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Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (July–December 2018)

December 15, 2023

This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2018 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, and the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, and the first half of 2018, but precedes that of the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.

Relevant individuals and organizations edit

This section is transcluded from Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. (edit | history)

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.[1]: 3 

A–E edit

F–M edit

N–R edit

S–Z edit

January–June 2018 edit

Main article: Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2018)

July–December 2018 edit

July edit

  • July:
    • A warrant is filed targeting Broidy's office in Los Angeles, in order to obtain documents related to his dealings with foreign officials and Trump administration associates, including Gates and George Nader, regarding conspiracy, money laundering, and crimes associated with illegal lobbying on behalf of foreign officials.[8]
    • Mueller's team issues a secret grand jury subpoena for records from a state-owned Egyptian bank. The suboena is part of an investigation into Trump's October 29, 2016, $10 million loan to his campaign.[9]
  • July 2: The Washington Post reports that the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission joined the Justice Department's investigation of Facebook. Investigator's questions center around what Facebook knew in 2015 about Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook's user data and discrepancies in recent statements about the incident.[10]
  • July 3:
     
    Unclassified Summary of Initial Findings on 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee releases initial unclassified findings of its in-depth review of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The committee finds the ICA to be "a sound intelligence product."[11][12]
    • Dana Rohrabacher tells Elex Michaelson in an interview for Fox 11 Los Angeles that the theft of DNC emails was an inside job and not carried out by Russian hackers.[13][14]
    • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle dismisses a lawsuit against the Trump campaign because the plaintiffs failed to show the D.C. district court has jurisdiction over the matter. Protect Democracy filed the suit on behalf of Roy Cockrum, Eric Schoenberg, and Scott Comer. It alleges the campaign "entered into an agreement with other parties, including agents of Russia and WikiLeaks, to have information stolen from the DNC publicly disseminated in a strategic way that would benefit the campaign to elect Mr. Trump as President."[15] The plaintiffs refile the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on July 12.[16]
    • Mueller's team interviews Sarah Sanders for the first of three times.[17]: 70, 72, 83, 105 
  • July 5: The Daily Beast reports that an unknown person hired bloggers in India and Indonesia to write articles whitewashing ties between Trump, Sater, Tevfik Arif, and Bayrock Group. The campaign appears to have been designed to influence Google Search results.[18]
  • July 7: Mueller's team interviews Tad Devine.[19]: 132 
  • July 10:
    • The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fines Facebook £500,000 for two violations of the Data Protection Act 1998, the maximum fine the Act allows. The ICO found Facebook failed to safeguard user data and wasn't transparent about allowing third parties to harvest user information. The ICO also announces that it is going to criminally prosecute SCL Elections Ltd, the parent of Cambridge Analytica, for refusing to cooperate in the ICO's investigation.[20][21][22]
    • Rudolph Giuliani, one of Trump's lawyers, tells The Washington Post that he works for foreign clients while working for Trump. He insists there are no conflicts of interest because his work for Trump is pro bono, and no need to register as a foreign agent because he does not lobby the government, though some lobbying experts disagree.[23]
  • July 11: Brian Benczkowski is controversially confirmed as a US Assistant Attorney General and head of the Criminal Division, which is under Rosenstein's purview. Benczkowski has no prosecutorial experience.[24] After working for the Trump transition team, he worked for Alfa-Bank in 2017, defending it against accusations of suspicious contacts with a Trump Organization server in 2016.[25]
  • July 12:
    • The White House orders that all members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees be given access to classified materials related to the FBI informant who contacted Papadopoulos and Page in 2016. Previously, the materials were only made available to the Gang of Eight.[26]
    • Peter Strzok testifies before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees. During heated questioning, Strzok vigorously defends himself and the integrity of the 2016 FBI investigations into Russian interference in the election and Clinton's email server.[27]
Grand Jury Indicts 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses Related to 2016 Election
 
Indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers
 
Criminal complaint against Maria Butina
 
Affidavit supporting the criminal complaint against Maria Butina.
  • July 15:
    • Butina is arrested in Washington, D.C., on charges of being an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian Federation working to infiltrate politically influential organizations in the U.S. and influence U.S. officials.[32][33]
    • Mueller's team interviews Sarah Sanders for the second of three times.[17]: 104 
  • July 16:
    • The Justice Department announces Butina's arrest and the criminal charges that led to it.[32]
    • NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch clarifies her May 8 denial[34] of the December 2015 NRA trip to Moscow, telling Mark Follman of Mother Jones that she meant it wasn't an official trip.[35][36]
    • Trump meets with Putin in Helsinki for two hours with only translators present. At a joint press conference afterward, Trump says in his opening statement, “During today's meeting, I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections.” Putin says in his statement, "...the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs, including the election process." Jeff Mason from Reuters asks Putin why Americans should believe him. Trump jumps in and talks about his electoral college win and denies collusion with Russia. Putin responds, "As to who is to be believed and to who is not to be believed, you can trust no one, if you take this." Jonathan Lemire from AP asks Trump if he believes Putin or his own intelligence officials on whether Russia interfered in the election. Trump responds by asking about a Pakistani working for the DNC and Clinton's emails, and calls into question the FBI's investigation of hacked DNC servers. He concludes, "So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."[37] Mason also asked Putin, "President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?" and Putin responded, "Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal". This exchange is missing from the official transcripts and video of the summit for ten days before being added.[38][39][40][41]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Lisa Page for a second time.[31]
  • July 17:
    • Prosecutors file an indictment of Butina in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.[42]
    • Rohrabacher tells Politico he is unsure whether he is the U.S. congressman mentioned in the Butina indictment, though he admits to being in Russia in August 2015 and dining with Butina and another congressman. He calls the charges against Butina "bogus" and a function of the "deep state."[43]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee holds a closed hearing on the White House awareness of and response to Russian active measures.[44]: 74 [45]: 13, 15, 23, 26–27, 32–33, 37, 41 
  • July 18:
    • Butina pleads not guilty at a preliminary hearing. The judge orders Butina be held without bail pending trial.[46]
    • The New York Times reports that Trump was shown evidence that Putin personally ordered the 2016 hacking of DNC servers in a January 6, 2017, intelligence briefing.[47]
    • CNN reports that the Secret Service has been blocking the DNC's attempts to serve Jared Kushner with the lawsuit it filed against him in April.[48]
    • Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee interview Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, George Papadopolous's wife, for four hours. Afterward, she says she was asked about her husband's role in the Trump campaign and her relationship with Joseph Mifsud.[49]
  • July 19:
  • July 20:
    • TMZ reports Kristin Davis is expecting a subpoena from Mueller's team.[55]
    • Alfa-Bank sends a second unsolicited letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee stating that they found no evidence of substantive communications between the bank and the Trump Organization.[56]: 791–792 
  • July 23:
    • Senators Ron Wyden, Robert Menendez, and Sheldon Whitehouse send Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a letter demanding the "production of any documents relevant to financial links between the NRA, its associated entities and Ms. Butina and any entities or individuals related to her." The letter is a follow-up to a similar letter Wyden sent Mnuchin in February.[57]
    • After initial denials,[58] a spokesperson for Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev confirms that Nikolaev funded "Right to Bear Arms" from 2012 to 2014.[59]
    • Mueller's team interviews Sarah Sanders for the third of three times.[17]: 115 
  • July 24: Jury selection in the first Manafort trial begins.[60]
  • July 25:
    • Articles of impeachment against Rod Rosenstein are introduced in the House of Representatives by Freedom Caucus members Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, and nine other cosponsors. The articles say Rosenstein should have recused himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation because he signed the FISA warrant applications for surveilling Carter Page, and accuse Rosenstein of withholding documents from Congress.[61][62] House speaker Paul Ryan opposes the articles and convinces Meadows and Jordan not to try to force a floor vote.[63]
    • Senator Chuck Grassley asks Gubarev's lawyers in a letter to provide a copy of the Steele deposition to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Steele was deposed in London on June 18 as part of Gubarev's libel suit against BuzzFeed.[64][65]
  • July 26:
    • CNN reports that Cohen claims that Trump was informed by Donald Trump Jr. of the Russians' offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton in advance of the 2016 June 9 meeting with Veselnitskaya, contradicting claims by Trump and Trump Jr. that Trump only learned of the meeting shortly before it was reported by the New York Times in July 2017.[66]
    • The Wall Street Journal reports that longtime Trump Organization finance executive Allen Weisselberg has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Cohen's ongoing criminal investigation.[67]
    • The Daily Beast reports that Senator Claire McCaskill's reelection campaign was targeted by Fancy Bear for a phishing attack in August 2017. This is the first 2018 midterm campaign publicly identified as a Russian hacking target.[68]
    • The New York Times reports that Mueller is examining Trump's tweets about Sessions and Comey as part of his search for possible evidence of obstruction of justice.[69]
    • Graphika CEO John Kelly, Director of Research at New Knowledge Renee DiResta, and Oxford Internet Institute researcher Phil Howard testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed briefing on social media manipulation.[44]: 8, 34–35, 37, 48, 54–55 
  • July 27: The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Mark Burnett.[56]: 739 
 
"Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Interim Report" by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee
  • July 28: The U.K. Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee releases its interim report on disinformation and "fake news". The report's topics include the activities of Cambridge Analytica, SCL, Facebook, Russia, and the Leave.EU campaign.[70][71]
  • July 30:
    • Devin Nunes tells the audience at a fundraiser for Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers that the Rosenstein impeachment effort is on hold until after Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is voted on by the Senate. He says that if the House votes to impeach Rosenstein, the Senate will have to drop everything, including consideration of Kavanaugh, until they vote on the impeachment, and putting Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court is more important than removing Rosenstein. Nunes also tells the audience that it is illegal for a candidate to use stolen emails in their campaign. The fundraiser is a private event that excludes the press, but an attendee secretly records Nunes's comments and gives the recording to MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show.[72]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews someone whose name is redacted from volume 5 of their report on Russian interference.[56]: 490 
  • July 31:
    • Paul Manafort's trial for bank and tax fraud charges starts in Alexandria, Virginia.[73]
    • Facebook announces they have shut down eight pages, 17 profiles, and seven Instagram accounts related to "bad actors" identified recently with activity profiles similar to the IRA. The company says it doesn't have enough information to attribute the accounts, groups, and events to the IRA, but that a known IRA account was briefly an administrator of the "Resisters" group.[74] The "Resisters" group was the first organizer on Facebook of the upcoming "No Unite The Right 2 – DC" protest scheduled in Washington, D.C., for August 10. Some of the event's other organizers insist they started organizing before "Resisters" created the event's Facebook page.[75]
    • Andrew Miller, a former associate of Roger Stone, loses his attempt to challenge a subpoena from Mueller by asserting Mueller's appointment was unconstitutional. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell rules Mueller's appointment was constitutional and that the subpoena is therefore valid and Miller must appear "at the earliest date available to the grand jury, and to complete production of the subpoenaed records promptly."[76]

August edit

Further information: Trials of Paul Manafort
  • August 1:
    • CNN reports that over the past few months Mueller referred three people and their firms to the U.S. Attorney for the SDNY for further investigation into failing to register as lobbyists for a foreign government. The referrals include Tony Podesta, former U.S. Representative Vin Weber (MN-R), and former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig. Manafort paid all three, and their firms, through the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine to lobby on behalf of the Ukrainian government. Craig worked at the same firm as Alex van der Zwaan.[77][78]
    • Trump makes a series of tweets related to Manafort,[79][80][17]: 125  including calling for Sessions to end the Mueller investigation immediately[81] and complaining that Manafort is being treated worse than Al Capone.[82] His tweets are widely reported in the press, and, in 2019, the Mueller Report cites them as evidence of attempted jury tampering.[17]: 125, 131–132 
    • The Senate votes to allow the Senate Intelligence Committee to share the transcript of Butina's testimony before the committee with the prosecutorial and defense teams in her criminal case.[83]
    • Mueller's team interviews Kristin M. Davis.[84][85]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee sends Assange an invitation to testify before the committee.[86]
    • DiResta, Graphika CEO John Kelly, and then German Marshall Fund expert Laura Rosenberger testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in an open hearing on foreign influence campaigns on social media.[87][44]: 8, 11, 16, 33, 47, 54–55, 57–58, 60  Kelly tells the committee that Russian automated accounts produce 25–30 times as many far left and far right message as legitimate political accounts.[87]
  • August 2:
    • Sanders, Bolton, Coats, Nielsen, Wray, and Nakasone hold a White House news briefing that confirms that Russia interfered in US elections and that the threat is real.[88]
    • Mueller's team interviews Petr Aven.[19]: 146–147, 163, 165–166 
    • Mueller's team interviews White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.[17]: 91, 114-118 
  • August 3:
  • August 5: In a tweet, Trump admits publicly for the first time that the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting was about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton.[91][92]
  • August 6: Politico reports that almost all of the money contributed to The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, the legal fund established in February to help Trump campaign, transition, and White House aides, came from four donors closely linked to Trump.[93]
  • August 7:
    • Senator Elizabeth Warren sends Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross a letter inquiring about the details of the exemption to aluminum tariffs granted to Rusal America Corporation on July 19. Rusal America Corporation is a subsidiary of Rusal, which is under sanctions for its financial ties to Deripaska.[52][53][54]
    • Mueller's team interviews Cohen for the first time.[19]: 72–73, 115 [17]: 17–18, 134–135 [56]: 226–227, 230–231, 357 
  • August 8:
    • The Hill reports the White House is drafting an executive order allowing the president to impose sanctions on "10 of the 30 largest businesses" in a country whose nationals are found to have meddled in U.S. elections.[94]
    • The Commerce Department reverses its decision to grant an aluminum tariffs exemption to Rusal America Corporation a day after Senator Warren inquired about the exemption. The department claims the original grant was a clerical error.[53][54][95]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Leon Black.[56]: 642, 644, 649, 654 
  • August 9:
    • The Hill reports House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte is preparing subpoenas for people connected to the Steele dossier, including Nellie and Bruce Ohr, Glenn Simpson, and former FBI and DOJ officials Jim Baker, Sally Moyer, Jonathan Moffa, and George Toscas.[96]
    • The Daily Beast reports that Igor Pisarky, the founder and chairman of the Russian public relations firm R.I.M. Porter Novelli, was Butina's point of contact for the funding she received from billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev.[97]
  • August 10:
    • Judge Howell rules Andrew Miller is in contempt of court for refusing to appear before one of Mueller's grand juries. Howell stays the contempt order to allow an appeal to proceed. After the closed hearing, Miller's lawyer Paul Kamenar says he asked the court for the contempt ruling so that he can file an appeal challenging the legality of the Mueller investigation.[98] Miller's challenge is being funded by the National Legal and Policy Center because, they say, they share his concerns about the constitutionality of the Mueller investigation.[99]
    • Rick Davis appears before one of Mueller's grand juries.[100]
    • Randy Credico's lawyer says Credico is scheduled to appear before Mueller's grand jury on September 7.[100]
    • DNC lawyers use Twitter to serve WikiLeaks with the lawsuit it filed in April.[101]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Michael Glassner.[56]: 533 
  • August 13:
  • August 15: Trump strips former CIA director John O. Brennan of his security clearance.[107]
  • August 16:
    • In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump connects his revoking of John Brennan's security clearance to the Russia investigation.[107]
    • Former CIA Director John O. Brennan, commenting on the reason his credentials were revoked by Trump, stated that Trump's claims of no collusion were "hogwash": "The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of 'Trump Incorporated' attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets."[108]
    • Manafort's Virginia trial sends the case to the jury to begin deliberations.[17]: 125 
    • Steele provides a tranche of written answers to the Senate Intelligence Committee.[56]: 852 
  • August 17:
    • Mueller files a sentencing memorandum for George Papadopoulos in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing that Papadopoulos's concealment of information in January 2017 prevented the FBI from effectively confronting Mifsud in February and potentially arresting him before he left the United States. Mueller recommends Papadopoulos be incarcerated for up to six months and fined up to $9,500. He says Papadopoulos agreed to the fine, but has not been very cooperative and only volunteered information when confronted with evidence.[109][110]
    • In an impromptu exchange with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump praises Manafort and attacks his prosecution and the Mueller investigation.[111][17]: 126  In 2019, the Mueller Report cites his remarks as evidence of attempted jury tampering because they occurred during jury deliberations.[17]: 131–132 
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Brittany Kaiser.[56]: 664, 666–668, 670, 672–674, 678–679 
  • August 18: The New York Times reports that White House Counsel Don McGahn gave Mueller over 30 hours of voluntary testimony over the past nine months.[112]
  • August 20: Judge Anthony C. Epstein of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia throws out a libel suit the founders of Alfa-Bank filed on April 16 against Steele and his company, Orbis Business Intelligence. The case is dismissed with prejudice in response to a motion by lawyers for Orbis Business Intelligence.[113][114][115]
  • August 21:
     
