sends Cohen a letter of intent signed by Andrey Rozov for Trump to sign to move the Moscow project forward 187 183 October 14 Russia Today invites Stein to its anniversary gala in Moscow 22 805 October 19 Butina emails Erickson asking how influential Cors Keene Goldschlager and Liberatore are in U S politics stressing that they need politically important people to attend the December conference in Moscow 22 599 October 20 Flynn gives a speech to Volga Dnepr Airlines for 11 250 22 755 October 25 Butina invites incoming NRA President Pete Brownell to join the NRA Moscow delegation in December so that he can meet Russian gun manufacturers and retailers 22 599 October 28 Trump signs a letter of intent LOI to construct a Trump branded building in Moscow hours before the third Republican presidential debate a fact made public in August 2017 188 189 182 183 190 The LOI proposes that the tower have a pproximately 250 first class luxury residential condominiums and o ne first class luxury hotel consisting of approximately 15 floors and containing not fewer than 150 hotel rooms The Trump Organization would receive 1 5 of all condominium sales and 3 of all rental and other revenues and 20 of the operating profit 30 71 Stein and Nadia Ivanova of Russia Today discuss arranging meetings for Stein with Russian government officials during Stein s upcoming trip to Moscow including with Putin and Lavrov According to Stein she makes her request through Russia Today because she has contacts there and doesn t know anyone at the Russian embassy 22 805 806 Erickson and Butina dine with Keene at the University Club of Washington DC According to the Senate Intelligence Committee they may have discussed Keene s desire to interview Putin for The Washington Times while in Moscow 22 602 November Trump associate Felix Sater emails Trump lawyer Michael Cohen Michael I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putin s private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it I will get all of Putin s team to buy in on this 191 36 Sater also tells Cohen that the Kremlin s VTB Bank is ready to finance a Trump Tower project in Moscow 82 November 2 Cohen emails the Trump Tower Moscow letter of intent to Rozov 30 69 Butina asks Torshin how to arrange an interview for Keene with Putin He responds that an interview is unlikely but says he will pass on the request to Peskov 22 602 November 3 In an email to Cohen Sater predicts that building a Trump Tower in Moscow will help Trump s presidential campaign I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected 158 183 The IRA Instagram account Stand For Freedom attempts to organize a confederate rally in Houston Texas on November 14 It is unclear whether anyone showed up The Mueller Report identifies this as the IRA s first attempt to organize a U S rally 192 30 29 November 9 Stein again emails Ivanova asking for help arranging meetings with Lavrov and Putin 22 806 November 9 19 Russia Today arranges Stein s trip to Moscow and offers to pay for it Stein declines and refuses to be paid for participating on panels at the event Her campaign pays for the trip 22 807 November 10 At the Republican debate in Milwaukee Trump claims that he met Putin in a green room and got to know him very well while waiting to record their 60 minutes interviews that aired on September 27 Fact checkers quickly point out that Trump and Putin could not have met in the green room because Trump was interviewed in New York City and Putin was interviewed in Moscow 193 November 11 Flynn signs a contract with Russia Today to speak at its December gala in Moscow 22 756 November 12 16 Torshin and Butina discuss how to arrange a meeting with Rogozin requested by the NRA delegation since Rogozin is under U S sanctions Butina says the delegation still wants the meeting despite the sanctions 22 602 603 November 13 Butina tells Torshin that Simes banned CNI personnel from talking to her because he thinks she is an SVR agent 22 590 Ivanova tells Stein that a meeting with Lavrov and Putin is unlikely but Stein will be seated at Putin s table at the gala She offers meetings with Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chair Aleksey Pushkov and Federation Council Committee on International Affairs chair Konstantin Kosachev 22 806 807 Concerned that Cors may not be able to attend the NRA Moscow trip Butina emails David and Donna Keene to persuade Cors to attend She highlights high level special events Torshin arranged writing that the Russian figures involved wanted to meet the head of the most powerful political organization in America She mentions private meetings with Russian Security Council First Secretary Nikolai Patrushev Rogozin Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Defense chairman Pavel Gusev head of Putin s presidential campaigns Igor Pisarsky and oligarch and patron of The Right to Bear Arms Konstantin Nikolaev 22 599 600 November 16 Lana Erchova a k a Lana E Alexander sends an email to Ivanka Trump in which she offers the services of her husband Dmitry Klokov to the Trump campaign 194 30 72 According to the Mueller Report Klokov is the Director of External Communications for PJSC Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System a large Russian electricity transmission company and had been previously employed as an aide and press secretary to Russia s energy minister 30 72 73 Ivanka forwards the email to Cohen 30 73 In July 2018 Erchova tells Mueller s team that Russian officials wanted to offer Trump land in Crimea among other things and an unofficial meeting with Putin 30 73 At least until August 2018 Cohen mistakenly thinks Klokov is the Olympic weightlifter of the same name 194 30 73 November 18 IC Expert the developer for the Trump Tower Moscow project and a signatory to Trump s letter of intent 195 receives a non revolving line of credit from Sberbank for 10 6 billion rubles citation needed IC Expert provides 100 of its equity to secure the line of credit citation needed Sberbank agrees to finance 70 of the Trump Tower Moscow project its largest commercial real estate loan to date 81 Klokov writes in an email to Cohen that he is a trusted person offering political synergy and synergy on a government level to the Trump campaign He suggests that Cohen travel to Moscow and meet with him and an intermediary He says the conversations could facilitate an informal meeting between Trump and Putin and that any such meeting must be separate from any business negotiations though it would lead to high level support for projects 30 73 194 November 19 The IRA creates the TEN GOP Twitter account Purporting to be the Unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans it peaks at over 100 000 followers 196 Julian Assange privately tells a group of core WikiLeaks supporters that he prefers the GOP win the election because Clinton is a bright well connected sadistic sociopath who will have greater freedom to start wars than the GOP and has the will to do so 197 Kolokov writes in an email to Cohen that a properly publicized meeting between Trump and Putin could have a phenomenal impact in a business dimension and boost the level of projects if he receives Putin s endorsement 30 73 74 Cohen rejects Kolokov s offers writing c urrently our LOI developer is in talks with VP s Chief of Staff and arranging a formal invite for the two to meet 30 74 194 In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller s team that he rejected the offers because he was already pursuing business with Sater and understood Sater had Russian government connections of his own 30 74 Erickson emails Brownell about a meeting with Russia s highest leader Brownell responds with interest and forwards the email to his Director of Compliance Erickson also informs Brownell that he Brownell will not be able to meet with Rogozin because of U S sanctions 22 603 November 24 Perrine informs Butina that Brownell will join the NRA delegation in December 22 599 November 25 In an email to Brownell Erickson writes most of the FSB agents assigned to her Butina want to marry her saying that is why she was able to arrange a tour of a Russian arms factory for the NRA delegation 198 Perrine sends Keene an itinerary for the NRA s Russia trip that includes meetings with Lavrov and Rogozin 22 604 Unable to attend the NRA Moscow trip Cors writes a letter to Torshin designating Keene and Joe Gregory as official representatives in Moscow for the NRA 199 18 19 December Unable to find a position in the Trump campaign Papadopoulos joins the Ben Carson campaign 163 December 1 Sater emails Cohen asking Please scan and send me a copy of your passport for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 30 76 Russia Today announces that Flynn will be speaking at its gala 22 756 168 December 2 Trump tells the Associated Press that he is not that familiar with Felix Sater and refers questions to his staff 200 183 Flynn and his son Michael G Flynn called Jr visit Kislyak at his home 201 December 3 Barbara Ledeen a longtime