Worst Kept Secret: The Donald Trump — Russia Master Timeline

May 10, 2001

• On the Howard Stern show, AJ Benza gets into a verbal feud with Donald Trump after Trump claims he stole Benza’s girlfriend. Regarding Trump, Benza states: “He bangs Russian people.” Benza continues, “[Trump] used to call me when I was a columnist and say, ‘I was just in Russia, the girls have no morals, you gotta get out there.’”

2005

• Paul Manafort is hired by pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych to help rebuild Yanukovych’s public image in Ukraine in preparation for another Presidential campaign

2006

• Paul Manafort moves into Trump Tower. To date he occupies floor 43.

April 2006

• Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen and his brother found International Ethanol of Ukraine Ltd.

November 13, 2007

• Oil industry consultant and future Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page speaks at a Council on Foreign Relations Event titled “The Pursuit of Black Gold: Pipeline Politics on the Caspian Sea”
• Event Presider Mary Boies introduces Page and states: “…Carter Page, to my direct left, is the chief operating officer at Merrill Lynch’s Energy and Power Investment Banking Group. As an investment banker in Russia, he represented Gazprom, among others, advising them on strategic and financial transactions in the energy and power sector.”

July 15, 2008

• Donald Trump sells Maison de l’Amitie property in Palm Beach, Florida to Russian oligarch and fertilizer magnate, Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95,000,000. Rybolovlev is rumored to have never moved into the property.

September 15, 2008

• Donald Trump Jr. discusses Trump Organization projects in Russia. He states:
• “And in terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
• “After spending half a dozen trips to Russia in the last 18 months, several buyers have been attracted to our projects there and everything associated therewith.”

2009 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Chris Steele’s London-based consulting firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, is hired by England’s Football Association to investigate allegations of FIFA corruption.

2010 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Chris Steele delivers information about FIFA to the FBI that eventually leads to the indictments of many current and former officials of the soccer governing body, as well as the ouster of longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

October 23, 2010

• WikiLeaks releases the Iraq war logs. Hillary Clinton condemns the disclosure.

August 30, 2011

• At a surprise event in Sochi, Russia, Vladimir Putin announces a vast investment by ExxonMobil in the Russian portion of the Arctic Ocean. The investment is a co-venture with Russian state oil company Rosneft. According to the contract, Rosneft owns two-thirds of the joint venture company Karmorneftegaz, while Exxon controls the remainder. The joint project is worth $3.2 billion.

January 26, 2012

• Kremlin-funded English language channel Russia Today (RT) gives WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his own television talk show.

April 18, 2012

• ExxonMobil and Rosneft unveil an offshore exploration partnership developing Russia’s vast energy reserves in the Arctic and Black sea.
• Igor Sechin, then-Deputy Prime Minister and a key architect of the deal ,remarks:
• “Experts say that this project, in terms of its ambitions, exceeds sending man into outer space or flying to the moon.”
• Reuters reports “The deal is likely to prove transformational for Exxon, which like other global oil majors is under pressure to add to its 25 billion barrels of oil-equivalent reserves as resource-rich states seek greater control over their energy resources.”
• Rosneft is not capable of extracting this oil itself and requires this partnership to extract ‘tight’ oil, trapped in non-porous rock.

June 19, 2013

• Trump Tweets:
• “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?”

June 21, 2013

• Vladimir Putin awards Rex Tillerson, then-CEO of ExxonMobil (now Secretary of State), with the Order of Friendship

October 18, 2013

• On MSNBC’s ‘Live With Thomas Roberts’, Donald Trump says he has invited Vladimir Putin to Miss Universe Contest scheduled for the following month:
• “We have invited Vladimir Putin and I know for a fact he wants very much to come.”