    Michael Cohen's plea agreement
     
    Michael Cohen charging documents
    • Cohen pleads guilty in US District Court for the SDNY to five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud and two counts related to campaign finance law violations. Cohen says he paid Stormy Daniels "at the direction of" Donald Trump for the purpose of "influencing the election".[116]
    • Paul Manafort is convicted on eight of eighteen counts in his first trial. He is found guilty of filing false tax returns for years 2010 through 2014, defrauding Citizens Bank and Banc of California, and failing to declare a foreign bank account. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges.[117]
    • Facebook announces that it has taken down hundreds of pages since July involving disinformation campaigns originating in Russia and Iran.[118] Among the pages removed is the GRU-linked "Inside Syria Media Center" fake news outlet.[119]
    • Nunes is in London trying to meet with MI5, MI6, and GCHQ to get information on Steele and his interactions with Bruce Ohr. The agencies decline to meet with Nunes because they are concerned he is "trying to stir up a controversy." Nunes does meet with U.K. deputy national-security adviser Madeleine Alessandri.[120]
  • August 22:
    • In an interview with Ainsley Earhardt broadcast the next day on Fox & Friends, Trump praises Manafort for not flipping.[121][17]: 126–127  In 2019, the Mueller Report cites his statements as evidence of Trump encouraging Manafort not to cooperate with the government.[17]: 132–133 
    • In an interview, Giuliani says that Trump feels Manafort was horribly treated.[122][17]: 127  He says they discussed the potential political fallout over giving Manafort a pardon, but he is not considering one.[122] After the interview, Sanders tells the press that a pardon for Manafort was "not something that's been up for discussion."[123]
  • August 23:
  • August 24: The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors in New York granted immunity from prosecution to Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in exchange for his cooperation. Weisselberg is identified as "Executive-1" in the Cohen charging document.[131]
  • August 27:
    • The Wall Street Journal reports that Manafort's legal team started plea discussions with Mueller's team before Manafort's first trial ended. The discussions fell apart because of objections from Mueller.[132]
    • Digital Culture, Media and Sport Committee chair Damian Collins and Labour party deputy leader Tom Watson call for a Mueller-style investigation of likely Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Collins says his committee's investigation was limited in scope by its jurisdiction, and other government watchdog agencies suffer from similar limitations, preventing a full accounting of Russia's influence on the referendum.[133]
  • August 28:
    • Trump tweets that China hacked Clinton's email server.[134][135]
  • August 29
    • In response, the FBI issues a brief statement that says, "The FBI has not found any evidence the servers were compromised."[136]
    • CNN reports that the US Attorney's Office for the SDNY rejected a request from a second Trump Organization employee for an immunity deal.[137]
    • Trump announces that McGahn will leave the White House in the fall.[138][139]
    • Trump tweets that Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts should tell the head of FISA Court Rosemary M. Collyer to question FBI and Justice Department officials about their use of the Trump-Russia dossier as part of a collusion probe, with particular focus on Ohr.[140]
    • Papadopoulos decides not to withdraw from his plea deal with Mueller.[141]
  • August 30
  • August 31:
     
    Samuel Patten statement of the offense
    • Sam Patten, a lobbyist and associate of Paul Manafort, pleads guilty in Washington D.C. to failing to register as a foreign lobbyist. The case was referred by the Special Counsel. As part of his plea deal, Patten agrees to work with Mueller's office. Patten's company received more than $1 million for its Ukraine work from 2015 to 2017, and helped his foreign client pay $50,000 to Trump's inaugural committee.[147][148][149][150] In the statement of the offense, Konstantin Kilimnik is identified as "Foreigner A", his and Patten's company Begemot Ventures International as "Company A", and Serhiy Lyovochkin as "Foreigner B".[150][151][152]
    • The first major documentary to address the allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and agents of the Russian state timeline, Active Measures is distributed, both in theaters and digitally.[153][154][155]

September edit

  • September: The U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, D.C., sends Paul Erickson a letter informing him that it is considering bringing charges against him for secretly acting as a foreign agent and a possible additional charge for conspiracy.[156]
  • September 4: The New York Times reports that Mueller's office told Trump's legal team in a letter that Mueller would accept written answers from Trump to questions about whether his campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections.[157]
  • September 5:
    • Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi receives a subpoena to appear before Mueller's grand jury on September 7.[158]
    • Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify on their companies' efforts to combat fake news and the manipulation of their platforms heading into the midterm elections.[159][44]: 52, 75 
    • The Daily Beast reports that the GRU-linked "Inside Syria Media Center" fake news outlet is actively posting content on the Facebook page "Oriental Review" after being banned from Facebook two weeks earlier.[119]
    • Magistrate Judge John J. O'Sullivan denies a request that he order Gubarev's lawyers to give a copy of the Steele deposition to the Senate Judiciary and House Intelligence Committees.[65]
    • Mueller's team interviews Jason Fishbein, the lawyer who sent WikiLeaks the password to a website critical of Trump.[19]: 60 
  • September 6:
    • Corsi meets with Mueller's team for the first time.[19]: 54 [56]: 233–234  His grand jury appearance is put on indefinite hold.[160]
    • Mueller's team interviews Patten.[56]: 49 
  • September 7:
    • Randy Credico testifies before Mueller's grand jury.[160]
    • Papadopoulos is sentenced to 14 days in jail, one year of supervised release, 200 hours of community service, and a $9,500 fine for lying to the FBI.[161][162]
    • Bloomberg reports that federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating possible campaign finance law violations by executives at the Trump Organization.[163]
    • Bloomberg reports that Manafort is negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors for the charges in his upcoming trial.[164]
  • September 9: Papadopoulos tells George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that he lied to the FBI in January 2016 to protect Trump from possible incrimination.[165]
  • September 10:
    • Papadopoulos posts a series of Twitter messages questioning Australian ambassador Alexander Downer's motivations for contacting him in London in May 2016. He suggests Downer was probing him on his business interests in Israel on behalf of Clinton, MI6, or private intelligence agencies.[166]
    • The Daily Beast reports that Erickson is under investigation by the FBI and the U.S. attorney in South Dakota for fraudulently seeking $100,000 investments at conservative political events to fund North Dakota companies allegedly involved in the Bakken oil fields.[167]
  • September 11: Mueller's team interviews Manafort.[56]: 74, 77, 79, 84, 92, 101, 103, 348–349, 368 
  • September 12:
    • BuzzFeed News reports that federal investigators are examining suspicious bank transactions involving accounts controlled by the Agalarov family a few days after the Trump Tower meeting and a few days after the 2016 election.[168]
    • Trump issues an executive order authorizing sanctions against individuals and governments who interfere in the upcoming 2018 U.S. elections. It covers meddling with election infrastructure and attempts to influence voting from outside the country. The order is seen as an effort to forestall bipartisan legislation that would mandate tougher actions.[169][170]
    • ABC News reports that Manafort is attempting to negotiate a plea deal to avoid his upcoming trial, but refuses to accept a clause requiring cooperation with Mueller's investigation.[171]
    • The U.S. Senate votes to share the transcript of the Senate Intelligence Committee's closed-door interview of Sam Patten with the prosecutors in Manafort's second trial.[172]
    • The Wall Street Journal reports that nearly 600 IRA Twitter accounts posted nearly 10,000 mostly conservative-targeted messages about health policy and Obamacare from 2014 through May 2018. Pro-ObamaCare messages peaked around the spring of 2016 when Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were fighting for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Anti-Obamacare messages peaked during the debates leading up to the attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the spring of 2017.[173]
    • Mueller's team interviews Cohen for the second time.[19]: 69–72, 75–78, 115 [17]: 28, 135–139, 141–142, 144, 146–147 [56]: 431, 444–445, 447, 658–659 
    • Mueller's team interviews Manafort.[56]: 31, 83, 137 
  • September 13: Mueller's team interviews Manafort.[56]: 41–43, 50, 77, 93, 94, 106, 163, 165, 223, 227, 229, 231–233, 244, 251 
  • September 14:
     
    Paul Manafort plea agreement
     
    Paul Manafort statement of the offense and other acts
  • September 17:
    • The White House announces that Trump ordered declassification of a large number of classified documents, including 21 pages of an application for a renewed FISA warrant against former campaign aide Carter Page, all FBI interviews related to the warrant application, and text messages from FBI agents Ohr, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, as well as former FBI director Comey and former FBI deputy director McCabe, in another attempt to discredit the FBI and the Mueller investigation.[183][184][185] According to David S. Kris, "The release of FISAs like this is off the charts" in the degree to which it is unprecedented.[186]
    • Mueller's team submits written questions to Trump, including questions about the Trump Tower Moscow project, and attach the project's letter of intent signed by Trump and Cohen's written statement to Congress.[17]: 149 
    • Mueller's team interviews Corsi.[19]: 54 [56]: 233, 236, 239 
  • September 18: Mueller's team interviews Cohen for the third time.[19]: 53, 74 [17]: 17, 19, 136, 138–144 
  • September 19:
    • NPR reports that beginning in 2014, Maria Butina urged Americans to hold gun rights demonstrations.[187]
    • U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan schedules Michael Flynn's sentencing hearing for December 18. The sentencing is for Flynn's December 2017 plea agreement.[188]
    • Trump tells TheHill.com he ordered the declassification on the urging of the "great Lou Dobbs, the great Sean Hannity, the wonderful, great Jeanine Pirro."[189][190]
 
American Media Inc. Non-Prosecution Agreement
  • September 20:
    • American Media, Inc., enters into a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in the SDNY for cooperation into the investigation of a $150,000 payment it made to Karen McDougal in concert with the Trump campaign. The deal requires cooperation for three years, though it does not cover prosecution for any associated tax liabilities. The agreement is kept under seal and revealed by prosecutors on December 12.[191]
    • Butina's lawyers issue a subpoena to American University demanding "[a] copy of each class roster (and photo roster, if one) for each of Maria Butina’s courses at American University."[192]
  • September 21:
    • After receiving push-back from foreign allies over his September 17 declassification order, Trump walks it back and says the Justice Department Inspector General will review the documents instead.[193][194]
    • The New York Times reports that confidential memos McCabe wrote in early 2017 show that Rosenstein talked of secretly recording the chaos he observed in the White House and discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office. Rosenstein disputes the accuracy of The New York Times article.[195]
    • Corsi is interviewed by Mueller's team[19]: 54, 59 [56]: 233, 239, 241–242, 249–251  and testifies before Mueller's grand jury.[196] Corsi's participation in this and subsequent interviews by Mueller's team are made under a proffer agreement limiting the use of his statements against him.[19]: 54–55 
    • BuzzFeed News reports that Mueller is investigating a series of transfers totaling $3.3 million made by Aras Agalarov's Crocus Group to Kaveladze before and after the Trump Tower meeting.[197] The report triggers U.S. banks to close a number of Crocus's accounts within a few weeks.[198][199] The report also leads to the arrest of Natalie Edwards on October 17 for leaking FinCEN data.[199]
  • September 22:
    • The Washington Post reports that K. T. McFarland changed her statement to the FBI shortly after Flynn's guilty plea in December 2017. Her new statement says a general statement made by Flynn may have indicated he discussed sanctions with Kislyak on December 29, 2016. Her previous statement to the FBI, made in the summer of 2017, denied any knowledge of Flynn and Kislyak discussing sanctions. Court documents filed with Flynn's guilty plea refer to contemporaneous emails between Flynn and McFarland that show they discussed the contents of Flynn's conversations with Kislyak. McFarland's inconsistent statements scuttled her nomination to be the ambassador to Singapore.[200]
    • The Daily Beast reports that the U.K. implored Trump not to release unredacted copies of Page's FISA warrants and related intelligence documents.[201]
  • September 24: The New Yorker reports that election researcher Kathleen Hall Jamieson's nonpartisan analysis of the 2016 presidential debates, campaigns, opinion polls, targeted advertising by Russians, and the Russian and WikiLeaks' dumps of Clinton and DNC confidential campaign materials leads to the conclusion that Russia's interference most likely swayed enough of the electorate for Trump to win the election.[202]
  • September 25: The New York Times reports that the Moscow-based news website "USAReally.com" appears to be a continuation of the IRA's fake news propaganda efforts targeting Americans. The site, launched in May, has been banned from Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. A new Facebook page created by the site is being monitored by Facebook.[203]
  • September 27: Mueller's team interviews Gates.[19]: 136 
  • September 28: The House Intelligence Committee votes to declassify 53 witness testimonies. The Republican-majority committee also votes along party lines not to release the transcripts of the testimony of Rohrabacher, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Comey, Brennan, and Rogers. Chairman Nunes refuses to answer when asked by Representative Mike Quigley whether the votes' timing was influenced by the White House or the president's legal team.[204]

October edit

  • October 1: Mueller's team interviews Manafort.[56]: 107 
  • October 2: The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews former FBI general counsel James Baker.[56]: 878, 907, 915 
  • October 3:
  • October 4:
    • Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Albertovich Karapetyan, a close associate of Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met senior Trump campaign officials in 2016, dies in a helicopter crash.[205]
    • The U.S. Justice Department announces the indictment of seven GRU officers for cybercrimes including hacking into the World Anti-Doping Agency and leaking the test results of prominent athletes. Four of the officers were among the 12 GRU officers indicted by the Mueller investigation in July. The indictment alleges the GRU took the actions in retaliation for Russian athletes being banned from the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[206]
    • The Daily Beast reports that Brittany Kaiser, the former director of business development at Cambridge Analytica, will be interviewed by House Intelligence Committee Democrats, and that she previously testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.[207]
  • October 5–6: Deripaska aide and former Russian intelligence officer Commander Viktor A. Boyarkin confirms to TIME magazine that he was in communication with Manafort during his time working for the Trump campaign in order to collect the debts Manafort owes to Deripaska.[208]
  • October 8: The New York Post reports Deripaska's New York City mansion has been frozen alongside all of his U.S. assets.[209]
  • October 10:
    • Richard Pinedo is sentenced to six months in prison followed by six months of home confinement and 100 hours of community service for selling bank account numbers to the IRA.[19]: 175 
    • Mueller's team interviews Gates.[56]: 43, 71 
  • October 11:
    • The Trump campaign argues in a court filing that WikiLeaks cannot be held liable for publishing stolen emails because it is a passive publishing platform like Google or Facebook. It further argues WikiLeaks is not part of a conspiracy because publishing the emails was not illegal.[210]
    • Mueller's team interviews Manafort.[211]
  • October 15: Politico reports that Anthony Lomangino, a recycling mogul, major Republican campaign contributor, and Mar-a-Lago member, gave $150,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Trust Fund.[212]

  • October 17:
  • October 18: Bloomberg reports that Mueller's preliminary report will be out just after the November 6 elections.[215]
 
United States of America v. Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova criminal complaint
  • October 19:
    • The US Justice Department charges 44-year old Russian accountant Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova of Saint Petersburg with conspiracy to defraud the United States by managing the finances of the social media troll operation, including the IRA, that attempted to interfere with the 2016 and 2018 US elections.[216][217]
    • "USAReally.com" disputes the allegations against Khusyaynova and describes her as the chief financial officer of the USA Really news agency and its parent, the Federal News Agency.[218][219]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews hedge fund manager Rick Gerson.[56]: 722–725, 727, 729, 732 
  • October 22: Giuliani tells Reuters that he had spoken with Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing several times since Manafort's plea agreement. He says the discussions were held under Manafort's joint defense agreement with Trump, and that Manafort isn't telling Mueller anything that incriminates Trump.[220][17]: 127 
  • October 25:
     
    Transcript of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees joint interview of George Papadopoulos (redacted)
    • Mueller's team interviews Gates.[19]: 52–54 [17]: 17–18 [56]: 73, 104, 223–227, 230–233, 240, 248, 251 
    • The House Judiciary and Oversight Committees jointly interview Papadopoulos.[221]
  • October 26: Mueller's team interviews Bannon for the third time.[19]: 156 [17]: 80–81 
  • October 29:
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Anthony Scaramucci.[56]: 734, 739 
    • Mueller's team interviews Gates.[56]: 38, 43, 51, 153–154, 165, 674, 677 
  • October 30: Mueller spokesman Peter Carr announces, "When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation." The week before, bloggers and journalists received an email claiming to be from a woman who was offered $30,000, and other benefits, by radio host Jack Burkman to make false allegations about Mueller.[222]
  • October 31: Mueller's team interviews Corsi for the fourth time. The interview is conducted under a proffer agreement.[19]: 54–55 

November edit

  • November 1: Mueller's team interviews Corsi.[56]: 233, 236, 239–242, 250–251  The interview is conducted under a proffer agreement.[19]: 54, 58–59 
  • November 2:
    • The Daily Beast reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the NRA for documents related to its connections to Russia, including the December 2015 Moscow trip.[223]
    • Mueller's team interviews Corsi.Mueller's team interviews Corsi.[56]: 233  The interview is conducted under a proffer agreement.[19]: 54 
  • November 5: The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews former CEO of Rosneft Peter O'Brien.[56]: 654–655 
  • November 6:
     
    ICO report: Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns
    • Midterm elections: Democrats take the House of Representatives. Republicans pick up seats in the Senate.
    • The New York Times reports that Mueller has acquired communications between Arron Banks and Russian diplomats.[224]
    • The Information Commissioner's Office releases its final report on Cambridge Analytica, titled "Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns". The commissioner found Cambridge Analytica would have received a substantial fine if it were still in business, and that it "unfairly process[ed] people’s personal data for political purposes, including purposes connected with the 2016 U.S. presidential campaigns." It said the company "nimbly" evaded the few restrictions Facebook imposed on acquiring user data. The commissioner also found that Cambridge Analytica and Leave.EU never reached an agreement to work together even though an executive appeared with Leave.EU officials at a press conference.[224]