staffer for Senator Chuck Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee and wife of close Flynn associate and Iran Contra affair figure Michael Ledeen sends Peter W Smith a 25 page proposal for finding Clinton s missing emails 202 30 62 The proposal posits that Clinton s private email server was hacked and proposes among other things contacting foreign intelligence services to determine if they have any copies of Clinton s emails 30 62 At the time her investigation is not connected to the Trump campaign though she gives Flynn regular updates throughout the summer of 2016 30 62 Smith forwards the email to Jonathan Safron and John Szobocsan 203 30 62 63 December 8 Flynn and his son travel to Moscow to attend the Russia Today gala 22 757 December 8 13 Outspoken Trump supporter Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke and his wife 22 598 former NRA President David Keene future NRA President Pete Brownell NRA Golden Ring of Freedom Chair Joe Gregory major NRA donors Hilary 204 and Arnold Goldschlager Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore 205 and his wife 22 598 and NRA member Paul Erickson travel to Moscow for the Right to Bear Arms convention They meet Russian government officials including Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin 206 and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Rogozin is under U S sanctions Butina accompanies the delegation on a tour of the gun manufacturer ORSIS where they meet with the company s executives including Svetlana Nikolaev president of ORSIS s parent company and wife of billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev They also meet with Torshin and Sergei Rudov the head of the Saint Basil the Great Charitable Foundation They attend a party at a Moscow hunting club hosted by Torshin and Gusev Clarke later files an ethics report showing that Butina s organization Right to Bear Arms covered 6 000 of his expenses 55 147 207 208 209 Butina covers some of the cost of Liberatore s attendance and is subsequently reimbursed 6 000 by the NRA from its president s budget 210 211 After the Lavrov meeting Butina emails Torshin writing We should let them express their gratitude now and put pressure on them quietly later 212 In May 2018 NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch denies there was an NRA trip to Moscow then clarifies in July 2018 that it wasn t an official trip 130 213 214 A 2019 report by the Democratic Minority of the Senate Finance Committee concludes that despite the public denials internal NRA documents show the trip was an officially sanctioned event that may have imperiled the NRA s tax free status 215 211 December 9 Stein flies to Moscow with her communications director 22 807 December 10 Stein and Flynn spend the day attending the Russia Today gala Stein participates on a panel called Frenemies defining foes and allies in proxy politics with Cyril Svoboda Willy Wimmer and Ken Livingston 22 807 808 Stein attends a cocktail reception before the gala dinner where she socializes with former governor Jesse Ventura and his wife and networks with the peace community 22 808 Flynn gives a paid speech on world affairs in Moscow at a gala dinner organized by RT 216 Flynn had appeared on RT as an analyst after retiring from the U S Army Putin is the dinner s guest of honor 217 Flynn is seated next to Putin among the 10 people seated at the head table are Stein Wimmer RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan and members of Putin s inner circle including Sergei Ivanov Dmitry Peskov Vekselberg and Alexey Gromov 218 219 22 757 758 808 Other dinner attendees include Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov former U S S R president Mikhail Gorbachev other RT officials and U S embassy spokesman William Stevens in his official capacity 22 758 802 For his speech Flynn nets 33 500 of the 45 000 paid to his speakers bureau 220 For all of 2015 Flynn receives more than 65 000 from companies linked to Russia 221 On April 25 2017 Flynn s lawyer claims that Flynn briefed the Defense Intellignece Agency on the trip both before and after 222 ABC News reports that Trump denied knowing Sater under oath in a 2013 video deposition even though Sater was involved in several of his high profile projects Trump testified If he were sitting in the room right now I really wouldn t know what he looked like On December 30 Sater tells Cohen that he helped bury the story 183 223 224 December 11 Stein has lunch with Pushkov and is told Kosachev cannot attend 22 809 RT leads a tour of the Kremlin with Stein and other guests of the gala 22 809 Flynn and his son leave Moscow 22 757 December 13 Stein returns home from Moscow 22 809 December 16 Smith declines to help Ledeen s endeavor to find Clinton s emails because he feels the search isn t viable at the time 30 63 December 19 In an email to Cohen Sater talks about securing financing from VTB a Russian bank under American sanctions 158 30 76 Sater also asks for Cohen s and Trump s passport information so that VTB can facilitate obtaining visas 30 76 VTB would be issuing the invitation he writes because p olitically neither Putins office nor Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot issue invite so they are inviting commercially business 30 76 He writes that they will be invited to the Russian consulate that week to receive an invitation and visas for traveling to Russia 30 76 Cohen sends images of his own passport but not Trump s 183 225 30 76 December 21 Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta receives an email which is later leaked by WikiLeaks advising the campaign on how to handle Trump recommending that the best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin 226 Sater texts Cohen asking again for a copy of Trump s passport 30 77 Cohen replies After I return from Moscow with you with a date for him 30 77 In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller s team that Rhona Graff provided Trump s passport to Cohen s office but the Mueller Report says the team could not find any evidence of a copy being sent to Sater 30 76 77 On Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko s behalf Mira Duma emails Ivanka Trump an invitation for Donald Trump to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum Duma is acquainted with Ivanka from the fashion industry 30 78 December 30 Cohen emails Sater complaining about the lack of progress on the Trump Tower Moscow project Sater responds that he helped bury an ABC News story in which Trump denied knowing him 183 223 Cohen tells Sater in a text message that he will set up a meeting with Russian government officials himself 30 74 December 31 Sater tells Cohen that Genbank Genbank ru recently put under U S sanctions will be the new funder for the Trump Tower Moscow project 183 Late 2015 early 2016 Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump are included on emails about the Trump Tower Moscow project Ivanka Trump recommends an architect 183 227 January March 2016 Edit January Flynn applies to renew his security clearance for five years In an interview with security investigators he claims U S companies paid for his trip to the RT dinner in Moscow Documents subsequently obtained by the House Oversight Committee show that RT paid for the trip 228 FBI initiates tax evasion and money laundering investigation regarding payments from the Ukrainian government to Paul Manafort 229 January 3 GRU chief Sergun dies from a reported heart attack Flynn reaches out to Kislyak to express his condolences 22 758 January 7 Ivanka Trump forwards to Rhona Graff the December 21 invitation for her father she received from Duma on Prikhodko s behalf 30 78 January 11 Cohen tries to send an email to Dmitry Peskov asking to be connected to Putin s chief of staff Sergei Ivanov but it bounces because of a typo in the email address 30 74 January 14 Cohen emails Peskov atinfo prpress gov ru seeking help to jump start the Trump Tower Moscow project because the communication between our two sides has stalled but does not receive a response 158 183 230 231 30 74 In August 2017 Peskov tells CNN that Cohen s email went unanswered because it was solely regarding a real estate deal and nothing more 230 Graff responds to Duma s December 21 email that Trump is honored to be asked to participate in the highly prestigious St Petersburg Forum but must decline the invitation because of his very grueling and full travel schedule Graff asks Duma if she should send a formal note to the Deputy Prime Minister and Duma replies that that would be great 30 78 79 January 16 Cohen emails at Peskov at Pr peskov prpress gov ru the correct address he mistyped on January 11 and repeats his request to speak with Ivanov 183 30 74 Later Cohen tells Congress and Mueller s team that he received no response to this email and abandoned the Trump Moscow Project He later admits to federal prosecutors that he did receive a response and continued working on the project and keeping Trump updated on