October 29, 2013

• Vladimir Putin awards Aras Agalarov with the Order of Order

On and Around November 9, 2013

• Trump visits Moscow for the Miss Universe Contest. He meets “more than a dozen of Russia’s top businessmen, including Herman Gref, the chief executive officer of state-controlled Sberbank PJSC, Russia’s biggest bank.”
• Gref is a powerful figure who holds regular meetings with Putin and is considered “a close confidant.” Gref served as Putin’s economy minister from 2000 to 2007.
• Trump meets with a group of Russian Oligarch’s at Nobu, a famous restaurant owned by Aras Agalarov’s Crocus Group, one of the country’s largest real-estate companies. Agalarov is one of Trump’s closest Russian associates. Trump and Aras had planned to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.The restaurant is a 15-minute walk from the Kremlin.
• “Some officials believe that one reason the Russians compiled information on Trump during his 2013 trip was that he was meeting with Russian oligarchs who might be stashing money abroad — a sign of disloyalty, in Putin’s eyes.”
• Emin Agalarov, the pop-musician son of Aras Agalarov, films a music video for his song “In Another Life” in the Moscow Ritz Carlton hotel. The video features Miss Universe contestants and an appearance by Donald Trump.
• A Dossier Entry from June 20, 2016 reports:
• Former top Russian intelligence officer claims FSB has compromised Trump through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him. According to several knowledgeable sources, his conduct in Moscow has included perverted sexual acts which have been arranged/monitored by the FSB
• Russian authorities exploited Trump’s personal obsessions and sexual perversions in order to obtain suitable compromising material on him.
• Trump’s perverted conduct in Moscow including hiring the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where he knew President and Mrs. Obama (whom he hated) had stayed on one of their official trips to Russia, and defiling the bed where they had slept by employing a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ show in front of him. The hotel was known to be under FSB control with microphones and concealed cameras in all the main rooms.
• A Dossier Entry from September 14, 2016 reports:
• Two knowledgeable sources in St. Petersburg claim Trump paid bribes and engaged in sexual activities while there but key witnesses have been silenced and evidence is hard to obtain. Both believe Araz Agalarov has been closely involved.

November 9, 2013

• Trump Tweets:
• “I’m in Moscow for Miss Universe tonight — picking a winner is very hard, they are all winners. Total sellout of arena. Big night in Russia!”
• “I was just given a great tour of Moscow — fantastic, hard working people. CITY IS REALLY ENERGIZED! The World will be watching tonight!”

November 12, 2013

• Donald Trump talks to Real Estate Weekly about building a skyscraper in Moscow. He states:
• “The Russian market is attracted to me,” Trump said. “I have a great relationship with many Russians, and almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.”

November 13, 2013

• Trump states he has a close relationship with Putin on ‘Live with Thomas Roberts’ on MSNBC

February 10, 2014

• In an MSNBC television interview, Trump claims he has a relationship with Vladimir Putin. Trump tells the interviewer “I do have a relationship, and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today. He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today. And I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form. But I do have a relationship with him”

March 20, 2014

• President Obama issues executive order “Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine” expanding Executive Order 13661 of March 16, 2014, “finding that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation, including its purported annexation of Crimea and its use of force in Ukraine, continue to undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets, and thereby constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
• Sanctioned individuals include:
• Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s leading integrated oil and gas company Rosneft, who “has shown utter loyalty to Mr Putin, according to US Officials. He served as the presidential deputy chief of staff until 2008 — when Dmitry Medvedev temporarily succeeded Mr Putin. Mr Sechin is seen as a powerful figure operating largely behind the scenes. He is also believed to share ‘economic interests’ with Mr Putin.”
• Sergei Ivanov, Putin’s Chief of Staff. Ivanov served as Putin’s deputy when Putin was director of the FSB (Russia’s Federal Security Service).
• Offshore oil exploration is included in sanctions and ExxonMobil is given an October 10, 2014 deadline to cease operations with Russian state-oil company, Rosneft. The two firms are drilling the most expensive well in Russian history in Russia’s Arctic offshore area.
• On September 27, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin will reveal a well drilled in the region found about 1 billion barrels of oil. Similar geology nearby indicates the surrounding area may hold more than the U.S. part of the Gulf of Mexico.