 
Jeff Sessions' resignation letter
  • November 7:
    • Sessions resigns as attorney general at Trump's request. Trump replaces him with Matthew Whitaker. Ordinarily the deputy attorney general, in this case Rosenstein, would become acting attorney general in case of a vacancy.[225]
    • Mueller's team interviews Gates.[19]: 136, 138 [56]: 875 
  • November 8
  • November 12: Mueller's team interviews Cohen for the fifth time.[17]: 136, 139, 141–142, 144 
  • November 13: Corsi tells The Guardian that Mueller's team questioned him about Farage and Ted Malloch two weeks earlier.[228]
  • November 14:
    • NBC News reports that through Assange's attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler, the widow of William Kunstler, Randy Credico knew on August 27, 2016, that Wikileaks would release information about the Clinton campaign in the near future and texted Roger Stone that "Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary."[229] Credico continued to give Stone updates on the upcoming Wikileaks release of numerous emails stolen from Podesta and the Clinton campaign. The emails were released beginning on October 7, 2016.[229]
    • Mueller's team interviews Gates.[56]: 97 
  • November 15: Judge Friedrich refuses to dismiss the case against Concord Management and Consulting. She rejects the argument that the case against the company should be dismissed because there is no law prohibiting interfering in U.S. elections. Instead, she writes, the case is about whether the company was "deceptive and intended to frustrate" the lawful functions of U.S. government agencies, and that the government does not have to prove the company new what those specific functions were.[230]
  • November 16:
    • An unrelated court filing accidentally reveals that Assange has been charged in federal court by the US government.[231][232]
    • The Daily Beast reports John P. Hannah has come under Mueller investigation scrutiny.[233]
  • November 19:
    • In a letter with this date, a person claiming to be an associate of Papadopoulos sends Schiff's office a letter that states that Papadopoulos told Trump in December 2016 that "Greek Orthodox leaders" were "playing an important role" along with their Russian counterparts in his collaboration with Russia. The letter is taken "very seriously" by federal authorities.[234]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Bannon.[56]: 91, 226, 228, 232, 247, 249, 252, 254–256, 358, 391, 404, 467, 514, 646, 649, 664–668, 670, 673, 679, 732, 735, 740–741, 769 
  • November 20:
    • Senate Minority Leader Schumer sends a letter requesting that the DoJ inspector general investigate communications between acting AG Whitaker and the White House.[235][236]
    • Trump submits his written answers[17]: C-1–C-23  to some questions posed by the Special Counsel.[237]
    • The Federal Agency of News (FAN) sues Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for violating its free speech rights by closing its account in April. The FAN is a sister organization to the IRA that operates from the same building in St. Petersburg. The FAN claims in its filing that it has no knowledge of the IRA, even though some current FAN employees were indicted by Mueller for their work with the IRA.[238]
    • Mueller's team interviews Cohen for the sixth time.[17]: 20, 136, 138–144, 147 
  • November 21:
    • The Daily Beast reports that the House Intelligence Committee is hiring money laundering and forensic accounting experts for its planned investigations when the Democrats take over in January.[239]
    • Mueller's team interviews FBI chief of staff James Rybicki for the fourth of four times.[17]: 35, 41, 45 
  • November 24: The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee compels the founder of the American software company Six4Three to hand over a cache of internal Facebook documents the company acquired as part of a lawsuit against Facebook. The documents are related to Facebook's data-sharing practices. The committee previously requested such documents from Facebook as part of its investigation into Cambridge Analytica, but the company refused to cooperate.[240]
  • November 25: A federal judge rejects Papadopoulos's motion to postpone his prison sentence pending an appeal in a related case challenging Mueller's authority. On September 7, Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in prison, set to start November 26.[241]
  • November 26:
    • Corsi reveals that Mueller's team offered him a plea deal. Corsi says he rejected the deal and would rather go to prison than admit he willfully lied to investigators.[242]
    • Mueller's team alleges Manafort broke his cooperation agreement by repeatedly lying to investigators after the deal was signed. Manafort denies lying intentionally, but both parties agree he should be sentenced immediately.[243]
    • Papadopoulos begins his prison sentence in Wisconsin.[244]
  • November 27:
    • The Guardian reports that sources claim Manafort met with Assange in March 2016, when he was a key part of the Trump campaign, in addition to meetings in 2013 and 2015. The meeting allegedly took place at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, months before WikiLeaks released Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.[245] Manafort denies the report.[246]
    • Corsi releases a draft plea agreement showing Stone tasked him in the summer of 2016 with finding out what damaging information WikiLeaks had on Clinton.[196]
    • The New York Times reports that Manafort's lawyer repeatedly briefed Trump's lawyers on Manafort's discussions with Mueller's team after he agreed to cooperate.[246][17]: 127 
    • Mueller's team interviews Dmitri Klimentov. He helped his brother Denis attempt to connect Carter Page with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[19]: 100 
    • Mueller's team interviews Patten.[56]: 67–68, 104, 122 
  • November 28:
    • The Daily Beast reports Erickson recently hired a lawyer after scrambling to raise funds for his expected legal costs.[247]
    • Trump gives an interview to the New York Post in which he praises Manafort, Corsi, and Stone[248] for not flipping.[249][17]: 128  He says in response to a question about pardons, "It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?"[249][17]: 128 
  • November 29:
     
    Criminal Information document filed with Michael Cohen's November 29 plea agreement
    • Cohen pleads guilty in SDNY to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal involving Trump. The case was brought by Mueller's investigators directly, unlike the August case in which Cohen pleaded guilty in the same court.[250] In the criminal information document filed with the plea agreement, Trump is identified as "Individual 1",[251] Felix Sater as "Individual 2",[251] and Dmitry Peskov as "Russian Official 1".[252]
    • BuzzFeed News reports that in 2016 the Trump Organization planned to give Putin the $50 million penthouse in the proposed Trump Tower Moscow.[253]
    • Trump admits[254] for the first time that he was pursuing a business deal in Moscow during the presidential campaign. He repeatedly denied any such dealings since announcing his candidacy.[255][256]
    • The Maryland State Board of Elections releases a report detailing the United States Department of Homeland Security's investigation into the integrity of the state's election systems. The investigation was triggered by the July 13 revelation that ByteGrid, Maryland's election systems supplier, was purchased by a Russian oligarch without the state being informed of the change in ownership. No evidence of malicious activity was found, but the state changed providers anyway as a precautionary measure.[257][258]
  • November 30:
    • The prosecution announces at Manafort's preliminary sentencing hearing in Washington, D.C., that it is considering more charges against Manafort and may retry him on the charges the jury was unable to agree on in his trial.[259][260]
    • The Central Bank of Russia announces Torshin has retired from his position as Deputy Governor.[261]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Boris Epshteyn.[56]: 228, 252, 258, 460 
  • November 30 – December 3: Nunes and his aides Derek Harvey, Scott Glabe, and George Pappas travel to Europe to investigate the origins of the Mueller investigation. Giuliani associate Lev Parnas assists Harvey with arranging meetings and calls in Europe.[262]

December edit

 
Michael Flynn – sentencing memorandum
 
Michael Flynn – addendum to sentencing memorandum
  • December: Manafort continues interactions with Kilimnik up until this month. Manafort later lied under oath about his interactions.[263][264]
  • December 1: Cohen's lawyers file his sentencing memorandum, in which they ask the court for no prison time because of his cooperation with federal investigators.[265]
  • December 3:
    • Trump attacks Cohen on Twitter for asking for no prison time, calling him a liar and accusing him of making a deal to protect his wife and father-in-law from prosecution.[266] In 2019, The Mueller Report refers to these tweets as evidence of witness intimidation.[17]: 151, 154, 156 
    • Mueller's team complains to Trump's personal counsel in writing that Trump's responses submitted on November 20 were insufficient, including more than 30 questions answered with "does not 'recall' or 'remember' or have an 'independent recollection'" of the requested information. They again ask for an in-person interview with Trump.[17]: C-1 
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Shlomo Weber.[56]: 542, 544, 546–548, 555–557 
  • December 4: In a sentencing memorandum, the Mueller investigation says Michael Flynn "deserves credit for accepting responsibility in a timely fashion and substantially assisting the government" and should receive little or no jail time.[267]
 
Sentencing memorandum for Michael Cohen filed by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
  • December 6: Mother Jones reports that the Trump campaign and the NRA both used National Media Research, Planning and Placement (NMRPP) to buy political ads in 2016, often with the same NMRPP employee buying ads for both Trump and the NRA for the same dates, television stations, and television shows. Former Federal Election Commission chair Ann Ravel tells Mother Jones, "I don’t think I’ve ever seen a situation where illegal coordination seems more obvious. It is so blatant that it doesn’t even seem sloppy. Everyone involved probably just thinks there aren’t going to be any consequences."[268]
  • December 7:
    • Mueller files a sentencing memorandum for Manafort in D.C. federal court.[269]
    • Mueller and federal prosecutors from the SDNY file sentencing memoranda for Cohen in Manhattan federal court.[270] The SDNY memorandum effectively accuses Trump of defrauding voters.[271] In the memorandum, Trump is identified as "Individual-1",[272] Karen McDougal as "Woman-1",[272] Stephanie Clifford as "Woman-2",[272] the Trump Organization as "Company",[273] the National Enquirer as "Magazine-1",[273] Pecker as "Chairman-1",[273] and American Media, Inc. as "Corporation-1".[273] In one of the filings, Cohen spoke of a Russian "trusted person" in the Russian Federation who could offer the Trump campaign "political synergy" and "synergy on a government level."[274]
    • Comey testifies for seven hours before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees behind closed doors. He tells the committees that in 2016 the FBI opened investigations into four Americans to determine if they were involved in the Russian election interference. He says some of the four were associated with the Trump campaign, but that Trump himself is not among them.[275] He also testifies that he opened an investigation into leaks related to the Clinton email investigation involving the New York FBI field office, Giuliani, and others, and that the investigation was still underway when he was fired.[276]
    • WikiLeaks, the Trump campaign, Kushner, Papadopoulos, and Stone file motions to dismiss the April 2018 DNC lawsuit against them. WikiLeaks argues the suit should be dismissed because it did not participate in hacking the DNC, and its publication of the DNC's material is protected by the First amendment. The Trump campaign argues the suit should be dismissed because it seeks to "explain away [the DNC] candidate’s defeat in the 2016 presidential election" and fails to show the campaign "aided and abetted Russia." Kushner's filing argues the suit should be dismissed because he had no prior knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting. Papadopoulos and Stone's filings cast their roles as innocuous. None of the filings contest the events the DNC laid out in its suit.[277]
    • The Campaign Legal Center and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence file a joint complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging the NRA and the Trump campaign illegally coordinated ad buys in 2016.[278]
    • Papadopoulos completes his term of imprisonment and is released from prison.[17]: D-6 
 
Transcript of Comey testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees
  • December 8: The House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees release the transcript of the prior day's Comey testimony.[275]
  • December 9: Corsi files a $350 million lawsuit against Mueller, the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA for allegedly illegally searching Corsi's phone and text messages without a warrant or probable cause.[279]
  • December 11:
    • The sentencing hearing in the Manafort case in D.C. begins, and is then postponed until January.[280]
    • CNN reports that Butina agreed to plead guilty to spying and is now cooperating with the prosecutor.[281]
  • December 12:
    • Former Trump attorney Cohen is sentenced to three years in prison.[282]
    • Federal prosecutors from SDNY unseal a non-prosecution agreement entered into on September 20 with American Media, Inc., that gives the company immunity from prosecution in exchange for its help in investigating a payment it made to McDougal at the direction of Trump.[191]
    • New York Attorney General-elect Letitia James tells NBC News that she plans to investigate Trump, his family, and associates. Her investigations will include potentially illegal real estate dealings, the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, government subsidies received by Trump, potential emoluments clause violations through his businesses, and the Trump Foundation. Her ability to investigate may hinge upon the passage of a bill by the State of New York that would allow her to bring prosecutions under New York law for acts that are pardoned under federal law.[283]
    • Reuters reports that Putin is unclear about why Butina was arrested. He said, "She risks 15 years in jail. For what? I asked all the heads of our intelligence services what is going on. Nobody knows anything about her."[284]
    • Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis tells Bloomberg that Trump and the White House knew in advance that Cohen was going to lie to Congress and did nothing to dissuade him from doing so.[285]
    • The Kiev Administrative District Court rules that National Anti-Corruption Bureau director Artem Sytnyk and member of the Ukrainian Parliament Serhiy Leshchenko acted illegally when they revealed that Manafort's name and signature were in Yanukovych's "black ledger".[286][287] The court rules that their actions "led to interference in the electoral processes of the United States in 2016 and harmed the interests of Ukraine as a state."[286] Leshchenko responds in a Facebook post that the real purpose of the ruling is to help Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko ingratiate himself with Trump.[286] The ruling was on a lawsuit brought by fellow member of parliament Boryslav Rozenblat of the Poroshenko Bloc party.[287] On July 16, 2019, the decision is overturned by the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal.[287]
    • Trump declines Mueller's team's in-person interview request made on December 3.[17]: C-2 
 
Maria Butina statement of the offense.
  • December 13:
    • Butina pleads guilty in a D.C. federal court to trying to infiltrate the U.S. conservative movement as an agent for the Kremlin. She admits to working with Erickson to forge bonds with NRA officials and conservative leaders while under the direction of Torshin. In her plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of failing to register as a foreign agent in exchange for cooperation. In the statement of the offense, Erickson is identified as "U.S. Person 1", Torshin as the "Russian Official", the Republican Party as "Political Party #1", and the NRA as the "Gun Rights Organization".[288]
    • The Wall Street Journal and NBC News report that Trump, Cohen, and Pecker met in August 2015 and agreed that Pecker would seek out and suppress any negative stories about Trump.[289]
    • The Wall Street Journal reports that the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office has started investigating the Trump inaugural committee for misspending money, or, possibly selling access to the incoming Trump administration to get policy concessions or influence Trump administration positions.[290]
    • Trump denies directing Cohen to break the law in a tweet, and tells Fox News the charges against Cohen were cooked up to "embarrass" him.[291][292]
    • Trump tweets that "[he] never directed Michael Cohen to break the law," that Cohen plead guilty to "embarrass the president" and protect his family from prosecution, and finishes with, "As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!"[293] In 2019, The Mueller Report refers to these tweets as evidence of witness intimidation.[17]: 151, 154, 156 
  • December 14:
    • An entire floor of the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., is sealed off for a closed-door hearing involving an unidentified foreign government-owned company challenging a subpoena for Mueller's grand jury.[294][295] In October 2020, CNN reveals that the company is a state-owned Egyptian bank that may have been the source of funds for Trump's $10 million loan to his campaign on October 29, 2016.[9]
    • Cohen tells George Stephanopoulos in an ABC News interview that Trump knew it was wrong to pay McDougal and Clifford.[296]
    • Federal prosecutors file a motion asking a judge for permission to move Butina to and from the Alexandria City Jail for interviews and, potentially, to testify before a grand jury. Intended to be under seal, the motion is briefly posted to the court website before being removed.[297]
  • December 16: Trump attacks Cohen on Twitter, calling him a "Rat" for cooperating with the FBI.[298] In 2019, The Mueller Report refers to this tweet as evidence of witness intimidation.[17]: 151, 154 
 
Indictment of Bijan Kian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin unsealed on December 17, 2018.
 
The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018
 
The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency
  • December 17
    • Federal prosecutors unseal an indictment against Bijan Kian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin, charging them both with conspiracy and acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government. Alptekin is also charged with making false statements. Kian is Flynn's business partner in Flynn Intel Group, and Alptekin hired the Group on behalf of the Turkish government to influence opinion in the U.S. and facilitate the extradition of Fethullah Gülen.[299] In the indictment, Flynn is identified as "Person A",[299] Flynn Intel Group as "Company A",[299] Inovo BV as "Company "B",[300] Gülen as "Turkish citizen",[299] President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as "Senior Turkish Leader #1",[299] Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım as "Senior Turkish Leader #2",[301] and, in no particular order, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu as "Turkish Minister #1" and "Turkish Minister #2".[302] Reports indicate there are strong hints Flynn was a contributing cooperator.[303]
    • Mueller's team releases the FBI notes on the interview with Flynn on January 24, 2017.[304]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee releases two reports it commissioned on the social media activities of the IRA: "The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency" and "The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018".[305]
 
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling: the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not protect a company owned by a foreign country from a grand jury subpoena.
  • December 18:
    • Bijan pleads not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. A spokesperson for Alptekin tells the court that he denies any wrongdoing.[306]
    • Michael Flynn's sentencing is delayed for 90 days as Judge Emmet Sullivan accuses Flynn of possible treason and states that he "sold out his country.".[307]
    • The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the grand jury subpoena that was argued over in a December 14 closed-door hearing that drew the attention of the press because security cleared the entire floor of the courthouse during the proceedings. The court rules that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not immunize a corporation owned by a foreign country even if the subpoena violates that country's laws.[308][309][295]
    • After acting attorney general Whitaker consults Justice Department ethics officials multiple times, the officials tell a group of Whitaker's advisers that he should recuse himself from the Mueller investigation.[310]
  • December 19:
    • In a Moscow news briefing, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says that Butina was coerced into making a false confession: "Butina confirmed that she had done a deal with U.S. investigators and confessed to being a foreign agent. Having created unbearable conditions for her and threatening her with a long jail sentence, she was literally forced to sign up to absolutely ridiculous charges."[311]
    • US District Judge Ursula Ungaro dismisses Aleksej Gubarev's February 2017 defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed News. Gubarev claimed Buzzfeed News defamed him by publishing unproven statements about him in the Steele dossier. Ungaro rules that the BuzzFeed News article was "true and fair" because it reproduced the entire dossier without commentary. Gubarev's lawyers announce they plan to appeal the ruling.[312]
    • D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine sues Facebook over its involvement with Cambridge Analytica.[313]
    • The Wall Street Journal reports that sworn depositions by Trump show that he has extensive knowledge of campaign finance laws. The knowledge demonstrated in the depositions contradicts Trump's assertions that any campaign finance violations he may have committed during 2015–16 were due to his own ignorance.[314]
    • The U.S. Treasury Department informs Congress that it is going to remove sanctions from three companies (En+ Group, Rusal, and EuroSibEnergo [ru]) controlled by Deripaska in 30 days because he reduced his ownership stake below 50 percent in each.[315] The Treasury also announces new sanctions on 15 Russian intelligence officers for election interference in the U.S. and elsewhere, as well as the nerve agent attack in the U.K.[316]
    • Whitaker's advisers recommend that he not recuse himself from the Mueller investigation, contradicting the advice they received from Justice Department ethics officials the day before.[310]
    • Incoming House Oversight committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) issues 51 letters to the heads of various government agencies and White House and Trump Organization officials seeking documents on a series of congressional investigations, with a deadline of January 11.[317]
    • The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Jill Stein.[56]: 803–809 
  • December 20:
    • The House Intelligence Committee votes unanimously to release the official transcript of Stone's testimony before the committee to Mueller's team.[318]
    • Senate Intelligence committee staffer James Wolfe is sentenced to two months in prison for lying to the FBI about leaking classified information on the Russia probe to the press.[319]
  • December 21:
    • CNN reports that Trump told Whitaker that prosecutors at SDNY are out of line and asked Whitaker why he isn't doing more to rein them in.[320]
    • LinkedIn general counsel Blake Lawit informs the Senate Intelligence Committee that an internal investigation of IRA activity found 91 accounts and five fake company pages, most of which were established in 2015.[44]: 62 
  • December 22: The unnamed foreign state owned company involved in the December 18 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling appeals the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.[321]
  • December 24: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts temporarily freezes accruing fines against a foreign state owned corporation that was subpoenaed by the Mueller probe. The court ordered Mueller to respond by December 31.[322]
  • December 27
    • McClatchy DC reports that Cohen's cellphone communicated with cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, lending credence to allegations in the Steele dossier. They also report that an Eastern European intelligence agency overheard a Russian conversation in late August/early September that included remarks saying Cohen was in Prague. Cohen denies the story, but McClatchy insists the information came from four independent sources.[323] The 2019 Mueller Report states that Cohen never traveled to Prague.[17]: 139 
    • Eric Dubelier, a lawyer defending Concord Management and Consulting,[324] who earlier asked the court to lift the prohibition from sharing discovery information with his client in Russia, files a motion to prevent Mueller from providing classified information to the judge that justifies the restriction. Mueller has provided Dubelier with 4 million pages from email and social media accounts belonging to Russian trolls, and asserts that sharing 3.2 million of those pages with Dubelier's clients in Russia would compromise intelligence gathering techniques.[325]
    • Mueller's team asks U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon to postpone the scheduled January 3, 2019, hearing for the December 10 lawsuit Corsi filed against Mueller, the FBI, and other government agencies because of the government shutdown. Judge Leon refuses.[326]
 