progress into June 2016 232 30 74 75 January 19 Konstantin Sidorkov executive at VKontakte commonly called VK Russia s equivalent of Facebook emails Trump Jr and social media director Dan Scavino offering to help promote Trump s campaign to its nearly 100 million users Goldstone brokered the overture 158 Sidorkov emails again on November 5 2016 233 January 20 A Russian social media company emails Trump Jr Trump s personal assistant and Scavino about setting up a page for Trump s campaign 158 Peskov s personal assistant Elena Polikova sends an email to Cohen from her personal account asking him to call her on her personal phone number which she provides 30 75 Cohen calls her and explains the nature and status of the project and asks for assistance with securing land and financing 30 75 183 234 The conversation includes a discussion of giving Putin a 50 million penthouse in the tower as a gift 183 234 Later Cohen tells prosecutors that Polikova took notes asked detailed questions and said she needed to follow up with people in Russia 30 75 January 21 Sater texts Cohen asking for a call He writes It s about Putin they called today 30 75 61 136 183 Sater emails Cohen a draft invitation from Genbank for Cohen to visit Russia which Sater says is being offered at the behest of VTB and asks Cohen if any changes need to be made 30 75 Sater and Cohen work on edits for the next few days 30 75 January 22 Based on a tranche of leaked papers from the Kremlin The Guardian reports that in a January 22 meeting the Russian government decided to use all possible force to ensure a mentally unstable Donald Trump will win the presidential election They believe that Trump will help secure Russia s strategic objectives among them social turmoil in the US and a weakening of the American president s negotiating position 235 January 25 Sater sends Cohen a signed invitation from Andrey Ryabinskiy of the company MHJ to travel to Moscow for a working visit about the prospects of development and the construction business in Russia the various land plots available suited for construction of this enormous Tower and the opportunity to co ordinate a follow up visit to Moscow by Mr Donald Trump 30 75 61 136 183 In September 2018 Cohen tells Mueller s team that he didn t use the invitation to travel to Moscow because he didn t receive any concrete proposals for suitable land plots 30 75 76 January 26 Sater asks Cohen to take a call from Evgeny Shmykov who is coordinating their project in Moscow Cohen agrees 183 January 30 Carter Page emails senior Trump Campaign officials including Glassner informing them that his discussions with high level contacts with close ties to the Kremlin led him to believe a direct meeting in Moscow between Mr Trump and Putin could be arranged 30 98 February April Papadopoulos works for the same company as Mifsud the London Centre of International Law Practice 65 236 February 2 Trump comes in second in the Iowa caucuses In 2017 Cohen asserts that all efforts on the Trump Tower Moscow project ended before this date 183 February 4 Papadopoulos contacts Lewandowski via LinkedIn and emails Michael Glassner about joining the Trump campaign 30 82 February 4 5 Kremlin information security adviser Andrey Krutskikh tells the Infoforum 2016 conference in Moscow that Russia s new information arena strategies are equivalent to the 1940s nuclear bomb tests that put the Soviet Union on equal footing when talking to the United States 237 February 4 6 Papadopoulos reaches out to the London Centre of International Law Practice LCILP looking for a job because his role at the Carson campaign is over He takes a position at the ICILP s London office 30 81 82 February 10 IRA instructs workers to use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest except Sanders and Trump we support them 158 February 28 Sessions formally endorses Trump 174 February 29 Manafort submits a five page proposal to Trump outlining his qualifications to help Trump secure enough convention delegates and win the Republican presidential nomination Manafort describes how he assisted several business and political leaders notably in Russia and Ukraine 238 Trump receives a letter from Aras Agalarov expressing great interest in Trump s bright electoral campaign 158 March Carter Page begins working for the Trump campaign as an unpaid foreign policy adviser 239 240 241 Early March Papadopoulos tells Glassner he is free again to join Trump s campaign Glassner connects Papadopoulos with campaign co chairman Sam Clovis Clovis tells Papadopoulos that improving Russia relations is a top foreign policy goal for the campaign 163 Clovis recommends Carter Page to the campaign 242 March 2 Assange consoles a core WikiLeaks supporter who is upset about Clinton s success in the primary elections the day before writing Perhaps Hillary will have a stroke 197 Papadopoulos again emails Glassner about joining the Trump campaign Joy Lutes responds to Papaoapoulos that Glassner instructed her to introduce him to national co chair and chief policy advisor Sam Clovis 30 82 March 3 Sessions is appointed to the Trump campaign s national security advisory committee 174 Clovis researches Papadopoulos on Google Clovis is impressed with his past work at the Hudson Institute and arranges a phone call for March 6 30 82 March 6 Clovis asks Papadopoulos to join the Trump campaign as a foreign policy advisor after discussing the position in a phone call 30 82 243 244 245 The campaign hires Papadopoulos on Ben Carson s recommendation 246 Papadopoulos is told that a priority of the campaign is a better relationship with Russia 158 30 82 March 12 Russian American Simon Kukes donates 2 700 to the Trump campaign It is his first ever political donation In 2017 his 2016 political donations become a subject of the Mueller investigation 247 March 14 Papadopoulos first meets Mifsud while in Rome on a trip to visit officials affiliated with Link Campus University as part of his LCILP job 243 248 30 82 83 After Papadopoulos mentions his position with the Trump campaign Mifsud shows more interest and offers to introduce him to European leaders and others with contacts to the Russian government 30 83 Kushner attends a CNI lunch for Henry Kissinger at the invitation of CNI board member Richard Plepler Kushner uses it as an opportunity to seek Simes s assistance in securing foreign policy professionals support for the Trump campaign 249 30 104 March 15 Trump closes in on the Republican nomination having won five primaries 250 In Moscow Russian military intelligence hacker Ivan Yermakov working for Fancy Bear begins probing the DNC computer network 250 In St Petersburg shift workers posing as Americans follow instructions to attack Clinton on Facebook and Twitter 250 March 16 The FBI releases its Report of Investigation on Flynn s security clearance renewal application 228 WikiLeaks publishes a searchable archive of 30 000 Clinton emails that had been released by the State Department in response to a FOIA request 251 30 44 45 Internal WikiLeaks messages indicate the purpose of the archive is to annoy Clinton and establish WikiLeaks as a resource player in the election 30 44 45 March 17 According to Trump s written answers to Mueller s team Prikhodko sends another invitation for Trump to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum to Rhona Graff 30 79 Papadopoulos returns to London from his Rome trip 30 84 March 19 Podesta is asked to change his email password in an apparent phishing attempt believed to be spearheaded by Russian hackers They gain access to his account 166 and proceed to steal the entire contents of his account about 50 000 emails 158 March 21 In a Washington Post interview 252 253 Trump names members of his foreign policy team including Papadopoulos and Page 158 30 84 98 Page had helped open the Moscow office of investment banking firm Merrill Lynch and advised Russian state owned energy giant Gazprom in which Page is an investor He had blamed 2014 US sanctions relating to Russia s annexation of Crimea for driving down Gazprom s stock price 254 Russian hackers steal over 50 000 emails from Podesta s account 255 March 24 In London Papadopoulos meets Mifsud and Olga Polonskaya who falsely claims to be Putin s niece 256 Polonskaya tells Papadopoulos that she is a friend of the Russian ambassador in London and offers to help establish contacts with Russia 30 84 Papadopoulos leaves the meeting with the expectation that he will be introduced to the Russian ambassador but it never occurs 30 84 Polonskaya is in regular email contact with Papadopoulos in one message writing We are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr Trump 248 Papadopoulos emails Trump campaign officials about his new Russian contacts 158 He emails Trump s foreign policy team that he met with Putin s niece and the Russian ambassador in London and claims the ambassador also acts as the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia 30 84 He writes that the Russian leadership wants to meet