May 2, 2014

• Carter Page writes article for Global Policy Journal titled, “Man Overboard in the Black Sea: Cobbling Together the Latest Coalition of the Willing in Ukraine”.
• Under a heading titled “Personal vendettas against those with the greatest accomplishments” Page writes glowingly of Igor Sechin:
• “On April 28th, the U.S. government added Rosneft Chairman Igor Sechin to its latest sanctions target list. Through the partnerships he has personally built with ExxonMobil, the largest energy company in North America, Sechin has done more to advance U.S.-Russian relations than any individual in or out of government from either side of the Atlantic over the past decade.”

May 27, 2014

• At National Press Club, Trump states that he was in Moscow for the Miss Universe Contest and that he spoke “directly and indirectly” with Vladimir Putin

May 28, 2014

• At ExxonMobil Annual Meeting, Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO states “We do not support sanctions, generally, because we do not find them to be effective…we always encourage the people who are making those decisions to consider the very broad collateral damage of who they are really harming.”

June 16, 2014

• Despite pressure from the US government to not attend, Rex Tillerson delivers speech (and shares the stage with Rosneft’s Igor Sechin) at a World Petroleum Congress summit in Moscow.

August 7, 2014

• Michael Flynn is forced to resign as head of the Defense Intelligence agency (the Pentagon’s version of the CIA).
• Colin Powell later explains why Flynn was fired. “Abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc. He has been and was right-wing nutty every [sic] since.”

September 27, 2014

• Igor Sechin, CEO of Russian state oil company Rosneft, reveals a well drilled in the Kara Sea of the Arctic Ocean with ExxonMobil has struck oil, showing the region “has the potential to become one of the world’s most important crude-producing areas.” The well found about 1 billion barrels of oil and similar geology nearby means the surrounding area may hold more than the U.S. part of the Gulf of Mexico.

October 10, 2014

• ExxonMobil is forced by U.S. sanctions to cease offshore drilling in Russia’s Arctic area. This ends the joint venture with Russian state oil company Rosneft that had previously identified at least 1 billion barrels of oil that only ExxonMobil is capable of extracting. With sanctions on Rosneft and CEO Igor Sechin, ExxonMobil and Rosneft are unable to continue developing Arctic oil reserves, one of Putin’s greatest ambitions and a key step in increasing oil and gas production in Russia. These sanctions cost ExxonMobil more than $1 billion.

April 21, 2015

• ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson attends IHS CERAweek 2015, an oil conference in Houston, Texas. Speaking at the conference, Tillerson states “We’ll await a time in which the sanctions environment changes or the sanctions requirement change.”

June 16, 2015

• Donald Trump announces 2016 Presidential Campaign

Summer 2015 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Cozy Bear, a Russian hacker group believed to be associated with Russian Intelligence, hack the Democratic National Committee and place espionage software on the committee’s computer servers.
• This gives Russian intelligence unimpeded access to party communications for the next year.

July 30, 2015

• Trump says “I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin.”

“Late Summer 2015”

• Donald and Eric Trump meet with Michael Flynn about a role in the campaign.

September 2015 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Fusion GPS, a private intelligence firm, is hired by Republican opponents of Mr. Trump to perform opposition research.

November 2015 (Exact Date Unknown)

• FBI warns the DNC of a potential ongoing breach in their network.

November 10, 2015

• At the first Republican presidential debate Trump claims to know Putin “very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates.”
• Trump and Putin were interviewed on separate days on separate continents.

Late 2015 — Early 2016 (Exact Dates Unknown)

• By this time the Trump Campaign has established regular contact with Russian Intelligence
• “Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election.”
• “The intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other associates of Mr. Trump. On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the government outside of the intelligence services.”

December 10, 2015

• Russian state-affiliated news organization, Russia Today (RT) celebrates its 10th anniversary with a gala event.