Letter from the House Judiciary Committee majority to the Senate majority leader, acting attorney general, and the Department of Justice inspector general on the status of their investigation into the FBI's 2016 Russia investigation.
  • December 28: GOP-led House Judiciary Committee releases final report on early Russia probe, condemning the FBI for being "unfair" and demanding a second special counsel to investigate the investigators.[327]

2019 edit

Main articles: Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2019) and Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (July–December 2019)
Further information: Timeline of the presidency of Donald Trump

See also edit

References edit

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December 15, 2023
timeline, investigations, into, donald, trump, russia, july, december, 2018, this, timeline, major, events, second, half, 2018, related, investigations, into, many, suspicious, links, between, trump, associates, russian, officials, spies, relating, russian, in. This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2018 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the transition the first and second halves of 2017 and the first half of 2018 but precedes that of the first and second halves of 2019 2020 and 2021 These events are related to but distinct from Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections Contents 1 Relevant individuals and organizations 1 1 A E 1 2 F M 1 3 N R 1 4 S Z 2 January June 2018 3 July December 2018 3 1 July 3 2 August 3 3 September 3 4 October 3 5 November 3 6 December 4 2019 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksRelevant individuals and organizations editThis section is transcluded from Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections edit history 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 1 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 2 who emigrated to the U S in 1994 3 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 4 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 5 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 6 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 of America 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 7 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 January June 2018 editMain article Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia January June 2018 July December 2018 editJuly edit July A warrant is filed targeting Broidy s office in Los Angeles in order to obtain documents related to his dealings with foreign officials and Trump administration associates including Gates and George Nader regarding conspiracy money laundering and crimes associated with illegal lobbying on behalf of foreign officials 8 Mueller s team issues a secret grand jury subpoena for records from a state owned Egyptian bank The suboena is part of an investigation into Trump s October 29 2016 10 million loan to his campaign 9 July 2 The Washington Post reports that the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission joined the Justice Department s investigation of Facebook Investigator s questions center around what Facebook knew in 2015 about Cambridge Analytica s use of Facebook s user data and discrepancies in recent statements about the incident 10 July 3 nbsp Unclassified Summary of Initial Findings on 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment released by the Senate Select Committee on IntelligenceThe Senate Intelligence Committee releases initial unclassified findings of its in depth review of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment ICA The committee finds the ICA to be a sound intelligence product 11 12 Dana Rohrabacher tells Elex Michaelson in an interview for Fox 11 Los Angeles that the theft of DNC emails was an inside job and not carried out by Russian hackers 13 14 U S District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle dismisses a lawsuit against the Trump campaign because the plaintiffs failed to show the D C district court has jurisdiction over the matter Protect Democracy filed the suit on behalf of Roy Cockrum Eric Schoenberg and Scott Comer It alleges the campaign entered into an agreement with other parties including agents of Russia and WikiLeaks to have information stolen from the DNC publicly disseminated in a strategic way that would benefit the campaign to elect Mr Trump as President 15 The plaintiffs refile the lawsuit in the U S District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on July 12 16 Mueller s team interviews Sarah Sanders for the first of three times 17 70 72 83 105 July 5 The Daily Beast reports that an unknown person hired bloggers in India and Indonesia to write articles whitewashing ties between Trump Sater Tevfik Arif and Bayrock Group The campaign appears to have been designed to influence Google Search results 18 July 7 Mueller s team interviews Tad Devine 19 132 July 10 The U K Information Commissioner s Office ICO fines Facebook 500 000 for two violations of the Data Protection Act 1998 the maximum fine the Act allows The ICO found Facebook failed to safeguard user data and wasn t transparent about allowing third parties to harvest user information The ICO also announces that it is going to criminally prosecute SCL Elections Ltd the parent of Cambridge Analytica for refusing to cooperate in the ICO s investigation 20 21 22 Rudolph Giuliani one of Trump s lawyers tells The Washington Post that he works for foreign clients while working for Trump He insists there are no conflicts of interest because his work for Trump is pro bono and no need to register as a foreign agent because he does not lobby the government though some lobbying experts disagree 23 July 11 Brian Benczkowski is controversially confirmed as a US Assistant Attorney General and head of the Criminal Division which is under Rosenstein s purview Benczkowski has no prosecutorial experience 24 After working for the Trump transition team he worked for Alfa Bank in 2017 defending it against accusations of suspicious contacts with a Trump Organization server in 2016 25 July 12 The White House orders that all members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees be given access to classified materials related to the FBI informant who contacted Papadopoulos and Page in 2016 Previously the materials were only made available to the Gang of Eight 26 Peter Strzok testifies before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees During heated questioning Strzok vigorously defends himself and the integrity of the 2016 FBI investigations into Russian interference in the election and Clinton s email server 27 source source source source source source source track Grand Jury Indicts 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses Related to 2016 Election nbsp Indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officersJuly 13 Mueller files an indictment against 12 Russian military intelligence officers in the U S District Court for the District of Columbia The indictment alleges they hacked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to steal internal documents distribute them to the public and influence the 2016 presidential election The indictment also alleges three of the officers hacked into election systems and stole many voters personal information 28 29 Leaders of the Maryland legislature reveal that ByteGrid LLC which operates some of the state s election systems is owned by Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin Potanin s American investment fund AltPoint Capital Partners purchased ByteGrid in 2015 Maryland state officials were not notified of the purchase at the time and were recently informed of it by the FBI 30 Mueller s team interviews Henry Oknyansky a k a Henry Greenberg 19 61 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Lisa Page 31 nbsp Criminal complaint against Maria Butina nbsp Affidavit supporting the criminal complaint against Maria Butina July 15 Butina is arrested in Washington D C on charges of being an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian Federation working to infiltrate politically influential organizations in the U S and influence U S officials 32 33 Mueller s team interviews Sarah Sanders for the second of three times 17 104 July 16 The Justice Department announces Butina s arrest and the criminal charges that led to it 32 NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch clarifies her May 8 denial 34 of the December 2015 NRA trip to Moscow telling Mark Follman of Mother Jones that she meant it wasn t an official trip 35 36 Trump meets with Putin in Helsinki for two hours with only translators present At a joint press conference afterward Trump says in his opening statement During today s meeting I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections Putin says in his statement the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs including the election process Jeff Mason from Reuters asks Putin why Americans should believe him Trump jumps in and talks about his electoral college win and denies collusion with Russia Putin responds As to who is to be believed and to who is not to be believed you can trust no one if you take this Jonathan Lemire from AP asks Trump if he believes Putin or his own intelligence officials on whether Russia interfered in the election Trump responds by asking about a Pakistani working for the DNC and Clinton s emails and calls into question the FBI s investigation of hacked DNC servers He concludes So I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today 37 Mason also asked Putin President Putin did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that and Putin responded Yes I did Yes I did Because he talked about bringing the U S Russia relationship back to normal This exchange is missing from the official transcripts and video of the summit for ten days before being added 38 39 40 41 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Lisa Page for a second time 31 July 17 Prosecutors file an indictment of Butina in the U S District Court for the District of Columbia 42 Rohrabacher tells Politico he is unsure whether he is the U S congressman mentioned in the Butina indictment though he admits to being in Russia in August 2015 and dining with Butina and another congressman He calls the charges against Butina bogus and a function of the deep state 43 The Senate Intelligence Committee holds a closed hearing on the White House awareness of and response to Russian active measures 44 74 45 13 15 23 26 27 32 33 37 41 July 18 Butina pleads not guilty at a preliminary hearing The judge orders Butina be held without bail pending trial 46 The New York Times reports that Trump was shown evidence that Putin personally ordered the 2016 hacking of DNC servers in a January 6 2017 intelligence briefing 47 CNN reports that the Secret Service has been blocking the DNC s attempts to serve Jared Kushner with the lawsuit it filed against him in April 48 Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee interview Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos George Papadopolous s wife for four hours Afterward she says she was asked about her husband s role in the Trump campaign and her relationship with Joseph Mifsud 49 July 19 The Russian Foreign Ministry calls on people to show their support for Butina by changing their social media avatars to a photo of her in Free Maria Butina campaign 50 At the Aspen Security Forum Microsoft s Tom Burt reports that Russians attempted to infiltrate three 2018 midterm congressional candidate campaigns 51 The Commerce Department grants Rusal America Corporation an exemption from the aluminum tariffs imposed March 8 to import 3 000 metric tons of aluminum billets tariff free Rusal America Corporation is a subsidiary of Rusal which is under sanctions for its financial ties to Deripaska 52 53 54 July 20 TMZ reports Kristin Davis is expecting a subpoena from Mueller s team 55 Alfa Bank sends a second unsolicited letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee stating that they found no evidence of substantive communications between the bank and the Trump Organization 56 791 792 July 23 Senators Ron Wyden Robert Menendez and Sheldon Whitehouse send Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a letter demanding the production of any documents relevant to financial links between the NRA its associated entities and Ms Butina and any entities or individuals related to her The letter is a follow up to a similar letter Wyden sent Mnuchin in February 57 After initial denials 58 a spokesperson for Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev confirms that Nikolaev funded Right to Bear Arms from 2012 to 2014 59 Mueller s team interviews Sarah Sanders for the third of three times 17 115 July 24 Jury selection in the first Manafort trial begins 60 July 25 Articles of impeachment against Rod Rosenstein are introduced in the House of Representatives by Freedom Caucus members Mark Meadows Jim Jordan and nine other cosponsors The articles say Rosenstein should have recused himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation because he signed the FISA warrant applications for surveilling Carter Page and accuse Rosenstein of withholding documents from Congress 61 62 House speaker Paul Ryan opposes the articles and convinces Meadows and Jordan not to try to force a floor vote 63 Senator Chuck Grassley asks Gubarev s lawyers in a letter to provide a copy of the Steele deposition to the Senate Judiciary Committee Steele was deposed in London on June 18 as part of Gubarev s libel suit against BuzzFeed 64 65 July 26 CNN reports that Cohen claims that Trump was informed by Donald Trump Jr of the Russians offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton in advance of the 2016 June 9 meeting with Veselnitskaya contradicting claims by Trump and Trump Jr that Trump only learned of the meeting shortly before it was reported by the New York Times in July 2017 66 The Wall Street Journal reports that longtime Trump Organization finance executive Allen Weisselberg has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Cohen s ongoing criminal investigation 67 The Daily Beast reports that Senator Claire McCaskill s reelection campaign was targeted by Fancy Bear for a phishing attack in August 2017 This is the first 2018 midterm campaign publicly identified as a Russian hacking target 68 The New York Times reports that Mueller is examining Trump s tweets about Sessions and Comey as part of his search for possible evidence of obstruction of justice 69 Graphika CEO John Kelly Director of Research at New Knowledge Renee DiResta and Oxford Internet Institute researcher Phil Howard testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed briefing on social media manipulation 44 8 34 35 37 48 54 55 July 27 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Mark Burnett 56 739 nbsp Disinformation and fake news Interim Report by the Digital Culture Media and Sports CommitteeJuly 28 The U K Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee releases its interim report on disinformation and fake news The report s topics include the activities of Cambridge Analytica SCL Facebook Russia and the Leave EU campaign 70 71 July 30 Devin Nunes tells the audience at a fundraiser for Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers that the Rosenstein impeachment effort is on hold until after Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is voted on by the Senate He says that if the House votes to impeach Rosenstein the Senate will have to drop everything including consideration of Kavanaugh until they vote on the impeachment and putting Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court is more important than removing Rosenstein Nunes also tells the audience that it is illegal for a candidate to use stolen emails in their campaign The fundraiser is a private event that excludes the press but an attendee secretly records Nunes s comments and gives the recording to MSNBC s The Rachel Maddow Show 72 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews someone whose name is redacted from volume 5 of their report on Russian interference 56 490 July 31 Paul Manafort s trial for bank and tax fraud charges starts in Alexandria Virginia 73 Facebook announces they have shut down eight pages 17 profiles and seven Instagram accounts related to bad actors identified recently with activity profiles similar to the IRA The company says it doesn t have enough information to attribute the accounts groups and events to the IRA but that a known IRA account was briefly an administrator of the Resisters group 74 The Resisters group was the first organizer on Facebook of the upcoming No Unite The Right 2 DC protest scheduled in Washington D C for August 10 Some of the event s other organizers insist they started organizing before Resisters created the event s Facebook page 75 Andrew Miller a former associate of Roger Stone loses his attempt to challenge a subpoena from Mueller by asserting Mueller s appointment was unconstitutional U S District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge Beryl A Howell rules Mueller s appointment was constitutional and that the subpoena is therefore valid and Miller must appear at the earliest date available to the grand jury and to complete production of the subpoenaed records promptly 76 August edit Further information Trials of Paul Manafort August 1 CNN reports that over the past few months Mueller referred three people and their firms to the U S Attorney for the SDNY for further investigation into failing to register as lobbyists for a foreign government The referrals include Tony Podesta former U S Representative Vin Weber MN R and former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig Manafort paid all three and their firms through the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine to lobby on behalf of the Ukrainian government Craig worked at the same firm as Alex van der Zwaan 77 78 Trump makes a series of tweets related to Manafort 79 80 17 125 including calling for Sessions to end the Mueller investigation immediately 81 and complaining that Manafort is being treated worse than Al Capone 82 His tweets are widely reported in the press and in 2019 the Mueller Report cites them as evidence of attempted jury tampering 17 125 131 132 The Senate votes to allow the Senate Intelligence Committee to share the transcript of Butina s testimony before the committee with the prosecutorial and defense teams in her criminal case 83 Mueller s team interviews Kristin M Davis 84 85 The Senate Intelligence Committee sends Assange an invitation to testify before the committee 86 DiResta Graphika CEO John Kelly and then German Marshall Fund expert Laura Rosenberger testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in an open hearing on foreign influence campaigns on social media 87 44 8 11 16 33 47 54 55 57 58 60 Kelly tells the committee that Russian automated accounts produce 25 30 times as many far left and far right message as legitimate political accounts 87 August 2 Sanders Bolton Coats Nielsen Wray and Nakasone hold a White House news briefing that confirms that Russia interfered in US elections and that the threat is real 88 Mueller s team interviews Petr Aven 19 146 147 163 165 166 Mueller s team interviews White House Chief of Staff John Kelly 17 91 114 118 August 3 Lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting ask District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich to declare Mueller s appointment invalid When Friedrich says she should follow Supreme Court precedent lawyer James Martin asks her to be brave and ignore it 89 U S District Judge George B Daniels dismisses Rod Wheeler s August 1 2017 lawsuit against Fox News writing that the inaccurate quotes in the Fox article didn t meet the legal standard for false 90 August 5 In a tweet Trump admits publicly for the first time that the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting was about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton 91 92 August 6 Politico reports that almost all of the money contributed to The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust the legal fund established in February to help Trump campaign transition and White House aides came from four donors closely linked to Trump 93 August 7 Senator Elizabeth Warren sends Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross a letter inquiring about the details of the exemption to aluminum tariffs granted to Rusal America Corporation on July 19 Rusal America Corporation is a subsidiary of Rusal which is under sanctions for its financial ties to Deripaska 52 53 54 Mueller s team interviews Cohen for the first time 19 72 73 115 17 17 18 134 135 56 226 227 230 231 357 August 8 The Hill reports the White House is drafting an executive order allowing the president to impose sanctions on 10 of the 30 largest businesses in a country whose nationals are found to have meddled in U S elections 94 The Commerce Department reverses its decision to grant an aluminum tariffs exemption to Rusal America Corporation a day after Senator Warren inquired about the exemption The department claims the original grant was a clerical error 53 54 95 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Leon Black 56 642 644 649 654 August 9 The Hill reports House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte is preparing subpoenas for people connected to the Steele dossier including Nellie and Bruce Ohr Glenn Simpson and former FBI and DOJ officials Jim Baker Sally Moyer Jonathan Moffa and George Toscas 96 The Daily Beast reports that Igor Pisarky the founder and chairman of the Russian public relations firm R I M Porter Novelli was Butina s point of contact for the funding she received from billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev 97 August 10 Judge Howell rules Andrew Miller is in contempt