with campaign officials in a neutral city or Moscow to discuss U S Russia ties under President Trump and that Putin and the Russian leadership are ready to meet with Trump 30 84 Clovis replies that he thinks any meetings with Russians should be delayed until after the campaign has a chance to talk with NATO allies and we have everyone on the same page 30 85 In 2018 Papadopoulos tells the House Judiciary Committee that he lied about meeting the Russian ambassador 22 476 Papadopoulos searches Google for information on Polonskaya and discovers that she is not Putin s niece 30 84 March 25 Lawyer Alexandra Chalupa who worked in the White House Office of Public Liaison during the Clinton administration and has strong ties to the Ukrainian American community shares with the Ukrainian ambassador to the U S her concerns that Manafort may get involved with the Trump campaign Chalupa had become familiar with Manafort s activities in Ukraine while researching the turmoil in the country over the previous two years for a pro bono client 257 March 26 Papadopolous searches the Internet for Andrei Klimov and Ivan Timofeev Mifsud introduces Papadopolous to Timofeev on April 18 22 477 March 28 Manafort is brought on to the campaign to lead the delegate wrangling effort 158 According to Gates Manafort travels to Mar a Lago in Florida to ask for the job without pay and is hired on the spot 30 135 In 2018 Gates tells Mueller s team that Manafort s intention was to monetize his relationship with the new administration should Trump win 30 135 Clovis emails Lewandowski and other campaign officials praising Page s work for the campaign 30 98 March 29 On Stone s recommendation 258 Manafort joins the Trump campaign as convention manager tasked with lining up delegates 259 Polonskaya attempts to send Papadopoulos a text message that was drafted by Mifsud The message addresses Papadopoulos s wish to engage with the Russian Federation 30 87 The Trump campaign announces that Manafort will be the campaign s Convention Manager 30 134 260 March 30 Chalupa briefs the DNC s communications staff on Manafort s and Trump s ties to Russia 257 Gates sends four memoranda written by Manafort to Kilimnik for translation and distribution The memoranda addressed separately to Deripaska and Ukrainian oligarchs Lyovochkin Akhmetov and Boris Kolesnikov describe Manafort s new role with the Trump campaign and express his willingness to continue consulting on Ukrainian politics Manafort follows up with Kilimnik on April 11 to ensure the messages were sent and seen by the recipients 30 135 March 31 At the first meeting of Trump s foreign policy team which includes Trump and Sessions Papadopoulos speaks of his connections with Russia and offers to negotiate a meeting between Trump and Putin 158 261 30 86 The meeting is held at the yet to open Trump International Hotel Washington D C 163 Sessions later states he opposed the idea 248 262 263 264 and two people who were present support his assertions but differ in what he objected to and how strongly 30 86 In late summer 2017 Papadopoulos and Gordon tell Mueller s team that Trump was supportive and receptive to the idea of a meeting with Putin and that Sessions supported Papadopoulos s efforts to arrange a meeting 30 86 Papadopoulos s lawyers assert in a September 2018 court filing that Trump nodded in agreement to the offer and that Sessions said the campaign should look into it 265 Graff prepares a letter for Trump s signature that declines Prikhodko s March 17 invitation to St Petersburg because of Trump s busy schedule but says he otherwise would have gladly given every consideration to attending such an important event 30 79 New York investment banker Robert Foresman emails Graff seeking an in person meeting with Trump The email is sent after Trump business associate Mark Burnett brokers an introductory phone call Foresman writes that he has long standing personal and professional expertise in Russia and Ukraine and mentions that he was involved with setting up an early private back channel between Putin and former president George W Bush He also writes about an approach he received from senior Kremlin officials about Trump He asks Graff for a meeting with Trump Lewandowski or another relevant person to discuss the approach and other concrete things that he doesn t want to discuss over unsecure email 30 79 Spring U S intelligence officials suspicions of Russian meddling in the presidential election grow after their counterparts in Europe warn that Russian money might be flowing into the election 144 Stone tells associates he is in contact with Assange 266 April 2016 Edit April Between April and November 2016 there are at least 18 further exchanges by telephone and email between Russian officials and the Trump team 267 Hackers linked to the GRU gain access to the DNC computer network 166 Russian social media company SocialPuncher releases an analysis showing that Trump has quoted or retweeted Twitter bots 150 times since the beginning of 2016 268 269 The IRA starts buying online ads on social media and other sites The ads support Trump and attack Clinton 113 114 Marc Elias a lawyer at Perkins Coie and general counsel for the Clinton campaign takes over funding of the Fusion GPS Trump investigation He uses discretionary funds at his disposal and does not inform the campaign about the research 270 271 179 The intelligence agency of a Baltic state shares a piece of intelligence with the director of the CIA regarding the Trump campaign The intelligence is allegedly a recording of a conversation about Russian government money going to the Trump campaign 272 Stone first told one of Trump s top aides WikiLeaks had plans to leak information during the presidential race kickstarting the campaign to take advantage of the expected releases 273 274 275 April 1 Carter Page is invited to deliver a commencement address at the New Economic School in Moscow in July 158 30 98 99 April 1 3 Rohrabacher meets with Natalia Veselnitskaya in Moscow to discuss the Magnitsky Act Vladimir Yakunin under U S sanctions is also present 276 277 Rohrabacher later says he met Yakunin at the request of Kislyak 278 He also meets with officials at the Russian Prosecutor General s office where he receives a document full of accusations against Magnitsky U S Embassy officials are worried Rohrabacher may be meeting with FSB agents The meeting at the prosecutor s office is not on his itinerary 276 The document is given to Rohrabacher by Deputy Prosecutor Viktor Grin who is under U S sanctions authorized by the Magnitsky Act Rohrabacher subsequently uses the document in efforts to undermine the Magnitsky Act 278 His accepting the document from Grin a sanctioned individual and using it to influence U S government policy leads to a July 21 2017 complaint being filed against Rohrabacher and his staff director Paul Behrends for violating Magnitsky Act sanctions 279 While in Moscow with Rohrabacher Rohrabacher s aide Paul Behrends introduces Congressman French Hill to Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin 280 277 Veselnitskaya gives Hill a document nearly identical to the one Grin gave to Rohrabacher 281 April 3 The IRA Twitter account TEN GOP announces that the Tennessee Republican Party endorses Trump 30 22 April 4 A rally is held in Buffalo New York protesting the death of India Cummings Cummings was a black woman who had recently died in police custody The IRA s Blacktivist account on Facebook actively promotes the event reaching out directly to local activists on Facebook Messenger asking them to circulate petitions and print posters for the event Blacktivist supplies the petitions and poster artwork 282 Graff emails her March 31 letter for Prikhodko to Jessica Macchia another executive assistant to Trump to print on letterhead for Trump to sign 30 79 Graff forwards Foresman s March 31 email to Macchia 30 79 April 6 Hackers spearphish the credentials of a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee DCCC employee 255 Around this date Chalupa discusses with a foreign policy legislative assistant to Representative Marcy Kaptur the possibility of a congressional investigation into Manafort Kaptur is the co chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus In 2017 Chalupa tells Politico It didn t go anywhere 257 April 10 Carter Page and Papadopoulos arrange a Skype call in which they discuss outreach to Russia and the Caucasus 22 479 April 10 11 Papadopoulos learns of Polonskaya s attempt to send him a text message on March 29 and sends her an email to arrange another meeting She responds that she is back in St Petersburg but would be very pleased to support Papadopoulos s initiatives between our two countries and to meet him again Papadopoulos replies that she should introduce him to the Russian Ambassador in London to talk to him or anyone else you recommend about a potential foreign policy trip to Russia Mifsud is copied on the email exchange Mifsud writes This is already been agreed I am flying to Moscow