• 18 months after stepping down as Director of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, Michael Flynn attends the gala and is seated at a table with RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan and Vladimir Putin. Green Party leader Jill Stein is also present at the table.
• In an August 2016 interview, Flynn claims he did not talk to Putin personally, and was only introduced. Flynn states he did not ask to sit by Putin and that he met “some interesting characters.” He learns from overheard conversations that “Putin has no respect for the United States leadership.”
• A Dossier Entry from August 10, 2016 reports:
• A Kremlin official involved in US relations commented the Russian operation had three goals: asking sympathetic US actors how Moscow could help them; gathering relevant intelligence; and creating and disseminating compromising information. This had involved the Kremlin supporting various US political figures, including funding their visits to Moscow. She named Lyndon Larouche, Jill Stein, Carter Page, and Michael Flynn as examples of successes.

December 17, 2015

• Putin says he welcomes comments by Trump that he wanted deeper relations with Russia.
• “He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that… He is an absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today. He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it,” Putin told reporters.
• Trump replies “It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”
• “I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect.”

December 18, 2015

• During an interview with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, ‘Morning’ Joe host pushes back against Trump’s recent praise of Putin. Referring to Putin, Scarborough asks Trump “Well, I mean, it’s also a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that would be a concern, would it not?” Trump replies “He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader,” “Unlike what we have in this country.” Scarborough pushes back “But again: he kills journalists that don’t agree with him.” Trump replies “I think our country does plenty of killing, also, Joe, so, you know.” Trump clarifies, “There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that’s the way it is. But you didn’t ask me [that] question, you asked me a different question. So that’s fine.”

February 26, 2016

• Reuters reports retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has been informally advising Trump. The Reuters headline notes Flynn favors closer Russia ties.

March 21, 2016

• At a press conference in Washington D.C., Trump is asked if he’d be open to better relations with Russia. Trump states “If we can get along with Russia, that’s very good.”
• Donald Trump announces list of foreign policy advisors including Carter Page.

March 29, 2016

• Trump campaign announces Paul J. Manafort will serve as his campaign’s Convention Manager.

March 30, 2016

• Bloomberg publishes a profile of Carter Page titled “Trump’s New Russia Adviser Has Deep Ties to Kremlin’s Gazprom” The article reports:
• “Carter Page says his business has suffered directly from the U.S. economic sanctions imposed after Russia’s escalating involvement in the Ukraine.”
• “When Donald Trump named him last week as one of his foreign-policy advisers, Page says his e-mail inbox filled up with positive notes from Russian contacts. ‘So many people who I know and have worked with have been so adversely affected by the sanctions policy,’ Page said in a two-hour interview last week. ‘There’s a lot of excitement in terms of the possibilities for creating a better situation.”
• “In Russia, Page developed relationships with executives at Gazprom, the former Soviet gas ministry that was partially privatized in the 1990s. By the time Page arrived, Putin was consolidating his grip on the country’s economy, and in 2005 the government boosted its stake so that it again owned a majority of the stock.”
• Discussing Page’s business deals the article reports “Another project involved developing natural-gas-powered vehicles in Russia, possibly in partnership with Gazprom…But the sanctions put those talks on hold.”

February 9, 2016

• WikiLeaks tweets a quote from founder Julian Assange and links to a blog post by Assange: “Hillary didn’t just vote for Iraq. She made her own Iraq.” The post is hash-tagged #FeelTheBern
• Assange writes “A vote today for Hillary Clinton is a vote for endless, stupid war.” Assange’s post is deeply critical of Clinton and concludes that she “should not become president of the United States.”

March 2016 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Trump meets with campaign national security team at an unfinished Trump Hotel and stresses that he doesn’t want “‘World War Three’ over Ukraine.”

Spring 2016 (Exact Dates Unknown)

• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Justice, National Security Agency, office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Department of Treasury begin investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, including whether money from the Kremlin covertly aided Trump.
• One allegation under investigation involved whether a system for routinely paying thousands of Russian-American pensioners may have been used to pay some email hackers in the United States or to supply money to intermediaries who would then pay the hackers.
• A Dossier Entry from before or on July 19, 2016 reports:
• Agreed exchange of information established in both directions. Trump’s team using moles within DNC and hackers in the US as well as outside in Russia. Putin motivated by fear and hatred of Hillary Clinton. Russians receiving intel from Trump’s team by on Russian oligarchs and their families in US.
• There were agents/facilitators within the Democratic Party structure itself; Russian emigre and associated offensive cyber operators based in the US; and state-sponsored cyber operatives working in Russia formed the intelligence network being used against clinton.
• The mechanism for relevant assets in the US, and effecting a two-way flow of information was based on using the emigre pension distribution system. Tens of thousands of dollars were involved.
• Mechanism for transmitting this intelligence involves “pension” disbursements to Russian emigres living in US as cover, using consular officials in New York, DC and Miami.