of court for refusing to appear before one of Mueller s grand juries Howell stays the contempt order to allow an appeal to proceed After the closed hearing Miller s lawyer Paul Kamenar says he asked the court for the contempt ruling so that he can file an appeal challenging the legality of the Mueller investigation 98 Miller s challenge is being funded by the National Legal and Policy Center because they say they share his concerns about the constitutionality of the Mueller investigation 99 Rick Davis appears before one of Mueller s grand juries 100 Randy Credico s lawyer says Credico is scheduled to appear before Mueller s grand jury on September 7 100 DNC lawyers use Twitter to serve WikiLeaks with the lawsuit it filed in April 101 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Michael Glassner 56 533 August 13 FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich overrules the recommendation of the Office of Professional Responsibility OPR and fires FBI agent Peter Strzok for violating bureau policies The OPR had recommended demotion and a 60 day suspension The firing contradicts FBI Director Christopher Wray s assurances to Congress that the FBI would follow its regular processes 102 Trump heralds the firing on Twitter 103 104 Judge Friedrich rules that Mueller s appointment was constitutional The ruling is in response to a motion lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting made on August 3 to dismiss Mueller s charges against the company 105 106 August 15 Trump strips former CIA director John O Brennan of his security clearance 107 August 16 In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Trump connects his revoking of John Brennan s security clearance to the Russia investigation 107 Former CIA Director John O Brennan commenting on the reason his credentials were revoked by Trump stated that Trump s claims of no collusion were hogwash The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy and how many members of Trump Incorporated attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets 108 Manafort s Virginia trial sends the case to the jury to begin deliberations 17 125 Steele provides a tranche of written answers to the Senate Intelligence Committee 56 852 August 17 Mueller files a sentencing memorandum for George Papadopoulos in the U S District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that Papadopoulos s concealment of information in January 2017 prevented the FBI from effectively confronting Mifsud in February and potentially arresting him before he left the United States Mueller recommends Papadopoulos be incarcerated for up to six months and fined up to 9 500 He says Papadopoulos agreed to the fine but has not been very cooperative and only volunteered information when confronted with evidence 109 110 In an impromptu exchange with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House Trump praises Manafort and attacks his prosecution and the Mueller investigation 111 17 126 In 2019 the Mueller Report cites his remarks as evidence of attempted jury tampering because they occurred during jury deliberations 17 131 132 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Brittany Kaiser 56 664 666 668 670 672 674 678 679 August 18 The New York Times reports that White House Counsel Don McGahn gave Mueller over 30 hours of voluntary testimony over the past nine months 112 August 20 Judge Anthony C Epstein of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia throws out a libel suit the founders of Alfa Bank filed on April 16 against Steele and his company Orbis Business Intelligence The case is dismissed with prejudice in response to a motion by lawyers for Orbis Business Intelligence 113 114 115 August 21 nbsp Michael Cohen s plea agreement nbsp Michael Cohen charging documentsCohen pleads guilty in US District Court for the SDNY to five counts of tax evasion one count of bank fraud and two counts related to campaign finance law violations Cohen says he paid Stormy Daniels at the direction of Donald Trump for the purpose of influencing the election 116 Paul Manafort is convicted on eight of eighteen counts in his first trial He is found guilty of filing false tax returns for years 2010 through 2014 defrauding Citizens Bank and Banc of California and failing to declare a foreign bank account The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges 117 Facebook announces that it has taken down hundreds of pages since July involving disinformation campaigns originating in Russia and Iran 118 Among the pages removed is the GRU linked Inside Syria Media Center fake news outlet 119 Nunes is in London trying to meet with MI5 MI6 and GCHQ to get information on Steele and his interactions with Bruce Ohr The agencies decline to meet with Nunes because they are concerned he is trying to stir up a controversy Nunes does meet with U K deputy national security adviser Madeleine Alessandri 120 August 22 In an interview with Ainsley Earhardt broadcast the next day on Fox amp Friends Trump praises Manafort for not flipping 121 17 126 127 In 2019 the Mueller Report cites his statements as evidence of Trump encouraging Manafort not to cooperate with the government 17 132 133 In an interview Giuliani says that Trump feels Manafort was horribly treated 122 17 127 He says they discussed the potential political fallout over giving Manafort a pardon but he is not considering one 122 After the interview Sanders tells the press that a pardon for Manafort was not something that s been up for discussion 123 August 23 Scientists at George Washington University report that the IRA used Twitter to sow discord about the safety of vaccines 124 125 The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair report that federal prosecutors for the SDNY granted immunity from prosecution to American Media Inc s chairman and CEO David Pecker and chief content officer Dylan Howard in exchange for their cooperation 126 In the Cohen charging documents Pecker is identified as Chairman 1 American Media Inc as Corporation 1 its publication National Enquirer as Magazine 1 and Howard as Editor 1 127 128 129 Giuliani tells The Washington Post that in the previous weeks Trump discussed issuing pardons for Manafort and others targeted by the Mueller investigation but he and Sekulow convinced Trump to wait for the Mueller report before issuing any 123 17 127 Reality Winner is sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2017 to giving The Intercept a top secret document on Russian hackers targeting U S election systems 130 August 24 The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors in New York granted immunity from prosecution to Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in exchange for his cooperation Weisselberg is identified as Executive 1 in the Cohen charging document 131 August 27 The Wall Street Journal reports that Manafort s legal team started plea discussions with Mueller s team before Manafort s first trial ended The discussions fell apart because of objections from Mueller 132 Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee chair Damian Collins and Labour party deputy leader Tom Watson call for a Mueller style investigation of likely Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum Collins says his committee s investigation was limited in scope by its jurisdiction and other government watchdog agencies suffer from similar limitations preventing a full accounting of Russia s influence on the referendum 133 August 28 Trump tweets that China hacked Clinton s email server 134 135 August 29 In response the FBI issues a brief statement that says The FBI has not found any evidence the servers were compromised 136 CNN reports that the US Attorney s Office for the SDNY rejected a request from a second Trump Organization employee for an immunity deal 137 Trump announces that McGahn will leave the White House in the fall 138 139 Trump tweets that Chief Justice of the United States John G Roberts should tell the head of FISA Court Rosemary M Collyer to question FBI and Justice Department officials about their use of the Trump Russia dossier as part of a collusion probe with particular focus on Ohr 140 Papadopoulos decides not to withdraw from his plea deal with Mueller 141 August 30 Trump claims that NBC s Lester Holt altered the recording of their interview on May 11 2017 in which Trump stated the Russia investigation played a role in his decision to fire Comey 142 Trump provides no evidence to support his assertion 143 144 145 D C Circuit Court of Appeals Judges David Tatel and Thomas Griffith deny a request from lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting to join Andrew Miller s appeal The judges rule that while they are both challenging the constitutionality of Mueller s appointment the facts in their cases are too different to warrant combining their appeals The judges further rule that Concord can file an amicus brief 146 Mueller s team interviews David Klein 19 90 August 31 nbsp Samuel Patten statement of the offenseSam Patten a lobbyist and associate of Paul Manafort pleads guilty in Washington D C to failing to register as a foreign lobbyist The case was referred by the Special Counsel As part of his plea deal Patten agrees to work with Mueller s office Patten s company received more than 1 million for its Ukraine work from 2015 to 2017 and helped his foreign client pay 50 000 to Trump s inaugural committee 147 148 149 150 In the statement of the offense Konstantin Kilimnik is identified as Foreigner A his and Patten s company Begemot Ventures International as Company A and Serhiy Lyovochkin as Foreigner B 150 151 152 The first major documentary to address the allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and agents of the Russian state timeline Active Measures is distributed both in theaters and digitally 153 154 155 September edit September The U S Attorney s office in Washington D C sends Paul Erickson a letter informing him that it is considering bringing charges against him for secretly acting as a foreign agent and a possible additional charge for conspiracy 156 September 4 The New York Times reports that Mueller s office told Trump s legal team in a letter that Mueller would accept written answers from Trump to questions about whether his campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 U S elections 157 September 5 Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi receives a subpoena to appear before Mueller s grand jury on September 7 158 Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify on their companies efforts to combat fake news and the manipulation of their platforms heading into the midterm elections 159 44 52 75 The Daily Beast reports that the GRU linked Inside Syria Media Center fake news outlet is actively posting content on the Facebook page Oriental Review after being banned from Facebook two weeks earlier 119 Magistrate Judge John J O Sullivan denies a request that he order Gubarev s lawyers to give a copy of the Steele deposition to the Senate Judiciary and House Intelligence Committees 65 Mueller s team interviews Jason Fishbein the lawyer who sent WikiLeaks the password to a website critical of Trump 19 60 September 6 Corsi meets with Mueller s team for the first time 19 54 56 233 234 His grand jury appearance is put on indefinite hold 160 Mueller s team interviews Patten 56 49 September 7 Randy Credico testifies before Mueller s grand jury 160 Papadopoulos is sentenced to 14 days in jail one year of supervised release 200 hours of community service and a 9 500 fine for lying to the FBI 161 162 Bloomberg reports that federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating possible campaign finance law violations by executives at the Trump Organization 163 Bloomberg reports that Manafort is negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors for the charges in his upcoming trial 164 September 9 Papadopoulos tells George Stephanopoulos on ABC s This Week with George Stephanopoulos that he lied to the FBI in January 2016 to protect Trump from possible incrimination 165 September 10 Papadopoulos posts a series of Twitter messages questioning Australian ambassador Alexander Downer s motivations for contacting him in London in May 2016 He suggests Downer was probing him on his business interests in Israel on behalf of Clinton MI6 or private intelligence agencies 166 The Daily Beast reports that Erickson is under investigation by the FBI and the U S attorney in South Dakota for fraudulently seeking 100 000 investments at conservative political events to fund North Dakota companies allegedly involved in the Bakken oil fields 167 September 11 Mueller s team interviews Manafort 56 74 77 79 84 92 101 103 348 349 368 September 12 BuzzFeed News reports that federal investigators are examining suspicious bank transactions involving accounts controlled by the Agalarov family a few days after the Trump Tower meeting and a few days after the 2016 election 168 Trump issues an executive order authorizing sanctions against individuals and governments who interfere in the upcoming 2018 U S elections It covers meddling with election infrastructure and attempts to influence voting from outside the country The order is seen as an effort to forestall bipartisan legislation that would mandate tougher actions 169 170 ABC News reports that Manafort is attempting to negotiate a plea deal to avoid his upcoming trial but refuses to accept a clause requiring cooperation with Mueller s investigation 171 The U S Senate votes to share the transcript of the Senate Intelligence Committee s closed door interview of Sam Patten with the prosecutors in Manafort s second trial 172 The Wall Street Journal reports that nearly 600 IRA Twitter accounts posted nearly 10 000 mostly conservative targeted messages about health policy and Obamacare from 2014 through May 2018 Pro ObamaCare messages peaked around the spring of 2016 when Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were fighting for the Democratic Party presidential nomination Anti Obamacare messages peaked during the debates leading up to the attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the spring of 2017 173 Mueller s team interviews Cohen for the second time 19 69 72 75 78 115 17 28 135 139 141 142 144 146 147 56 431 444 445 447 658 659 Mueller s team interviews Manafort 56 31 83 137 September 13 Mueller s team interviews Manafort 56 41 43 50 77 93 94 106 163 165 223 227 229 231 233 244 251 September 14 nbsp Paul Manafort plea agreement nbsp Paul Manafort statement of the offense and other actsPaul Manafort pleads guilty to conspiracy against the United States to money launder commit tax fraud violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act lie to the U S Department of Justice and obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses As part of the plea deal he also agrees to cooperate with the Mueller investigation 174 175 In the statement of the offense Alan Friedman is identified as Person D1 176 Eckart Sager as Person D2 176 Mercury Public Affairs as Company A 177 Podesta Group as Company B 177 FBC Media as Company D 177 Aleksander Kwasniewski as former Polish President 178 Hillary Clinton as senior Cabinet official 179 Avigdor Lieberman as senior Israeli Government Official 179 Dana Rohrabacher as Member of Congress 180 and the firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher amp Flom as Law Firm A 177 Vanity Fair reports that Cohen has been talking to Mueller s team 181 Giuliani tells 182 Hannity on his Fox News show that he has inside information indicating that Manafort s plea and cooperation agreements have nothing to do with the Trump campaign 17 127 September 17 The White House announces that Trump ordered declassification of a large number of classified documents including 21 pages of an application for a renewed FISA warrant against former campaign aide Carter Page all FBI interviews related to the warrant application and text messages from FBI agents Ohr Peter Strzok and Lisa Page as well as former FBI director Comey and former FBI deputy director McCabe in another attempt to discredit the FBI and the Mueller investigation 183 184 185 According to David S Kris The release of FISAs like this is off the charts in the degree to which it is unprecedented 186 Mueller s team submits written questions to Trump including questions about the Trump Tower Moscow project and attach the project s letter of intent signed by Trump and Cohen s written statement to Congress 17 149 Mueller s team interviews Corsi 19 54 56 233 236 239 September 18 Mueller s team interviews Cohen for the third time 19 53 74 17 17 19 136 138 144 September 19 NPR reports that beginning in 2014 Maria Butina urged Americans to hold gun rights demonstrations 187 U S District Judge Emmet Sullivan schedules Michael Flynn s sentencing hearing for December 18 The sentencing is for Flynn s December 2017 plea agreement 188 Trump tells TheHill com he ordered the declassification on the urging of the great Lou Dobbs the great Sean Hannity the wonderful great Jeanine Pirro 189 190 nbsp American Media Inc Non Prosecution AgreementSeptember 20 American Media Inc enters into a non prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in the SDNY for cooperation into the investigation of a 150 000 payment it made to Karen McDougal in concert with the Trump campaign The deal requires cooperation for three years though it does not cover prosecution for any associated tax liabilities The agreement is kept under seal and revealed by prosecutors on December 12 191 Butina s lawyers issue a subpoena to American University demanding a copy of each class roster and photo roster if one for each of Maria Butina s courses at American University 192 September 21 After receiving push back from foreign allies over his September 17 declassification order Trump walks it back and says the Justice Department Inspector General will review the documents instead 193 194 The New York Times reports that confidential memos McCabe wrote in early 2017 show that Rosenstein talked of secretly recording the chaos he observed in the White House and discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office Rosenstein disputes the accuracy of The New York Times article 195 Corsi is interviewed by Mueller s team 19 54 59 56 233 239 241 242 249 251 and testifies before Mueller s grand jury 196 Corsi s participation in this and subsequent interviews by Mueller s team are made under a proffer agreement limiting the use of his statements against him 19 54 55 BuzzFeed News reports that Mueller is investigating a series of transfers totaling 3 3 million made by Aras Agalarov s Crocus Group to Kaveladze before and after the Trump Tower meeting 197 The report triggers U S banks to close a number of Crocus s accounts within a few weeks 198 199 The report also leads to the arrest of Natalie Edwards on October 17 for leaking FinCEN data 199 September 22 The Washington Post reports that K T McFarland changed her statement to the FBI shortly after Flynn s guilty plea in December 2017 Her new statement says a general statement made by Flynn may have indicated he discussed sanctions with Kislyak on December 29 2016 Her previous statement to the FBI made in the summer of 2017 denied any knowledge of Flynn and Kislyak discussing sanctions Court documents filed with Flynn s guilty plea refer to contemporaneous emails between Flynn and McFarland that show they discussed the contents of Flynn s conversations with Kislyak McFarland s inconsistent statements scuttled her nomination to be the ambassador to Singapore 200 The Daily Beast reports that the U K implored Trump not to release unredacted copies of Page s FISA warrants and related intelligence documents 201 September 24 The New Yorker reports that election researcher Kathleen Hall Jamieson s nonpartisan analysis of the 2016 presidential debates campaigns opinion polls targeted advertising by Russians and the Russian and WikiLeaks dumps of Clinton and DNC confidential campaign materials leads to the conclusion that Russia s interference most likely swayed enough of the electorate for Trump to win the election 202 September 25 The New York Times reports that the Moscow based news website USAReally com appears to be a continuation of the IRA s fake news propaganda efforts targeting Americans The site launched in May has been banned from Facebook Twitter and Reddit A new Facebook page created by the site is being monitored by Facebook 203 September 27 Mueller s team interviews Gates 19 136 September 28 The House Intelligence Committee votes to declassify 53 witness testimonies The Republican majority committee also votes along party lines not to release the transcripts of the testimony of Rohrabacher Debbie Wasserman Schultz Comey Brennan and Rogers Chairman Nunes refuses to answer when asked by Representative Mike Quigley whether the votes timing was influenced by the White House or the president s legal team 204 October edit October 1 Mueller s team interviews Manafort 56 107 October 2 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews former FBI general counsel James Baker 56 878 907 915 October 3 Kathleen Hall Jamieson publishes Cyberwar How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President What We Don t Can t and Do Know a book that gives a detailed nonpartisan analysis of how Russian activities likely swayed the 2016 election to Trump 202 October 4 Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Albertovich Karapetyan a close associate of Natalia Veselnitskaya the lawyer who met senior Trump campaign officials in 2016 dies in a helicopter crash 205 The U S Justice Department announces the indictment of seven GRU officers for cybercrimes including hacking into the World Anti Doping Agency and leaking the test results of prominent athletes Four of the officers were among the 12 GRU officers indicted by the Mueller investigation in July The indictment alleges the