on the 18th for a Valdai meeting plus other meetings at the Duma We will talk tomorrow Polonskaya responds that she has already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request that we are all very excited the possibility of a good relationship with Mr Trump and that t he Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced 30 87 April 11 Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik exchange emails about whether recent press coverage of Manafort joining the Trump campaign can be used to make them whole with Deripaska Manafort is in debt to Deripaska for millions of dollars at the time 33 Kilimnik confirms to Manafort that Deripaska is aware Manafort is on Trump s campaign team 158 April 12 Russian hackers use stolen credentials to infiltrate the DCCC s computer network and install malware 158 Papadopoulos and Mifsud meet at the Andaz Hotel in London 30 88 April 16 A rally protesting the death of Freddie Gray attracts large crowds in Baltimore The IRA s Blacktivist Facebook group promotes and organizes the event including reaching out to local activists 283 April 17 Veselnitskaya s lawyer Mark Cymrot emails her that Ahkmetshin boasted that he recruited Sessions to launch an investigation into U S sanctions against Russia 284 April 18 While in Moscow Mifsud introduces Papadopoulos to Ivan Timofeev via email Timofeev is the program director of the Kremlin sponsored Valdai Discussion Club and a member of the Russian International Affairs Council RIAC Papadopoulos and Timofeev communicate for months over email and Skype about potential meetings between Russian government officials and members of the Trump campaign Later records indicate that Timofeev discussed Papadopoulos with former Russian Foreign Minister Igor S Ivanov 256 248 245 30 88 In August 2017 Papadopoulos tells Mueller s team that he believed at the time his conversations with Timofeev were monitored 30 88 Russian hackers break into the DNC s computers 158 April 19 Russian hackers create a fictitious online persona Carrie Feehan to register the domain DCLeaks com paid for in bitcoin to release stolen documents 255 158 The IRA purchases its first pro Trump ad through its Tea Party News Instagram account The Instagram ad asks users to upload photos with the hashtag KIDS4TRU to make a patriotic team of young Trump supporters 285 Papadopoulos meets with Oleg Lebedev a Russian Trump supporter at the Byzantium Cafe in London Papadopoulos thinks Lebedev is in the oil business in Moscow and has contacts in the Russian government They met through Lebedev s wife Maria Alxopoulou 22 485 April 19 21 Israeli embassy in London political counselor Christian Cantor introduces Papadopoulos to Australian High Commission to London political counselor Erika Thompson by email Papadopolous and Thompson arrange to meet on April 26 22 487 April 20 Sater texts Cohen asking when he is going to travel to Moscow 30 77 Chalupa receives from the administrators of her email account the first in a series of messages warning that state sponsored actors were trying to hack in to her emails 257 April 21 A staffer at the CNI photographs a detailed outline of the foreign policy speech Trump was scheduled to deliver on April 27 which was sitting on the desk of Simes the Center s president The House Intelligence Committee would later investigate Simes involvement in drafting the speech 286 April 22 After talking on Skype Ivan Timofeev thanks Papadopoulos via email for an extensive talk and proposes meeting in London or Moscow 158 22 483 April 23 A small group of white power demonstrators hold a rally they call Rock Stone Mountain at Stone Mountain Park near Stone Mountain Georgia They are confronted by a large group of protesters and some violent clashes ensue The counterprotest was heavily promoted by IRA accounts on Tumblr Twitter and Facebook and the IRA website blackmatters com The IRA uses its Blacktivist account on Facebook to reach out to no avail to activist and academic Barbara Williams Emerson the daughter of Hosea Williams to help promote the protests Afterward RT blames anti racist protesters for violence and promotes two videos shot at the event 282 April 25 Timofeev emails Papadopoulos that he spoke to Igor Ivanov the President of RIAC and former Foreign Minister of Russia and relays Ivanov s advice that a Moscow visit should be arranged through the Russian Embassy in Washington because it is a political matter 30 88 22 483 484 Before the second Mifsud meeting Papadopoulos emails Stephen Miller informing him that t he Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr Trump to meet him when he is ready and that t he advantage of being in London is that these governments tend to speak a bit more openly in neutral cities 256 158 30 89 Foresman emails Graff to remind her of his March 31 email seeking a meeting with Trump Lewandowski or another appropriate person 30 79 80 April 26 Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News is the first to report on Manafort s legal dispute with Deripaska in the Cayman Islands 287 Papadopoulos meets Mifsud in London again at the Andaz Hotel Mifsud claims that he has learned that Russians are in possession of thousands of stolen emails that may be politically damaging to Clinton 288 248 256 30 88 89 22 486 This is the first of at least two times the Trump campaign is told Russia has dirt on Hillary Clinton Two months later the Russian hacking is publicly revealed 158 Papadopoulos meets with Erika Thompson 22 487 April 27 Trump Sessions and Jared Kushner greet Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D C This contact is repeatedly omitted from testimony or denied 253 289 290 Kushner and Sessions knew in advance that the CNI invited Kislyak to the event 30 106 Mueller s team did not find any evidence that Trump or Sessions conversed with Kislyak after Trump s speech 30 107 Afterward Kislyak reports the conversation with Sessions to Moscow 291 Kushner is the first to publicly admit the Kislyak meeting took place in his prepared statement for Senate investigators on July 24 2017 292 Also in attendance are the ambassadors from Italy and Singapore who are major players in the upcoming sale of stakes in Rosneft 2 124 Trump speaks 293 at the Mayflower Hotel at the invitation of The National Interest the magazine of the CNI 141 He delivers a speech that calls for improved relations between the US and Russia The speech was edited by Papadopoulos 248 30 98 though his edits were largely rejected by Stephen Miller 22 491 and crafted with the assistance of Simes 2 126 and Richard Burt 294 Burt is a board member of the CNI and a lobbyist for Gazprom 295 Papadopoulos brings the speech to the attention of Mifsud and Polonskaya and tells Timofeev that it should be considered the signal to meet 248 Simes later moves to Moscow 296 unreliable source Papadopolous and Timofeev speak over Skype Papadopoulos finds Timofeev s formal tone to be strange and hears static noises suggesting the call is being recorded 22 485 Papadopoulos emails Stephen Miller that he has some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right 256 Papadopoulos tells Lewandowski via email that he has been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host Trump and the team when the time is right 245 30 89 Graff sends Foresman an apology and forwards his March 31 and April 26 emails to Lewandowski 30 80 Chalupa discusses her Manafort research with Ukrainian investigative journalists at an event organized by the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress 257 297 Late April The DNC s IT department notices suspicious computer activity Within 24 hours the DNC contacts the FBI and hires a private cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to investigate 298 April 29 DNC staffer Rachel Palermo notifies her colleagues by email that their Factivists blog has been compromised and includes the new password 299 300 April 30 Foresman sends Graff another email reminding her of his meeting requests on March 31 and April 26 He suggests an alternative meeting with Trump Jr or Eric Trump so that he can tell them information that should be conveyed to the candidate personally or to someone the candidate absolutely trusts 30 80 May 2016 Edit May CrowdStrike determines that sophisticated adversaries denominated Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear are responsible for the DNC hack Fancy Bear in particular is suspected of affiliation with Russia s Main Intelligence Directorate GRU 301 Erickson contacts Trump campaign advisor Rick Dearborn In an email headed Kremlin Connection Erickson seeks the advice of Dearborn and Sessions about how to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin Erickson suggests making contact at the NRA s annual convention in Kentucky The communication refers to Torshin who is under instructions to contact the Trump campaign 302 303 At Butina s urging Christian activist Rick Clay emails Dearborn with the subject Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite 304 offering a meeting between Trump and Torshin 305 Dearborn then Sessions s Chief of Staff sends an email mentioning a person from West Virginia seeking to connect Trump campaign members with Putin Dearborn appears skeptical of the meeting request 306 Jared Kushner rejects the request Torshin and Trump Jr later meet and speak at the NRA convention 305 Papadopoulos travels to Greece and meets with Greece s president Prokopios Pavlopoulos defense minister Panos Kammenos foreign minister Nikos Kotzias and a former prime minister Putin makes an official visit to Athens during Papadopoulos s trip 307 Michael Caputo arranges a meeting in Miami with Stone Florida based Russian Henry Oknyansky a k a Henry Greenberg and Ukrainian Alexei Rasin 30 61 308 Rasin claims to have evidence showing Clinton was involved in laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars through Rasin s companies 30 61 Stone turns down the offer telling them that Trump won t pay for opposition research 30 61 308 In June 2018 after many repeated denials Stone finally admits to knowingly meeting with a Russian national in 2016 when asked about this meeting by The Washington Post 308 In May 2018 Caputo tells Mueller s team that he did not attend the meeting did not know what Oknyansky was offering and did not know payment was asked for until Stone told him later 30 61 In July 2018 Oknyansky tells Mueller s team that Rasin was motivated by money and that Caputo attended the meeting 30 61 According to the Mueller Report Mueller s team is unable to find any evidence that Clinton ever did any business with Rasin 30 61 A new American shell company Silver Valley Consulting is set up by Russian born accountant Ilya Bykov for Aras Agalarov 309 Patten and Kilimnik write a letter for Lyovochkin to use in lobbying a high ranking member of the State Department In August 2018 Patten pleads guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent for this work 139 The IRA releases a Google Chrome plugin called FaceMusic that ostensibly allows users to listen to free music while browsing Facebook but also participates in a botnet 310 May 2 A second rally is held in Buffalo New York protesting the death of India Cummings Like the April 4 rally the event is heavily promoted by the IRA s Blacktivist Facebook account including attempted outreach to local activists 282 Graff forwards Foresman s April 30 email to Stephen Miller 30 80 May 4 Timofeev emails Papadopoulos that his colleagues from the ministry are open for cooperation 158 Papadopoulos forwards the email to Lewandowski and asks whether this is something we want to move forward with 30 89 Manafort meets with Kilimnik 158 From May 4 311 through September a pair of servers owned by Alfa Bank look up the Trump Organization s mail1 trump email com domain on a server housed by Listrak and administered by Cendyn more than 2 000 times Alfa Bank performs the most lookups during this period followed by Spectrum Health and then Heartland Payment Systems with 76 lookups beyond that no other visible entity makes more than two 312 The FBI investigated the activity in the context of links between Trump associates and Russian officials and concluded that there were no such links 313 and that there might be an innocuous explanation like marketing email or spam 314 This was undercut in 2021 Through September 2021 U S government investigators had been unable to explain the activity which a 2018 analysis showed reasons to doubt that marketing emails were the cause A Senate report called it unusual activity 315 Also in September 2021 The New York Times reported that researchers had found that a Russian made YotaPhone smartphone rarely used in the U S had accessed networks serving the White House Trump Tower and Spectrum which researchers reported to CIA counterintelligence in February 2017 316 315 Trump becomes the only remaining candidate for the Republican presidential nomination when John Kasich withdraws 317 Sater texts Cohen asking when he will be traveling to Moscow He writes that he set expectations in Russia that it would probably be after the convention Cohen responds that he expects to travel before the convention and that Trump will travel after he becomes the nominee 30 77 234 183 May 5 Papadopoulos forwards Timofeev s email to Clovis 158 30 89 who replies t here are legal issues we need to mitigate meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen 245 Sater texts Cohen that Peskov would like to invite him to the St Petersburg Forum June 16 19 and possibly meet Putin or Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev He continues He said anything you want to discuss including dates and subjects are on the table to discuss 30 77 234 183 May 6 Sater texts Cohen to confirm his travel to Moscow around June 16 19 Cohen replies w orks for me 30 77 Papadopoulos meets with Thompson 22 487 May 7 Kilimnik and Manafort meet for breakfast in New York City According to Manafort they discuss events in Ukraine and Manafort gives Kilimnik a briefing on the Trump campaign with the expectation that Kilimnik will repeat the information to people in Ukraine and elsewhere After the meeting Manafort instructs Gates to begin passing internal campaign polling data and other updates to Kilimnik to share with Ukrainian oligarchs Gates periodically sends the data using WhatsApp 30 136 137 May 8 Timofeev proposes connecting Papadopoulos with another Russian official 158 May 9 Thompson thanks Papadopoulos for meeting her the previous Friday and they arrange for Papadopoulos to meet with her boss Australian High Commissioner to London Alexander Downer at the Kensington Wine Rooms in London 22 487 488 May 10 Dearborn receives an email about arranging a back channel meeting between Trump and Putin with the subject line Kremlin Connection It is sent from a conservative operative who says Russia wants to use the NRA s convention to make first contact 158 During their scheduled meeting at the Kensington Wine Rooms followed by the Waterway Pub Papadopoulos drinks a lot and tells Downer and Thompson that the Russians have politically damaging material on Clinton Later Papadopoulos gives investigators conflicting accounts of how much alcohol Downer consumed After WikiLeaks releases the DNC emails two months later Australian officials pass this information to American officials causing the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign 158 22 487 490 See Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation May 11 Downer informs Canberra of his interactions with Papadopoulos 22 487 488 May 14 Papadopoulos tells Lewandowski the Russians are interested in hosting Trump 158 May 15 David Klein a distant relative of Trump Organization lawyer Jason Greenblatt emails Clovis about a possible campaign meeting with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar Klein writes that he contacted Lazar in February about a possible meeting between Trump and Putin and that Lazar was a very close confidante of Putin Later Klein and Greenblatt meet with Lazar at Trump Tower 30 90 May 16 Page floats with Clovis Gordon and Phares the idea of Trump going to Russia in his place to give the commencement speech at the New Economic School to raise the temperature a little bit 158 30 99 Dearborn receives a similar second proposal which he forwards to Kushner Manafort and Rick Gates Both efforts to arrange a back channel meeting between Trump and Putin appear to involve Alexander Torshin who was instructed to make contact with the Trump campaign 158 Kushner rebuffs the proposal 158 May 19 Manafort becomes Trump s campaign chairman and chief strategist 318 Gates is appointed deputy campaign chairman 30 134 Mother Jones reports that before Trump launched his campaign in 2015 Lewandowski and other political advisors suggested to Trump that they follow standard practice and hire someone to perform opposition research on him Trump refused 319 May 19 22 The NRA annual conference is held in Louisville Kentucky Trump and Trump Jr attend 320 321 322 323 Brownell introduces Trump Jr to Torshin and Butina during a brief encounter at an NRA fundraiser dinner on May 21 158 199 69 71 The next day an attendee of the dinner warns Trump Jr to stay away from Butina 199 71 May 21 Papadopoulos forwards Timofeev s May 4 email to Manafort stressing the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs MFA s desire to meet with Trump writing Russia has been eager to meet Mr Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss 30 89 90 Manafort shoots down the idea in an email to Rick Gates 163 245 with a note Let s discuss We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips It should be someone low level in the Campaign so as not to send any signal 158 30 90 Two competing rallies are held in Houston to alternately protest against and defend the recently opened Library of Islamic Knowledge at the Islamic Da wah Center The Stop Islamization of Texas rally is organized by the Facebook group Heart of Texas The Facebook