GRU took the actions in retaliation for Russian athletes being banned from the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 206 The Daily Beast reports that Brittany Kaiser the former director of business development at Cambridge Analytica will be interviewed by House Intelligence Committee Democrats and that she previously testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee 207 October 5 6 Deripaska aide and former Russian intelligence officer Commander Viktor A Boyarkin confirms to TIME magazine that he was in communication with Manafort during his time working for the Trump campaign in order to collect the debts Manafort owes to Deripaska 208 October 8 The New York Post reports Deripaska s New York City mansion has been frozen alongside all of his U S assets 209 October 10 Richard Pinedo is sentenced to six months in prison followed by six months of home confinement and 100 hours of community service for selling bank account numbers to the IRA 19 175 Mueller s team interviews Gates 56 43 71 October 11 The Trump campaign argues in a court filing that WikiLeaks cannot be held liable for publishing stolen emails because it is a passive publishing platform like Google or Facebook It further argues WikiLeaks is not part of a conspiracy because publishing the emails was not illegal 210 Mueller s team interviews Manafort 211 October 15 Politico reports that Anthony Lomangino a recycling mogul major Republican campaign contributor and Mar a Lago member gave 150 000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Trust Fund 212 October 17 Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards a senior official at the Treasury Department s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network FinCEN is accused of leaking confidential banking reports of suspects charged in the Mueller probe 213 214 199 Mueller s team interviews Cohen for the fourth time 17 146 Mueller s team interviews Robert Foresman the investment banker who offered his services to the Trump campaign as a backdoor intermediary with Putin 19 79 80 160 162 October 18 Bloomberg reports that Mueller s preliminary report will be out just after the November 6 elections 215 nbsp United States of America v Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova criminal complaintOctober 19 The US Justice Department charges 44 year old Russian accountant Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova of Saint Petersburg with conspiracy to defraud the United States by managing the finances of the social media troll operation including the IRA that attempted to interfere with the 2016 and 2018 US elections 216 217 USAReally com disputes the allegations against Khusyaynova and describes her as the chief financial officer of the USA Really news agency and its parent the Federal News Agency 218 219 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews hedge fund manager Rick Gerson 56 722 725 727 729 732 October 22 Giuliani tells Reuters that he had spoken with Manafort s lawyer Kevin Downing several times since Manafort s plea agreement He says the discussions were held under Manafort s joint defense agreement with Trump and that Manafort isn t telling Mueller anything that incriminates Trump 220 17 127 October 25 nbsp Transcript of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees joint interview of George Papadopoulos redacted Mueller s team interviews Gates 19 52 54 17 17 18 56 73 104 223 227 230 233 240 248 251 The House Judiciary and Oversight Committees jointly interview Papadopoulos 221 October 26 Mueller s team interviews Bannon for the third time 19 156 17 80 81 October 29 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Anthony Scaramucci 56 734 739 Mueller s team interviews Gates 56 38 43 51 153 154 165 674 677 October 30 Mueller spokesman Peter Carr announces When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation The week before bloggers and journalists received an email claiming to be from a woman who was offered 30 000 and other benefits by radio host Jack Burkman to make false allegations about Mueller 222 October 31 Mueller s team interviews Corsi for the fourth time The interview is conducted under a proffer agreement 19 54 55 November edit November 1 Mueller s team interviews Corsi 56 233 236 239 242 250 251 The interview is conducted under a proffer agreement 19 54 58 59 November 2 The Daily Beast reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the NRA for documents related to its connections to Russia including the December 2015 Moscow trip 223 Mueller s team interviews Corsi Mueller s team interviews Corsi 56 233 The interview is conducted under a proffer agreement 19 54 November 5 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews former CEO of Rosneft Peter O Brien 56 654 655 November 6 nbsp ICO report Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaignsMidterm elections Democrats take the House of Representatives Republicans pick up seats in the Senate The New York Times reports that Mueller has acquired communications between Arron Banks and Russian diplomats 224 The Information Commissioner s Office releases its final report on Cambridge Analytica titled Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns The commissioner found Cambridge Analytica would have received a substantial fine if it were still in business and that it unfairly process ed people s personal data for political purposes including purposes connected with the 2016 U S presidential campaigns It said the company nimbly evaded the few restrictions Facebook imposed on acquiring user data The commissioner also found that Cambridge Analytica and Leave EU never reached an agreement to work together even though an executive appeared with Leave EU officials at a press conference 224 nbsp Jeff Sessions resignation letterNovember 7 Sessions resigns as attorney general at Trump s request Trump replaces him with Matthew Whitaker Ordinarily the deputy attorney general in this case Rosenstein would become acting attorney general in case of a vacancy 225 Mueller s team interviews Gates 19 136 138 56 875 November 8 Oral arguments are heard in Andrew Miller s case in the U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 226 Thousands across the United States march to protest the firing of Sessions who recused himself from Mueller s investigation Whitaker s appointment was also protested as Whitaker said he would not recuse himself 227 November 12 Mueller s team interviews Cohen for the fifth time 17 136 139 141 142 144 November 13 Corsi tells The Guardian that Mueller s team questioned him about Farage and Ted Malloch two weeks earlier 228 November 14 NBC News reports that through Assange s attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler the widow of William Kunstler Randy Credico knew on August 27 2016 that Wikileaks would release information about the Clinton campaign in the near future and texted Roger Stone that Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary 229 Credico continued to give Stone updates on the upcoming Wikileaks release of numerous emails stolen from Podesta and the Clinton campaign The emails were released beginning on October 7 2016 229 Mueller s team interviews Gates 56 97 November 15 Judge Friedrich refuses to dismiss the case against Concord Management and Consulting She rejects the argument that the case against the company should be dismissed because there is no law prohibiting interfering in U S elections Instead she writes the case is about whether the company was deceptive and intended to frustrate the lawful functions of U S government agencies and that the government does not have to prove the company new what those specific functions were 230 November 16 An unrelated court filing accidentally reveals that Assange has been charged in federal court by the US government 231 232 The Daily Beast reports John P Hannah has come under Mueller investigation scrutiny 233 November 19 In a letter with this date a person claiming to be an associate of Papadopoulos sends Schiff s office a letter that states that Papadopoulos told Trump in December 2016 that Greek Orthodox leaders were playing an important role along with their Russian counterparts in his collaboration with Russia The letter is taken very seriously by federal authorities 234 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Bannon 56 91 226 228 232 247 249 252 254 256 358 391 404 467 514 646 649 664 668 670 673 679 732 735 740 741 769 November 20 Senate Minority Leader Schumer sends a letter requesting that the DoJ inspector general investigate communications between acting AG Whitaker and the White House 235 236 Trump submits his written answers 17 C 1 C 23 to some questions posed by the Special Counsel 237 The Federal Agency of News FAN sues Facebook in the U S District Court for the Northern District of California for violating its free speech rights by closing its account in April The FAN is a sister organization to the IRA that operates from the same building in St Petersburg The FAN claims in its filing that it has no knowledge of the IRA even though some current FAN employees were indicted by Mueller for their work with the IRA 238 Mueller s team interviews Cohen for the sixth time 17 20 136 138 144 147 November 21 The Daily Beast reports that the House Intelligence Committee is hiring money laundering and forensic accounting experts for its planned investigations when the Democrats take over in January 239 Mueller s team interviews FBI chief of staff James Rybicki for the fourth of four times 17 35 41 45 November 24 The Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee compels the founder of the American software company Six4Three to hand over a cache of internal Facebook documents the company acquired as part of a lawsuit against Facebook The documents are related to Facebook s data sharing practices The committee previously requested such documents from Facebook as part of its investigation into Cambridge Analytica but the company refused to cooperate 240 November 25 A federal judge rejects Papadopoulos s motion to postpone his prison sentence pending an appeal in a related case challenging Mueller s authority On September 7 Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in prison set to start November 26 241 November 26 Corsi reveals that Mueller s team offered him a plea deal Corsi says he rejected the deal and would rather go to prison than admit he willfully lied to investigators 242 Mueller s team alleges Manafort broke his cooperation agreement by repeatedly lying to investigators after the deal was signed Manafort denies lying intentionally but both parties agree he should be sentenced immediately 243 Papadopoulos begins his prison sentence in Wisconsin 244 November 27 The Guardian reports that sources claim Manafort met with Assange in March 2016 when he was a key part of the Trump campaign in addition to meetings in 2013 and 2015 The meeting allegedly took place at the Ecuadorian embassy in London months before WikiLeaks released Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers 245 Manafort denies the report 246 Corsi releases a draft plea agreement showing Stone tasked him in the summer of 2016 with finding out what damaging information WikiLeaks had on Clinton 196 The New York Times reports that Manafort s lawyer repeatedly briefed Trump s lawyers on Manafort s discussions with Mueller s team after he agreed to cooperate 246 17 127 Mueller s team interviews Dmitri Klimentov He helped his brother Denis attempt to connect Carter Page with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 19 100 Mueller s team interviews Patten 56 67 68 104 122 November 28 The Daily Beast reports Erickson recently hired a lawyer after scrambling to raise funds for his expected legal costs 247 Trump gives an interview to the New York Post in which he praises Manafort Corsi and Stone 248 for not flipping 249 17 128 He says in response to a question about pardons It was never discussed but I wouldn t take it off the table Why would I take it off the table 249 17 128 November 29 nbsp Criminal Information document filed with Michael Cohen s November 29 plea agreementCohen pleads guilty in SDNY to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal involving Trump The case was brought by Mueller s investigators directly unlike the August case in which Cohen pleaded guilty in the same court 250 In the criminal information document filed with the plea agreement Trump is identified as Individual 1 251 Felix Sater as Individual 2 251 and Dmitry Peskov as Russian Official 1 252 BuzzFeed News reports that in 2016 the Trump Organization planned to give Putin the 50 million penthouse in the proposed Trump Tower Moscow 253 Trump admits 254 for the first time that he was pursuing a business deal in Moscow during the presidential campaign He repeatedly denied any such dealings since announcing his candidacy 255 256 The Maryland State Board of Elections releases a report detailing the United States Department of Homeland Security s investigation into the integrity of the state s election systems The investigation was triggered by the July 13 revelation that ByteGrid Maryland s election systems supplier was purchased by a Russian oligarch without the state being informed of the change in ownership No evidence of malicious activity was found but the state changed providers anyway as a precautionary measure 257 258 November 30 The prosecution announces at Manafort s preliminary sentencing hearing in Washington D C that it is considering more charges against Manafort and may retry him on the charges the jury was unable to agree on in his trial 259 260 The Central Bank of Russia announces Torshin has retired from his position as Deputy Governor 261 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Boris Epshteyn 56 228 252 258 460 November 30 December 3 Nunes and his aides Derek Harvey Scott Glabe and George Pappas travel to Europe to investigate the origins of the Mueller investigation Giuliani associate Lev Parnas assists Harvey with arranging meetings and calls in Europe 262 December edit nbsp Michael Flynn sentencing memorandum nbsp Michael Flynn addendum to sentencing memorandumDecember Manafort continues interactions with Kilimnik up until this month Manafort later lied under oath about his interactions 263 264 December 1 Cohen s lawyers file his sentencing memorandum in which they ask the court for no prison time because of his cooperation with federal investigators 265 December 3 Trump attacks Cohen on Twitter for asking for no prison time calling him a liar and accusing him of making a deal to protect his wife and father in law from prosecution 266 In 2019 The Mueller Report refers to these tweets as evidence of witness intimidation 17 151 154 156 Mueller s team complains to Trump s personal counsel in writing that Trump s responses submitted on November 20 were insufficient including more than 30 questions answered with does not recall or remember or have an independent recollection of the requested information They again ask for an in person interview with Trump 17 C 1 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Shlomo Weber 56 542 544 546 548 555 557 December 4 In a sentencing memorandum the Mueller investigation says Michael Flynn deserves credit for accepting responsibility in a timely fashion and substantially assisting the government and should receive little or no jail time 267 nbsp Sentencing memorandum for Michael Cohen filed by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York SDNY December 6 Mother Jones reports that the Trump campaign and the NRA both used National Media Research Planning and Placement NMRPP to buy political ads in 2016 often with the same NMRPP employee buying ads for both Trump and the NRA for the same dates television stations and television shows Former Federal Election Commission chair Ann Ravel tells Mother Jones I don t think I ve ever seen a situation where illegal coordination seems more obvious It is so blatant that it doesn t even seem sloppy Everyone involved probably just thinks there aren t going to be any consequences 268 December 7 Mueller files a sentencing memorandum for Manafort in D C federal court 269 Mueller and federal prosecutors from the SDNY file sentencing memoranda for Cohen in Manhattan federal court 270 The SDNY memorandum effectively accuses Trump of defrauding voters 271 In the memorandum Trump is identified as Individual 1 272 Karen McDougal as Woman 1 272 Stephanie Clifford as Woman 2 272 the Trump Organization as Company 273 the National Enquirer as Magazine 1 273 Pecker as Chairman 1 273 and American Media Inc as Corporation 1 273 In one of the filings Cohen spoke of a Russian trusted person in the Russian Federation who could offer the Trump campaign political synergy and synergy on a government level 274 Comey testifies for seven hours before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees behind closed doors He tells the committees that in 2016 the FBI opened investigations into four Americans to determine if they were involved in the Russian election interference He says some of the four were associated with the Trump campaign but that Trump himself is not among them 275 He also testifies that he opened an investigation into leaks related to the Clinton email investigation involving the New York FBI field office Giuliani and others and that the investigation was still underway when he was fired 276 WikiLeaks the Trump campaign Kushner Papadopoulos and Stone file motions to dismiss the April 2018 DNC lawsuit against them WikiLeaks argues the suit should be dismissed because it did not participate in hacking the DNC and its publication of the DNC s material is protected by the First amendment The Trump campaign argues the suit should be dismissed because it seeks to explain away the DNC candidate s defeat in the 2016 presidential election and fails to show the campaign aided and abetted Russia Kushner s filing argues the suit should be dismissed because he had no prior knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting Papadopoulos and Stone s filings cast their roles as innocuous None of the filings contest the events the DNC laid out in its suit 277 The Campaign Legal Center and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence file a joint complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging the NRA and the Trump campaign illegally coordinated ad buys in 2016 278 Papadopoulos completes his term of imprisonment and is released from prison 17 D 6 nbsp Transcript of Comey testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committeesDecember 8 The House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees release the transcript of the prior day s Comey testimony 275 December 9 Corsi files a 350 million lawsuit against Mueller the Justice Department the FBI the CIA and the NSA for allegedly illegally searching Corsi s phone and text messages without a warrant or probable cause 279 December 11 The sentencing hearing in the Manafort case in D C begins and is then postponed until January 280 CNN reports that Butina agreed to plead guilty to spying and is now cooperating with the prosecutor 281 December 12 Former Trump attorney Cohen is sentenced to three years in prison 282 Federal prosecutors from SDNY unseal a non prosecution agreement entered into on September 20 with American Media Inc that gives the company immunity from prosecution in exchange for its help in investigating a payment it made to McDougal at the direction of Trump 191 New York Attorney General elect Letitia James tells NBC News that she plans to investigate Trump his family and associates Her investigations will include potentially illegal real estate dealings the June 9 2016 Trump Tower meeting government subsidies received by Trump potential emoluments clause violations through his businesses and the Trump Foundation Her ability to investigate may hinge upon the passage of a bill by the State of New York that would allow her to bring prosecutions under New York law for acts that are pardoned under federal law 283 Reuters reports that Putin is unclear about why Butina was arrested He said She risks 15 years in jail For what I asked all the heads of our intelligence services what is going on Nobody knows anything about her 284 Cohen s lawyer Lanny Davis tells Bloomberg that Trump and the White House knew in advance that Cohen was going to lie to Congress and did nothing to dissuade him from doing so 285 The Kiev Administrative District Court rules that National Anti Corruption Bureau director Artem Sytnyk and member of the Ukrainian Parliament Serhiy Leshchenko acted illegally when they revealed that Manafort s name and signature were in Yanukovych s black ledger 286 287 The court rules that their actions led to interference in the electoral processes of the United States in 2016 and harmed the interests of Ukraine as a state 286 Leshchenko responds in a Facebook post that the real purpose of the ruling is to help Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko ingratiate himself with Trump 286 The ruling was on a lawsuit brought by fellow member of parliament Boryslav Rozenblat of the Poroshenko Bloc party 287 On July 16 2019 the decision is overturned by the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal 287 Trump declines Mueller s team s in person interview request made on December 3 17 C 2 nbsp Maria Butina statement of the offense December 13 Butina pleads guilty in a D C federal court to trying to infiltrate the U S conservative movement as an agent for the Kremlin She admits to working with Erickson to forge bonds with NRA officials and conservative leaders while under the direction of Torshin In her plea agreement prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of failing to register as a foreign agent in exchange for cooperation In the statement of the offense Erickson is identified as U S Person 1 Torshin as the Russian Official the Republican Party as Political Party 1 and the NRA as the Gun Rights Organization 288 The Wall Street Journal and NBC News report that Trump Cohen and Pecker met in August 2015 and agreed that Pecker would seek out and suppress any negative stories about Trump 289 The Wall Street Journal reports that the Manhattan U S attorney s office has started investigating the Trump inaugural committee for misspending money or possibly selling access to the incoming Trump administration to get policy concessions or influence Trump administration positions 290 Trump denies directing Cohen to break the law in a tweet and tells Fox News the charges against Cohen were cooked up to embarrass him 291 292 Trump tweets that he never directed Michael Cohen to break the law that Cohen plead guilty to embarrass the president and protect his family from prosecution and finishes with As a lawyer Michael has great liability to me 293 In 2019 The Mueller Report refers to these tweets as evidence of witness intimidation 17 151 154 156 December 14 An entire floor of the federal courthouse in Washington D C is sealed off for a closed door hearing involving an unidentified foreign government owned company challenging a subpoena for Mueller s grand jury 294 295 In October 2020 CNN reveals that the company is a state owned Egyptian bank that may have been the source of funds for Trump s 10 million loan to his campaign on October 29 2016 9 Cohen tells George Stephanopoulos in an ABC News interview that Trump knew it was wrong to pay McDougal and Clifford 296 Federal prosecutors file a motion asking a judge for permission to move Butina to and from the Alexandria City Jail for interviews and potentially to testify before a grand jury Intended to be under seal the motion is briefly posted to the court website before being removed 297 December 16 Trump attacks Cohen on Twitter calling him a Rat for cooperating with the FBI 298 In 2019 The Mueller Report refers to this tweet as evidence of witness intimidation 17 151 154 nbsp Indictment of Bijan Kian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin unsealed on December 17 2018 nbsp The IRA Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States 2012 2018 nbsp The Tactics amp Tropes of the Internet Research AgencyDecember 17 Federal prosecutors unseal an indictment against Bijan Kian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin charging them both with conspiracy and acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government Alptekin is also charged with making false statements Kian is Flynn s business partner in Flynn Intel Group and Alptekin hired the Group on behalf of the Turkish government to influence opinion in the U S and facilitate the extradition of Fethullah Gulen 299 In the indictment Flynn is identified as Person A 299 Flynn Intel Group as Company A 299 Inovo BV as Company B 300 Gulen as Turkish citizen 299 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Senior Turkish Leader 1 299 Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as Senior Turkish Leader 2 301 and in no particular order Energy Minister Berat Albayrak and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as Turkish Minister 1 and Turkish Minister 2 302 Reports indicate there are strong hints Flynn was a contributing cooperator 303 Mueller s team releases the FBI notes on the interview with Flynn on January 24 2017 304 The Senate Intelligence Committee releases two reports it commissioned on the social media activities of the IRA The Tactics amp Tropes of the Internet Research Agency and The IRA Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States 2012 2018 305 nbsp D C Circuit Court of Appeals ruling the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not protect a company owned by a foreign country from a grand jury subpoena December 18 Bijan pleads not guilty in federal court in Alexandria Virginia A spokesperson for Alptekin tells the court that he denies any wrongdoing 306 Michael Flynn s sentencing is delayed for 90 days as Judge Emmet Sullivan accuses Flynn of possible treason and states that he sold out his country 307 The D C Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the grand jury subpoena that was argued over in a December 14 closed door hearing that drew the attention of the press because security cleared the entire floor of the courthouse during the proceedings The court rules that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not immunize a corporation owned by a foreign country even if the subpoena violates that country s laws 308 309 295 After acting attorney general Whitaker consults Justice Department ethics officials multiple times the officials tell a group of Whitaker s advisers that he should recuse himself from the Mueller investigation 310 December 19 In a Moscow news briefing Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says that Butina was coerced into making a false confession Butina confirmed that she had done a deal with U S investigators and confessed to being a foreign agent Having created unbearable conditions for her and threatening her with a long jail sentence she was literally forced to sign up to absolutely ridiculous charges 311 US District Judge Ursula Ungaro dismisses Aleksej Gubarev s February 2017 defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed News Gubarev claimed Buzzfeed News defamed him by publishing unproven statements about him in the Steele dossier Ungaro rules that the BuzzFeed News article was true and fair because it reproduced the entire dossier without commentary Gubarev s lawyers announce they plan to appeal the ruling 312 D C Attorney General Karl Racine sues Facebook over its involvement with Cambridge Analytica 313 The Wall Street Journal reports that sworn depositions by Trump show that he has extensive knowledge of campaign finance laws The knowledge demonstrated in the depositions contradicts Trump s assertions that any campaign finance violations he may have committed during 2015 16 were due to his own ignorance 314 The U S Treasury Department informs Congress that it is going to remove sanctions from three companies En Group Rusal and EuroSibEnergo ru controlled by Deripaska in 30 days because he reduced his ownership stake below 50 percent in each 315 The Treasury also announces new sanctions on 15 Russian intelligence officers for election interference in the U S and elsewhere as well as the nerve agent attack in the U K 316 Whitaker s advisers recommend that he not recuse himself from the Mueller investigation contradicting the advice they received from Justice Department ethics officials the day before 310 Incoming House Oversight committee chairman Elijah Cummings D Md issues 51 letters to the heads of various government agencies and White House and Trump Organization officials seeking documents on a series of congressional investigations with a deadline of January 11 317 The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Jill Stein 56 803 809 December 20 The House Intelligence Committee votes unanimously to release the official transcript of Stone s testimony before the committee to Mueller s team 318 Senate Intelligence committee staffer James Wolfe is sentenced to two months in prison for lying to the FBI about leaking classified information on the Russia probe to the press 319 December 21 CNN reports that Trump told Whitaker that prosecutors at SDNY are out of line and asked Whitaker why he isn t doing more to rein them in 320 LinkedIn general counsel Blake Lawit informs the Senate Intelligence Committee that an internal investigation of IRA activity found 91 accounts and five fake company pages most of which were established in 2015 44 62 December 22 The unnamed foreign state owned company involved in the December 18 D C Circuit Court of Appeals ruling appeals the ruling to the U S Supreme Court 321 December 24 U S Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts temporarily freezes accruing fines against a foreign state owned corporation that was subpoenaed by the Mueller probe The court ordered Mueller to respond by December 31 322 December 27 McClatchy DC reports that Cohen s cellphone communicated with cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016 lending credence to allegations in the Steele dossier They also report that an Eastern European intelligence agency overheard a Russian conversation in late August early September that included remarks saying Cohen was in Prague Cohen denies the story but McClatchy insists the information came from four independent sources 323 The 2019 Mueller Report states that Cohen never traveled to Prague 17 139 Eric Dubelier a lawyer defending Concord Management and Consulting 324 who earlier asked the court to lift the prohibition from sharing discovery information with his client in Russia files a motion to prevent Mueller from providing classified information to the judge that justifies the restriction Mueller has provided Dubelier with 4 million pages from email and social media accounts belonging to Russian trolls and asserts that sharing 3 2 million of those pages with Dubelier s clients in Russia would compromise intelligence gathering techniques 325 Mueller s team asks U S District Judge Richard J Leon to postpone the scheduled January 3 2019 hearing for the December 10 lawsuit Corsi filed against Mueller the FBI and other government agencies because of the government shutdown Judge Leon refuses 326 nbsp Letter from the House Judiciary Committee majority to the Senate majority leader acting attorney general and the Department of Justice inspector general on the status of their investigation into the FBI s 2016 Russia investigation December 28 GOP led House Judiciary Committee releases final report on early Russia probe condemning the FBI for being unfair and demanding a second special counsel to investigate the investigators 327 2019 editMain articles Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia January June 2019 and Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia July December 2019 Further information Timeline of the presidency of Donald TrumpSee also editAssessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia Criminal charges brought in the Mueller special counsel investigation Cyberwarfare by Russia Efforts to impeach Donald Trump Foreign electoral intervention List of lawsuits involving Donald Trump Propaganda in post Soviet Russia Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum Timeline Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections Social media in the United States presidential election 2016 Timelines related to Donald Trump and Russian interference in United States elections 2017 18 United States political sexual scandalsReferences edit 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 vortex more than four hundred people millions of pages of financial records and scores of unanswered questions about the state of our democracy Index for Proof of Collusion Dilanian Ken Lebedeva Natasha Jackson Hallie July 14 2017 Former Soviet Counterintelligence Officer at Meeting With Donald Trump Jr and Russian Lawyer NBC News Archived from the original on July 14 2017 Retrieved January 10 2020 Cohen Marshall Kopan Tal Chan Adam Devine Curt July 15 2017 The new figure in the Trump Russia controversy Rinat Akhmetshin CNN Archived from the original on July 15 2017 Miller James April 13 2017 Trump and Russia All the Mogul s Men The Daily Beast Archived from the original on June 7 2017 Retrieved October 25 2019 Polantz Katelyn Perez Evan March 30 2018 Source Mueller pushed for Gates help on collusion CNN Stephanopoulos George Mosk Matthew March 5 2018 Russia Investigation Romance Key witness George Papadopoulos marries Italian lawyer ABC News Retrieved July 9 2018 Advisory Council Center for the National Interest Archived from the original on October 30 2016 Retrieved July 24 2019 Robert Faturechi Justin Elliot March 18 2019 Federal Authorities Raided Trump Fundraiser s Office in Money Laundering Probe A sealed search warrant obtained by ProPublica shows federal agents scoured Elliott Broidy s office for documents related to China Saudi Arabia and a Miami Beach club promoter ProPublica org Retrieved 18 March 2019 a b Polantz Katelyn Perez Evan Herb Jeremy October 14 2020 Exclusive Feds chased suspected foreign link to Trump s 2016 campaign cash for three years CNN Retrieved October 15 2020 Timberg Craig Dwoskin Elizabeth Zapotosky Matt Barrett Devlin July 2 2018 Facebook s disclosures under scrutiny as federal agencies join probe of tech giant s role in sharing data with Cambridge Analytica The Washington Post Retrieved July 2 2018 Matishak Martin July 3 2018 Senate Intel backs assessment of Russian election meddling Politico Retrieved July 3 2018 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence July 3 2018 Unclassified Summary of Initial Findings on 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment Richard Burr U S Senator for North Carolina Archived from the original PDF on July 3 2018 Retrieved July 3 2018 Weigel David July 19 2018 Russia friendly Rep Rohrabacher doubts hacking indictment plans to consult outside experts The Washington Post Retrieved July 20 2018 Elex Michaelson Elex Michaelson July 6 2018 RepRohrabacher says the Russians didn t hack the DNC as US intelligence agencies have claimed We know it was an inside job and we know there were several people inside the DNC that were disgruntled Full Interview 10 30pm FOXLA Tweet Retrieved July 20 2018 via Twitter Conradis Brandon July 4 2018 Judge dismisses suit alleging Trump campaign conspired with Russia over hack The Hill Retrieved August 2 2018 Cockrum v Trump Campaign Complaint Protect Deomcracy July 10 2018 Archived from the original on February 22 2021 Retrieved February 22 2021 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj Muller III Robert S March 2019 Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election Volume II PDF Retrieved April 19 2019 Markay Lachlan Jones Dean Sterling July 5 2018 Inside the Online Campaign to Whitewash the History of Donald Trump s Russian Business Associates The Daily Beast Retrieved July 5 2018 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Muller III Robert S March 2019 Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election Volume I PDF Court Listener Court ordered release Retrieved October 1 2020 Further unredacted text restored by the Department of Justice and released on June 19 2020 in response to a court order Information Commissioner s Office July 10 2018 Findings recommendations and actions from ICO investigation into data analytics in political campaigns Information Commissioner s Office Archived from the original on July 11 2018 Retrieved July 10 2018 Information Commissioner s Office July 10 2018 Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns Investigation update PDF Information Commissioner s Office Retrieved July 10 2018 Romm Tony Dwoskin Elizabeth July 10 2018 Facebook is slapped with first fine for Cambridge Analytica scandal The Washington Post Retrieved July 10 2018 Dawsey Josh Hamburger Tom Parker Ashley July 10 2018 Giuliani works for foreign clients while serving as Trump s attorney The Washington Post Retrieved July 11 2018 Carrie Johnson July 11 2018 Senate Confirms New Boss For Justice Department Criminal Division NPR org Retrieved July 11 2018 Carlson Margaret July 30 2018 Brian Benczkowski Worked for a Russian Bank Now He s Trump s Man at Justice Daily Beast Retrieved September 6 2018 Mazzetti Mark July 12 2018 White House Orders Broader Access to Files About F B I Informant The New York Times Retrieved July 15 2018 Fandos Nicholas Schmidt Michael S July 12 2018 F B I Agent Defends Actions in Russia Inquiry in Contentious House Testimony The New York Times Retrieved July 15 2018 Barrett Devlin Zapotosky Matt Hsu Spencer S Ferris Rotman Amie July 13 2018 Mueller probe indicts 12 Russians with hacking Democrats in 2016 The Washington Post Retrieved July 13 2018 U S v Viktor Borisovich Netyksho case 1 18 cr 215 Indictment PDF United States District Court for the District of Columbia July 13 2018 Retrieved July 13 2018 Witte Brian July 13 2018 Officials Russian firm used in Maryland election systems The Washington Post Associated Press Archived from the original on July 14 2018 Retrieved July 15 2018 a b Surgarman Lev March 12 2019 Document Transcripts of Lisa Page s House Judiciary Committee Interview Lawfare Retrieved September 14 2020 a b Russian National Charged in Conspiracy to Act as an Agent of the Russian Federation Within the United States U S Department of Justice July 16 2018 Retrieved July 16 2018 Press release number 18 933 Jackman Tom Helderman Rosalind S July 16 2018 Maria Butina Russian gun rights advocate charged in U S with acting as Russian Federation agent The Washington Post Retrieved July 16 2018 Dana Loesch DLoesch May 8 2018 Any armed combatant is a threat David Clarke isn t a NRA official and there was no NRA trip thanks for allowing me to publicly correct you David Tweet Retrieved July 26 2018 via Twitter Follman Mark July 19 2018 The NRA Has Deep Ties to Accused Russian Spy Maria Butina Mother Jones Retrieved July 26 2018 Dana Loesch DLoesch July 16 2018 Clearly you struggle with reading comprehension as I said it wasn t an official trip Be sure to spin hard though I enjoy watching your efforts Tweet Retrieved July 26 2018 via Twitter Remarks by President Trump and President Putin of the Russian Federation in Joint Press Conference whitehouse gov July 16 2018 Retrieved July 20 2018 via National Archives Abigail Simon July 16 2018 Read a Transcript of Trump and Putin s Joint Press Conference TIME com Retrieved July 25 2018 STAFF OFF MIKE QUESTION And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that PUTIN THROUGH TRANSLATOR Yes I did Yes I did Because he talked about bringing the U S Russia relationship back to normal The White House Transcript Is Missing the Most Explosive Part of the Trump Putin Press Conference It s not clear whether the omission was intended but the meaning of a key exchange is dramatically altered as a result TheAtlantic com July 17 2018 Retrieved July 25 2018 Maddow White House removed Putin support for Trump from official video transcript TheHill com July 25 2018 Retrieved July 25 2018 Kathryn Watson Arden Farhi Emily Tillett contributed July 25 2018 What s the deal with the Trump Putin press conference video CBSNews com Retrieved July 25 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David E Rosenberg Matthew July 18 2018 From the Start Trump Has Muddied a Clear Message Putin Interfered The New York Times Retrieved July 18 2018 Scannell Kara Gray Noah July 18 2018 DNC alleges Secret Service blocked it from serving lawsuit to Jared Kushner CNN Retrieved August 2 2018 Cheney Kyle July 18 2018 George Papadopoulos wife gets grilled by lawmakers Politico Retrieved August 13 2018 O Grady Siobhan Ferris Rotman Amie July 20 2018 Russian Foreign Ministry launches Free Maria Butina campaign after alleged Russian agent is jailed The Washington Post Retrieved July 20 2018 Thomas Fox Brewster July 20 2018 Microsoft Russian Hackers Are Targeting The Midterms Forbes com Retrieved July 23 2018 a b Warren Elizabeth August 7 2018 Letter to Wilbur L Ross PDF U S Senate PDF Retrieved August 30 2018 a b c Tankersley Jim Sullivan Eileen August 9 2018 How a Blacklisted Russian Firm Won and Lost a Break From Trump s Tariffs The New York Times Retrieved August 30 2018 a b c Campbell Alexia Fernandez August 29 2018 Exclusive Sen Warren asks for investigation of Trump administration s alarming steel tariff exemptions Vox Retrieved August 30 2018 Goldstein Joseph Delaqueriere Alain July 21 2018 Ex Manhattan Madam Kristin Davis Expects Subpoena From Mueller The New York Times Retrieved August 2 2018 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag Select Committee on Intelligence 2020 Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the U S Election Volume 5 Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities PDF United States Senate Retrieved August 19 2020 Rubin Jennifer July 24 2018 Who met with Maria Butina The Washington Post Retrieved July 26 2018 Helferman Rosalind S Crites Alice Hamburger Tom Jackman Tom Ferris Rotman Amie Timberg Craig July 22 2018 Russian billionaire with U S investments backed alleged agent Maria Butina according to a person familiar with her Senate testimony The Washington Post Retrieved July 26 2018 Watkins Eli Herb Jeremy Kiley Sam Burrows Emma July 23 2018 Alleged spy told Senate panel about backing from Russian billionaire CNN Retrieved July 26 2018 David Voreacos July 24 2018 Manafort Jury Pool Takes First Step to Hearing High Profile Case Bloomberg com Retrieved October 8 2019 Reilly Katie July 25 2018 GOP Lawmakers File Articles of Impeachment Against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Time Retrieved July 26 2018 Beavers Olivia Lillis Mike July 25 2018 GOP lawmakers introduce articles of impeachment against Rosenstein The Hill Retrieved July 26 2018 Cheney Kyle Bade Rachael Morin Rebecca July 26 2018 Ryan rejects conservative push to impeach Rosenstein Politico Retrieved July 26 2018 Grassley Charles July 25 2018 Letter to Valentin Gurvatis Esq PDF U S Senate Retrieved September 6 2018 a b Bertrand Natasha September 6 2018 Christopher Steele Again Eludes His Republican Pursuers The Atlantic Retrieved September 6 2018 Sciutto Jim Bernstein Carl Cohen Marshall 2018 07 26 Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting CNN Retrieved 2018 07 27 O Brien Rebecca Davis Ballhaus Rebecca Rothfeld Michael Berzon Alexandra 2018 07 26 Trump Organization Finance Chief Called to Testify Before Federal Grand Jury Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Retrieved 2018 07 28 Desiderio Andrew Poulsen Kevin July 26 2018 Russian Hackers New Target a Vulnerable Democratic Senator Daily Beast Retrieved July 26 2018 Schmidt Michael S Haberman Maggie