posting for the event encourages participants to bring guns A spokesman for the group converses with the Houston Press via email but declines to give a name The other rally Save Islamic Knowledge is organized by the Facebook group United Muslims of America for the same time and location Both Facebook groups are later revealed to be IRA accounts 324 325 The entire operation cost 200 and was entirely organized from St Petersburg 123 47 May 22 Politico reports on Trump s past associations and dealings with the American Mafia and other criminal figures including Sater 326 183 May 23 Sessions attends the CNI s Distinguished Service Award dinner at the Washington D C Four Seasons Hotel Kislyak is a confirmed guest with a reserved seat next to Sessions In 2018 Sessions tells Mueller s team that he doesn t remember Kislyak being there and other participants interviewed by Mueller s team disagree with each other about whether Kislyak was present 30 107 May 25 The Westboro Baptist Church holds its annual protest of Lawrence High School graduation ceremonies in Lawrence Kansas The LGBT United Facebook group organizes counterprotesters to confront the Westboro protest including by placing an ad on Facebook and contacting local people About a dozen people show up Lawrence High School students do not participate because they are skeptical of the counterprotest organizers LGBT United is a Russian operatives account that appears to have been created specifically for this event 327 Thousands of DNC emails are stolen 158 May 26 The Associated Press reports that Trump has secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Republican nominee 166 May 27 At a rally Trump calls Putin a strong leader 158 May 27 28 Putin makes an official visit to Greece and meets with government leaders His visit overlaps with a trip to Greece by Papadopoulos 307 328 May 29 The IRA hires an American to pose in front of the White House holding a sign that says Happy 55th Birthday Dear Boss Boss is a reference to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin 113 114 May 30 The IRA creates the march for trump Twitter account to promote IRA organized rallies in support of the Trump campaign 30 27 June 2016 Edit June Around this time the conspirators charged in the July 2018 indictment stage and release tens of thousands of stolen emails and documents using fictitious online personas including DCLeaks and Guccifer 2 0 329 The FBI sends a warning to states about bad actors probing state voter registration databases and systems to seek vulnerabilities investigators believe Russia is responsible 330 Fusion GPS hires Steele to research Trump s activities in Russia A resultant 35 page document later known as the Trump Russia dossier or Steele dossier is published on January 10 2017 by BuzzFeed News 331 A former GRU officer arranges for Felix Sater and Michael Cohen to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum which Putin regularly attends Sater wants to use the trip to push forward the Moscow Trump Tower deal Cohen cancels at the last minute Sater does not attend the forum 332 Early June At a closed door gathering of foreign policy experts visiting with the Prime Minister of India Page hails Putin as stronger and more reliable than Obama and touts the positive effect a Trump presidency would have on U S Russia relations 333 Before traveling to New York to translate at the June 9 Trump Tower meeting Kaveladze contacts Roman Beniaminov a close friend and aide 22 273 of Emin Agalarov to find out why Kushner Manafort and Trump Jr were invited to a meeting ostensibly about the Magnitsky Act Beniaminov tells Kaveladze that he heard Goldstone and Agalarov discuss dirt on Clinton In November 2017 Kaveladze s lawyer tells The Daily Beast that Beniaminov was Kaveladze s only source of information about the meeting 334 June 1 Papadopoulos emails Lewandowski asking whether he wants to have a call about a Russia visit and whether we were following up with it 30 90 Lewandowski refers him to Clovis 158 30 90 Papadopoulos emails Clovis about more interest from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to set up a Trump meeting in Russia 158 30 90 He writes I have the Russian MFA asking me if Mr Trump is interested in visiting Russia at some point 335 336 He continues that he w anted to pass this info along to you for you to decide what s best to do with it and what message I should send or to ignore 30 90 The IRA plans a Manhattan rally called March for Trump and buys Facebook ads promoting the event 113 114 June 3 Aras Agalarov is told that the Russian government wants to give the Trump campaign damaging information about Clinton 158 Goldstone emails Trump Jr offering on behalf of Emin Agalarov to meet an alleged Russian government official who would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father as part of Russia and its government s support for Mr Trump Trump Jr responded 17 minutes later 337 338 If it s what you say I love it especially later in the summer and schedules the meeting Goldstone also offers to relay the information to Trump through his assistant 339 This is the second time a Trump campaign official was told of dirt on Clinton 158 3 3 million began moving between Aras Agalarov and Kaveladze a longtime Agalarov employee once investigated for money laundering 337 June 4 The IRA email account allforusa yahoo com sends news releases about the March for Trump rally to New York City media outlets 113 114 June 5 The IRA contacts a Trump campaign volunteer to provide signs for the March for Trump rally 113 114 June 6 Hillary Clinton becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee Trump Jr calls two blocked numbers at Trump Tower 340 According to CNN the two people Trump Jr called were NASCAR CEO Brian France and businessman Howard Lorber 341 At a primary night rally in New York Trump promises a speech discussing information about Clinton Trump says I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week June 13 and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons 342 Goldstone follows up with Trump Jr about when Jr can talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info Trump Jr calls Emin 158 Phone records show Trump Jr called a blocked number before and after calls to Emin 158 According to Gates Trump Jr informs the participants in a regular senior campaign staff meeting that he has a lead on damaging information about the Clinton Foundation Gates is under the impression that the information is coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan The other meeting participants include Eric Trump Ivanka Trump Kushner Manafort and Hicks Manafort according to Gates warns the group to be careful In April 2018 Kushner tells Mueller s team that he doesn t remember the information being discussed before the June 9 meeting 30 115 June 6 7 Trump Jr and Emin Agalarov discuss setting up their June 9 meeting in three phone calls 343 June 8 The DCLeaks website comes online 255 The Russian controlled fake American personas Melvin Redick Alice Donovan and Katherine Fulton begin promoting the site on Facebook 344 June 9 Veselnitskaya Akhmetshin Kaveladze and Anatoli Samochornov meet for lunch and discuss what to say at the upcoming Trump Tower meeting 30 116 117 Kushner Manafort and Trump Jr meet at Trump Tower with Goldstone Veselnitskaya 345 Akhmetshin 346 Kaveladze 347 and translator Samochornov 348 349 Veselnitskaya is best known for lobbying against the Magnitsky Act an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers 350 Trump Jr later says that he asked Veselnitskaya for damaging information about the Clinton Foundation and that she had none 351 Samochornov Kaveladze and Akhmetshin later tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that Trump Jr told Veselnitskaya to come back after they won the election 352 349 The meeting lasts approximately 20 minutes and Manafort takes notes on his phone 30 117 118 Trump Jr calls a blocked number before June 6 and after the meeting Trump spends the day at Trump Tower where the private residence has a blocked number and holds no public events 340 That night Veselnitskaya Simpson Akhmetshin and others attend a dinner in New York City organized by a lawyer at BakerHostetler BakerHostetler hired Simpson in 2015 to work on the Prevezon case with Veselnitskaya Later Simpson tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that he was unaware of the Trump Tower meeting until it became public in 2017 22 889 June 9 14 Sater repeatedly tries to get Cohen to confirm his trip to Russia 183 June 11 12 The DNC expels Russian hackers from its servers Some of the hackers had been accessing the DNC network for over a year 353 June 12 On ITV Assange tells Robert Peston on his television show Peston on Sunday that emails related to Clinton are pending publication and says WikiLeaks has a very good year ahead 354 355 30 52 June 12 July 22 According to Gates prior to Assange s announcement Stone tells him that something big related to leaked information is coming soon and repeats the claim multiple times to Gates and Manafort through July 22 30 52 June 14 The DNC publicly alleges that they have been hacked by Russian state backed hackers 354 353 Following this news a small group of politically diverse prominent computer scientists scattered across the US including a member Dexter Filkins calls Max in his October 2018 New Yorker article begin combing the Domain Name System DNS 312 Sater meets Cohen in the Trump Tower lobby Cohen tells him he will not be traveling to Russia two days before planned departure 183 356 Cohen decided not to go because he didn t receive a formal invitation from Peskov 61 137 The GRU uses its dcleaks persona to reach out to WikiLeaks and offer to coordinate the release of sensitive information about Clinton including financial documents 357 30 45 GRU Unit 74455 Fancy Bear creates the Guccifer 2 0 persona and a WordPress blog for disseminating stolen DNC material 358 Fancy Bear registers the domain name ActBlues com for a website that is nearly identical to the DCCC s donation page on a href ActBlue html title ActBlue ActBlue a com 359 Mid June Shortly after the DNC announced that it had been hacked the RNC informs the FBI that some Republican campaign email accounts hosted by Smartech have been hacked Compromised accounts include the campaign committees of Senator John McCain Senator Lindsey Graham Representative Robert Hurt s everal state GOP organizations Republican PACs and campaign consultants Approximately 300 emails from May through October 2015 are eventually posted on DCLeaks com 360 30 41 Someone breaks into and ransacks two of Chalupa s cars but valuables and cash are left in the vehicles A few days later a woman wearing white flowers in her hair tries to break into Chalupa s home Aide to the Ukrainian ambassador Oksana Shulyar tells her the incidents are similar to Russian intimidation campaigns against foreigners 257 June 15 Guccifer 2 0 GRU claims credit for the DNC hacking and posts some of the stolen material to a website CrowdStrike stands by its findings identifying two separate Russian intelligence affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016 361 Gawker publishes an opposition research document on Trump that was stolen from the DNC Guccifer 2 0 sent the file to Gawker 255 362 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Speaker Paul Ryan meet separately with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman at the Capitol Groysman describes to them how the Kremlin is financing populist politicians in Eastern Europe to damage democratic institutions McCarthy and Ryan have a private meeting afterwards with GOP leaders that is secretly recorded Toward the end of their conversation after laughing at the DNC hacking McCarthy says there s two people I think Putin pays Rohrabacher and Trump laughter swear to God Ryan then tells everyone to keep this conversation secret A transcript of the recording becomes public a year later 363 364 June 16 Cassandra Ford of Defiance Ohio renames her Twitter account Guccifer2 after hearing about Guccifer 2 0 from her Twitter friends A few days later the GRU registers Guccifer 2 for the Guccifer 2 0 persona because Guccifer2 was taken 358 June 17 ThreatConnect publishes its analysis of the CrowdStrike report on the DNC hack The new report 365 provides additional data implicating Fancy Bear 299 Late June According to Gates Trump and Stone discuss by phone the recent release of stolen DNC material while Trump and Gates are being driven from Trump Tower to La Guardia airport After the call Trump tells Gates that there will be more releases of damaging information 366 30 54 June 19 After communicating with the MFA via email and Skype Papadopoulos tells Lewandowski by email that the MFA is interested in meeting with a campaign rep if Trump can t meet with them Papadopoulos offers to go in an unofficial capacity 335 336 30 90 Page again requests permission from the campaign to speak at the New Economic School commencement in Moscow and reiterates that the school would love to have Mr Trump speak at this annual celebration Lewandowski responds that Page can attend in his personal capacity but Mr Trump will not be able to attend 30 99 Assange asks the London Ecuadorian Embassy for a faster Internet connection Embassy staff help Assange install new equipment 367 June 20 Aras Agalarov wires more than 19 5 million to his account at a bank in New York 352 Trump fires Lewandowski 368 Manafort becomes campaign manager 369 June 22 WikiLeaks reaches out to Guccifer 2 0 via Twitter They ask Guccifer 2 0 to send them material because it will have a bigger impact if they publish it They also specifically ask for material on Clinton they can publish before the convention 255 June 23 The United Kingdom passes a referendum to leave the European Union 370 The IRA persona Matt Skiber contacts an American to recruit for the March for Trump rally 113 114 Russian American Simon Kukes donates 100 000 to the Trump Victory fund In 2017 his 2016 political donations become a subject of the Mueller investigation 247 GRU hackers successfully use an SQL injection attack to breach servers belonging to the Illinois State Board of Elections and steal voter registration data 371 372 30 50 June 24 The IRA group United Muslims of America buys Facebook ads for the Support Hillary Save American Muslims rally 113 114 June 25 The IRA s March for Trump rally occurs 113 114 The IRA Facebook group LGBT United organizes a candlelight vigil for the Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Orlando Florida 373 374 June 29 Goldstone emails Trump campaign social media director Dan Scavino about promoting Trump on VKontakte He says the email is a follow up to his recent conversation with Trump Jr and Manafort 233 Summer IRA employees use the stolen identities of four Americans to open PayPal and bank accounts to act as conduits for funding their activities in the United States 113 114 The FBI applies for a FISA warrant to monitor communications of four Trump campaign officials The FISA Court rejects the application asking the FBI to narrow its scope 375 A warrant on Carter Page alone is granted in October 2016 75 Lawyer and Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Joseph E Schmitz receives a cache of emails from a client that is purported to be Clinton s deleted 30 000 emails acquired from a dark web forum Schmitz meets with officials at the FBI the State Department and the Intelligence Community Inspector General ICIG in an effort to get the emails reviewed The State Department and ICIG decline to review the emails Schmitz s efforts are independent of the investigation by Peter Smith s team 376 July 2016 and after EditMain article Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections July 2016 election day Post election transition Edit Main article Timeline of post election transition following Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections Investigations continuing timelines Edit Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia January June 2017 Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia July December 2017 Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia January June 2018 Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia July December 2018 Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia 2019 Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia 2020 2022 Related continuing interference EditRussian interference in the 2018 United States elections Russian interference in the 2020 United States electionsSee also Edit Russia portal United States portalAssessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections intelligence report Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia Cyberwarfare by Russia Donald Trump s disclosure of classified information to Russia Efforts to impeach Donald Trump Foreign electoral intervention Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election Propaganda in the Russian Federation Russian espionage in the United States Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum Social media in the 2016 United States presidential election Timelines related to Donald Trump and Russian interference in United States elections Topical timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States electionsReferences Edit Ford Matt March 9 2017 The Contacts Between Trump Associates and Russia A Timeline The Atlantic Retrieved May 27 2017 a b c d e Abramson Seth November 13 2018 Proof of Collusion How Trump Betrayed America Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 1982116088 It crosses continents and decades and has swept into its 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August 7 2014 Lt Gen Flynn retires from DIA 33 year Army career Defense Intelligence Agency Archived from the original on February 27 2021 Retrieved March 12 2021 span, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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