July 26 2018 Mueller Examining Trump s Tweets in Wide Ranging Obstruction Inquiry The New York Times Retrieved January 7 2019 Cadwalladr Carole July 28 2018 Plucky little panel that found the truth about fake news Facebook and Brexit The Guardian Retrieved August 12 2018 Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee July 29 2018 Disinformation and fake news Interim Report parliament uk Retrieved August 12 2018 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Helsel Phil August 8 2018 Secret recording shows GOP s Nunes saying Rosenstein impeachment would delay Supreme Court pick NBC News Retrieved August 9 2018 Weiner Rachel Jouvenal Justin Helderman Rosalind S Zapotosky Matt July 31 2018 Day one of the Paul Manafort trial Jury selection first witness called and a 15 000 ostrich jacket The Washington Post Retrieved July 31 2018 Gleicher Nathaniel Stamos Alex July 31 2018 Removing Bad Actors on Facebook Facebook Retrieved July 31 2018 Fandos Nicholas Roose Kevin Savage Charlie Frenkel Sheera July 31 2018 Facebook Identifies an Active Political Influence Campaign Using Fake Accounts The New York Times Retrieved July 31 2018 Polantz Katelyn Herb Jeremy Murray Sara August 2 2018 Judge orders Stone associate to testify before Mueller grand jury CNN Retrieved August 2 2018 Orden Erica August 1 2018 Exclusive Mueller refers foreign agent inquiries to New York prosecutors CNN Retrieved August 1 2018 Hays Tom Horwitz Jeff August 1 2018 New York prosecutors eye illicit foreign lobbying Associated Press Retrieved December 6 2018 Wagner John Barrett Devlin Leonnig Carol D DeBonis Mike Kim Seung Min Werner Erica August 1 2018 Trump calls Manafort prosecution a hoax says Sessions should stop Mueller investigation right now The Washington Post Retrieved August 1 2018 Nelson Louis August 1 2018 Trump claims Manafort case has nothing to do with collusion Politico Retrieved November 15 2019 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 1 2018 This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further Bob Mueller is totally conflicted and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA Tweet Retrieved August 1 2018 via Twitter Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 1 2018 Looking back on history who was treated worse Alfonse Capone legendary mob boss killer and Public Enemy Number One or Paul Manafort political operative amp Reagan Dole darling now serving solitary confinement although convicted of nothing Where is the Russian Collusion Tweet Retrieved November 20 2019 via Twitter Carney Jordain August 1 2018 Senate OKs sharing Intel panel documents on alleged Russian agent with DOJ her lawyers The Hill Retrieved August 1 2018 Schecter Anna Winter Tom Welker Kristen August 3 2018 Manhattan Madam Kristin Davis met with Special Counsel Mueller s team NBC News Retrieved August 3 2018 Slattery Denis August 3 2018 Infamous Manhattan Madam Kristin Davis interviewed by Mueller s team of investigators Los Angeles Times Retrieved August 5 2018 Ackerman Spencer August 8 2018 Senate Asks Julian Assange to Testify in Russia Investigation The Daily Beast Retrieved January 5 2019 a b Mak Tim August 2 2018 This Is Not Fine New Evidence Of Russian Interference Meets Inaction Frustration NPR Retrieved September 18 2020 Eli Stokols August 2 2018 On the defensive White House showcases top officials to attest to its efforts to bolster election security The San Diego Union Tribune Retrieved August 8 2018 Cheney Kyle August 3 2018 Be brave Russian firm urges judge to nix Mueller indictment Politico Retrieved August 12 2018 Blitzer Ronn August 3 2018 Judge Tosses Out Rod Wheeler s Defamation Case Over Fox News Seth Rich Story Law amp Crime Retrieved February 22 2021 for purposes of a defamation claim a statement is not false if it is substantially correct Blake Aaron August 5 2018 Trump just made 2 problematic admissions about the Trump Tower meeting The Washington Post Retrieved August 5 2018 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 5 2018 Fake News reporting a complete fabrication that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son Donald had in Trump Tower This was a meeting to get information on an opponent totally legal and done all the time in politics and it went nowhere I did not know about it Tweet Retrieved August 5 2018 via Twitter Cheney Kyle Woellert Lorraine August 6 2018 Trump allies back fund for aides legal defense in Mueller probe Politico Retrieved August 12 2018 Samuels Brett August 8 2018 White House working on executive order to punish election interference report The Hill Retrieved August 12 2018 Warren Investigation Forces Trump Administration to Reverse Tariff Exemption for U S Subsidiary of Sanctioned Russian Company U S Senate August 9 2018 Retrieved August 30 2018 Beavers Olivia August 9 2018 GOP chairman readies Steele dossier subpoenas The Hill Retrieved August 12 2018 Woodruff Betsy Quinn Allison Nemtsova Anna August 9 2018 Exclusive This Is Accused Russian Spy Maria Butina s Secret Money Man in Moscow Sources Say The Daily Beast Retrieved December 28 2018 Hsu Spencer S Barrett Devlin August 10 2018 Judge holds Roger Stone associate in contempt for refusing to testify in Russia investigation The Washington Post Retrieved August 10 2018 Woodruff Betsy August 10 2018 The Real Reason Roger Stone Crony Andrew Miller Ducked Robert Mueller s Subpoena To Challenge the Special Counsel s Legitimacy The Daily Beast Retrieved December 27 2018 a b Feuer Alan Haberman Maggie August 10 2018 A Lifelong Political Scrapper Roger Stone Is Fighting for His Own Legal Future The New York Times Retrieved August 11 2018 Bowden John August 10 2018 WikiLeaks hit with DNC lawsuit over Twitter The Hill Retrieved August 12 2018 Goldman Adam Schmidt Michael S August 13 2018 F B I Agent Peter Strzok Who Criticized Trump in Texts Is Fired The New York Times Retrieved August 13 2018 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 13 2018 Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI finally The list of bad players in the FBI amp DOJ gets longer amp longer Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt will it be dropped It is a total Hoax No Collusion No Obstruction I just fight back Tweet Retrieved August 13 2018 via Twitter Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 13 2018 Just fired Agent Strzok formerly of the FBI was in charge of the Crooked Hillary Clinton sham investigation It was a total fraud on the American public and should be properly redone Tweet Retrieved August 13 2018 via Twitter Chalfant Morgan August 13 2018 US judge rejects Russian company s bid to dismiss Mueller charges The Hill Retrieved August 13 2018 Friedrich Dabney L August 13 2018 United States of America v Concord Management amp Consulting LLC Memorandum Opinion PDF Retrieved August 13 2018 via DocumentCloud a b DeYoung Karen Dawsey Josh Wagner John Harris Shane August 17 2018 White House drafts more clearance cancellations demanded by Trump The Washington Post Retrieved August 17 2018 Brennan John O August 16 2018 Opinion John Brennan President Trump s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash The New York Times Retrieved August 18 2018 Forgey Quint Cheney Kyle August 17 2018 Mueller recommends sentence up to 6 months for Papadopoulos Politico Retrieved August 17 2018 Mueller III Robert S Rhee Jeannie S Goldstein Andrew D Zelinsky Aaron S J August 17 2018 United States v George Papadopoulos Government s Sentencing Memorandum PDF Retrieved August 17 2018 via Politico President Trump Remarks on John Brennan and Mueller Probe Video C SPAN August 17 2018 Retrieved November 15 2019 Schmidt Michael S Haberman Maggie August 18 2018 White House Counsel Don McGahn Has Cooperated Extensively in Mueller Inquiry The New York Times Retrieved August 27 2018 Russia s Alfa Bank fails in lawsuit over Steele s Trump dossier MSNBC video The Rachel Maddow Show August 20 2018 Retrieved August 20 2018 Harding Luke August 21 2018 Author of Trump Russia dossier wins libel case in US court The Guardian Retrieved August 21 2018 Bertrand Natasha August 21 2018 Christopher Steele s Victory in a D C Court The Atlantic Retrieved September 4 2018 Scannell Kara Prokupecz Shimon Jarrett Laura Orden Erica August 21 2018 Michael Cohen pleads guilty to eight criminal counts CNN Retrieved August 21 2018 Zapotsky Matt Bui Lynh Jackman Tom Barrett Devlin Brice Saddler Michael August 21 2018 Manafort convicted on 8 counts mistrial declared on 10 others The Washington Post Retrieved August 21 2018 Timberg Craig Dwoskin Elizabeth Romm Tony Nakashima Ellen August 21 2018 Sprawling Iranian influence operation globalizes tech s war on disinformation The Washington Post Retrieved August 23 2018 a b Poulsen Kevin September 5 2018 Alleged Russian Operatives Spreading Fake News Sneak Back Onto Facebook Daily Beast Retrieved September 5 2018 Bertrand Natasha August 28 2018 Devin Nunes s Curious Trip to London The Atlantic Retrieved September 4 2018 Ainsley Earhardt interviews President Donald Trump Fox News August 23 2018 Retrieved November 8 2019 via YouTube a b Haberman Maggie Rogers Katie August 22 2018 How Did We End Up Here Trump Wonders as the White House Soldiers On The New York Times Retrieved November 8 2019 a b Leonnig Carol D Dawsey Josh August 23 2018 Trump recently sought his lawyers advice on possibility of pardoning Manafort Giuliani says The Washington Post Retrieved November 8 2019 Broniatowski David A Jamison Amelia M Qi SiHua AlKulaib Lulwah Chen Tao Benton Adrian Quinn Sandra C Dredze Mark August 23 2018 Weaponized Health Communication Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate American Journal of Public Health 108 10 1378 1384 doi 10 2105 AJPH 2018 304567 ISSN 1541 0048 PMC 6137759 PMID 30138075 Glenza Jessica August 23 2018 Russian trolls spreading discord over vaccine safety online The Guardian Retrieved August 23 2018 Sherman Gabriel August 23 2018 Holy Shit I Thought Pecker Would Be the Last One to Turn Trump s National Enquirer Allies Are the Latest to Defect Vanity Fair Retrieved August 24 2018 Doubek James August 24 2018 David Pecker Of National Enquirer Publisher Said To Have Immunity In Cohen Case NPR Retrieved August 24 2018 Helmore Edward August 23 2018 David Pecker Trump confidant and National Enquirer boss was given immunity in Cohen case The Guardian Retrieved August 24 2018 Geidner Chris August 23 2018 David Pecker Was Granted Immunity Prosecutors Say He Knows About Three Key Moments In Trump s Campaign BuzzFeed News Retrieved August 24 2018 Philipps Dave August 23 2018 Reality Winner Former N S A Translator Gets More Than 5 Years in Leak of Russian Hacking Report The New York Times Retrieved June 18 2021 Leonnig Carol D Barrett Devlin Helderman Rosalind S Fahrenthold David A O Connell Jonathan August 24 2018 Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg who allegedly helped arrange hush money reimbursement to Cohen receives immunity The Washington Post Retrieved August 24 2018 Birnbaum Emily August 27 2018 Manafort sought deal with Mueller but talks fell apart report The Hill Retrieved August 27 2018 Cadwalladr Carole August 27 2018 Tom Watson demands answers about alleged Russian Brexit plot The Guardian Retrieved September 8 2018 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 28 2018 Hillary Clinton s Emails many of which are Classified Information got hacked by China Next move better be by the FBI amp DOJ or after all of their other missteps Comey McCabe Strzok Page Ohr FISA Dirty Dossier etc their credibility will be forever gone Tweet Retrieved August 31 2018 via Twitter Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 28 2018 Report just out China hacked Hillary Clinton s private Email Server Are they sure it wasn t Russia just kidding What are the odds that the FBI and DOJ are right on top of this Actually a very big story Much classified information Tweet Retrieved August 31 2018 via Twitter Bowden John August 29 2018 FBI contradicts Trump claim that China hacked Clinton s private email server The Hill Retrieved August 29 2018 Orden Erica Perez Evan August 29 2018 Sources Second Trump Org employee discussed immunity deal CNN Retrieved August 29 2018 Allen Jonathan August 29 2018 White House counsel McGahn latest West Wing aide to head for the exit NBC News Retrieved August 29 2018 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 29 2018 White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall shortly after the confirmation hopefully of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service Tweet Retrieved August 29 2018 via Twitter David Alexander Editing by Paul Tait August 29 2018 Trump presses Supreme Court chief justice for action on Russia dossier reuters com Retrieved August 31 2018 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Matthew Mosk Lucien Bruggeman August 29 2018 After weeks of uncertainty Papadopoulos decides to accept plea deal with Mueller abcnews go com Retrieved August 31 2018 Susan Heavey August 30 2018 Trump seeks to backtrack on 2017 comments on Comey firing reuters com Retrieved August 31 2018 Farhi Paul August 30 2018 Trump claims without evidence that NBC was caught fudging TV interview with him The Washington Post Retrieved August 30 2018 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 30 2018 What s going on at CNN is happening to different degrees at other networks with NBCNews being the worst The good news is that Andy Lack y is about to be fired for incompetence and much worse When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia they were hurt badly Tweet Retrieved August 30 2018 via Twitter Watch Lester Holt s Extended Interview With President Trump NBC News video May 11 2017 Retrieved August 31 2018 Ferran Lee Dukakis Ali August 30 2018 Judges side with Mueller nix Russian joint appeal bid ABC News Retrieved September 1 2018 Cheney Kyle Meyer Josh August 31 2018 Former Manafort associate pleads guilty to failing to register as a foreign lobbyist Politico Retrieved August 31 2018 Markay Lachlan August 31 2018 Republican Lobbyist Steered Foreign Money to Trump s Inaugural Committee Daily Beast Retrieved August 31 2018 Liu Jessie K DiLorenzo Michael C Claffee Scott A August 31 2018 Samuel Patten plea agreement PDF Retrieved August 31 2018 via Google Drive a b Liu Jessie K DiLorenzo Michael C Claffee Scott A August 31 2018 United States of America v Samuel Patten Statement of the Offense PDF Retrieved August 31 2018 via Politico Kenneth P Vogel LaFraniere Sharon Goldman Adam Sullivan Eileen Confessore Nicholas August 31 2018 Lobbyist Pleads Guilty to Steering Foreign Funds to Trump Inaugural The New York Times Retrieved August 31 2018 Harris Andrew M Martin Andrew Schoenberg Tom Farrell Greg Baker Stephanie Larson Erik Wadhams Nick Allison Bill August 31 2018 Manafort Ally to Cooperate With U S After Guilty Plea Bloomberg com Bloomberg L P Archived from the original on August 31 2018 Retrieved September 1 2018 Noah Millman August 31 2018 How Active Measures falls into the Trump Russia trap TheWeek com Retrieved August 31 2018 ACTIVE MEASURES Info amp Tickets Landmark Theatres Washington D C landmarktheatres com Archived from the original on September 24 2018 Retrieved September 24 2018 Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia on Twitter Woodruff Betsy Banco Erin December 5 2018 Feds Target Butina s GOP Boyfriend as Foreign Agent The Daily Beast Retrieved December 6 2018 Haberman Maggie Schmidt Michael S September 4 2018 Mueller Will Accept Some Written Answers From Trump The New York Times Retrieved September 4 2018 Haberman Maggie September 5 2018 Jerome Corsi Conspiracy Theorist Is Subpoenaed in Mueller Investigation The New York Times Retrieved September 5 2018 Romm Tony Timberg Craig Zakrzewski Cat September 5 2018 Facebook and Twitter testified before Congress Conservative conspiracy theorists lurked behind them The Washington Post Retrieved September 5 2018 a b Wattie Chris Hosenball Mark Layne Nathan September 7 2018 McCool Grant ed Two associates of Trump adviser Stone questioned in Russia probe Reuters Retrieved September 7 2018 Dilanian Ken September 7 2018 Papadopoulos sentenced to 14 days in jail for lying to FBI in Mueller probe NBC News Retrieved September 7 2018 Mazzetti Mark LaFraniere Sharon September 7 2018 George Papadopoulos Ex Trump Adviser Is Sentenced to 14 Days in Jail The New York Times Retrieved September 7 2018 Farrell Greg Berthelsen Christian Nasiripour Shahien September 7 2018 Trump Executives Face U S Campaign Finance Probe Source Says Bloomberg LP Retrieved September 7 2018 Voreacos David Weinberg Neil Harris Andrew M September 7 2018 Manafort Weighing Plea Deal to Avoid New Criminal Trial Source Says Bloomberg LP Retrieved September 7 2018 This Week Transcript 9 9 18 George Papadopoulos ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos September 9 2018 Retrieved September 20 2018 Walters Greg September 11 2018 George Papadopoulos totally had a meltdown on Twitter last night before heading to prison Vice News Retrieved September 20 2018 Banco Erin September 10 2018 Maria Butina s Beau Snookered Investors With a Shady Oil Deal The Daily Beast Retrieved December 14 2018 Cormier Anthony Leopold Jason September 12 2018 A Series Of Suspicious Money Transfers Followed The Trump Tower Meeting BuzzFeed News Retrieved September 12 2018 Gearan Anne Sonmez Felicia September 12 2018 Trump issues new order authorizing additional sanctions for interfering in upcoming U S elections The Washington Post Retrieved September 12 2018 Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election whitehouse gov September 12 2018 Retrieved September 12 2018 via National Archives Santucci John Mosk Matthew September 12 2018 Manafort seeking plea deal with special counsel that would avoid cooperation ahead of second trial Sources ABC News Retrieved September 12 2018 George Papadopoulos says he d testify in Senate New York Post Associated Press September 12 2018 Retrieved September 12 2018 Weixel Nathaniel September 12 2018 Nearly 600 Russian troll accounts tweeted about ObamaCare report The Hill Retrieved September 19 2018 Hsu Spence S Barrett Hsu Jouvenal Justin Helderman Rosalind S Jackman Tom Rucker Philip Weiner Rachel September 14 2018 Manafort will cooperate with Mueller as part of guilty plea prosecutor says The Washington Post Retrieved September 14 2018 Mueller III Robert S Weissmann Andrew Rhee Jeanie S Andres Greg D Freeny Kyle R September 13 2018 Paul Manafort Plea Agreement PDF LawFare Retrieved September 14 2018 via DocumentCloud a b Sheth Sonam June 13 2018 Mueller has revealed the names of the 2 witnesses Paul Manafort is accused of trying to tamper with Business Insider Retrieved September 14 2018 a b c d Schulberg Jessica Reilly Ryan J Blumenthal Paul September 14 2018 Paul Manafort s Plea Deal Could Be Bad News For A Bunch Of Washington Operatives HuffPost Retrieved September 14 2018 Maza Cristina September 14 2018 Trump Russia Investigation Paul Manafort Guilty Plea Reveals Details of Foreign Influence on Campaign Chairman Newsweek Retrieved September 14 2018 a b Gearan Anne Morris Loveday Eglash Ruth September 14 2018 Bada bing bada boom Paul Manafort s attempt to smear a jailed Ukrainian politician The Washington Post Retrieved September 14 2018 Martin Andrew Voreacos David February 23 2018 Meeting That Gates Admits Lying About Matches Rohrabacher Dinner Bloomberg LP Retrieved March 13 2018 Fox Emily Jane September 14 2018 Michael Cohen Is the Latest Former Trump Ally to Talk to Mueller Vanity Fair Retrieved September 14 2018 Rudy Giuliani reacts to Paul Manafort s plea deal Fox News Video Hannity September 14 2018 Retrieved November 19 2019 Chamberlain Samuel September 17 2018 Trump orders feds to declassify key FISA documents text messages in FBI Russia probe Fox News Retrieved September 17 2018 Zapotosky Matt Barrett Devlin Demirjian Karoun Harris Shane September 17 2018 Trump orders Justice Dept to declassify Russia related material The Washington Post Retrieved September 17 2018 Statement from the Press Secretary whitehouse gov September 17 2018 Retrieved September 17 2018 via National Archives Sheth Sonam September 18 2018 Off the charts National security experts sound the alarm after Trump moves to selectively declassify the Carter Page FISA application BusinessInsider com Reuters Retrieved September 18 2018 Mak Tim Berry Libby September 19 2018 Maria Butina Accused Of Being Russian Agent Has Long History Of Urging Protest NPR Retrieved September 19 2018 I m not familiar with your laws but I think you need to hold demonstrations Day Chad September 19 2018 Judge sets Dec 18 sentencing for Michael Flynn AP News Retrieved September 19 2018 Alexandra Hutzler September 5 2018 Donald Trump Orders Release of Classified Documents After the Great Sean Hannity Asked Him To Newsweek Retrieved October 5 2018 READ President Trump s exclusive interview with Hill TV thehill com September 19 2018 Retrieved October 5 2018 a b Voreacos David Dolmetsch Chris Smith Gerry December 12 2018 Tabloid Company s Admission Shows New Peril for Trump s Circle Bloomberg LP Retrieved December 12 2018 Woodruff Betsy September 20 2018 Accused Russian Agent Maria Butina Subpoenas Her Alma Mater American University The Daily Beast Retrieved December 27 2018 Barrett Devlin Demirjian Karoun September 21 2018 Trump walks back his plan to declassify Russia probe documents The Washington Post Retrieved September 21 2018 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump September 21 2018 I met with the DOJ concerning the declassification of various UNREDACTED documents They agreed to release them but stated that so doing may have a perceived negative impact on the Russia probe Also key Allies called to ask not to release Therefore the Inspector General Tweet Retrieved September 21 2018 via Twitter a title, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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