Spring 2016 (Exact Dates Unknown)

• Ukrainian MP Andrii Artemenko discusses a Ukraine “peace plan with Michael Cohen and Felix Sater.

May 19, 2016

• Paul Manafort is promoted to Campaign Chairman and Chief Strategist of Trump Campaign

June 2016 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Chris Steele, former head of British Intelligence Agency MI6’s Russia Desk joins Fusion GPS and the Trump opposition research project.

June 2, 2016

• Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian parliament’s upper house’s committee for foreign relations claims a victory for Donald Trump at the upcoming US presidential elections could be the major change needed to reverse the negative trend in Russia-US relations.

June 14, 2016

• Democratic National Committee says two groups of Russian hackers, working for competing government intelligence agencies, penetrated computer systems of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to emails, chats and a trove of opposition research against Donald J. Trump, according to the party and cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.

June 15, 2016

• A blog hosted by Wordpress.com called “Guccifer 2.0” publishes its first post. The author(s) of the post claim to have hacked the Democratic National Committee. The first post includes a confidential report prepared by the Democratic National Committee about Donald Trump from December 19, 2015 and the following text:
• “…CrowdStrike announced that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) servers had been hacked by “sophisticated” hacker groups. I’m very pleased the company appreciated my skills so highly))) But in fact, it was easy, very easy. Guccifer may have been the first one who penetrated Hillary Clinton’s and other Democrats’ mail servers. But he certainly wasn’t the last. “
• CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity technology company, publishes an article on its blog refuting Guccifer 2.0. The article, Bears in the Midst: Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee states:
• “Crowdstrike stands fully by its analysis and findings identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016.”
• Dell SecureWorks, an American subsidiary that provides cybersecurity compservices, reported that a Russia-based group, operating on behalf of the Russian government, “targeted 3,907 individual Gmail accounts and corporate and organizational email accounts that use Gmail as a service… the targets included email accounts linked to the November 2016 United States presidential election. Specific targets include staff working for or associated with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), including individuals managing Clinton’s communications, travel, campaign finances, and advising her on policy”

June 18, 2016

• Guccifer 2.0 blog publishes new documents from the DNC network including financial reports and donors’ personal data.
• The post concludes:
• “Hope you’ll appreciate it. Wait for another part! You won’t regret. Together we’ll be able to throw off the political elite, the rich clans that exploit the world! Fuck the lies and conspirators like DNC!!!”

June 20, 2016

• Donald Trump fires Corey Lewandowski as Campaign Manager.
• “Mr. Lewandowski’s time was primarily spent on the campaign trail with the candidate, and day-to-day aspects of the operation were largely handled by the chief strategist, Paul Manafort.
• Fidelis, a cybersecurity company, publishes a blog post which reports that their independent analysis of the malware samples from the CrowdStrike investigation affirms the hacking groups “Cozy Bear” and “Fancy Bear”, both known to be affiliated with Russian intelligence, were behind the DNC hacks.
• A Dossier Entry from June 20, 2016 reports:
• Russian regime has been cultivating supporting and assisting Trump for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by Putin has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance
• Trump and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals
• Former top Russian intelligence officer claims FSB has compromised Trump through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him. According to several knowledgeable sources, his conduct in Moscow has included perverted sexual acts which have been arranged/monitored by the FSB
• Russian authorities exploited Trump’s personal obsessions and sexual perversions in order to obtain suitable compromising material on him.
• Trump’s perverted conduct in Moscow including hiring the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where he knew President and Mrs. Obama (whom he hated) had stayed on one of their official trips to Russia, and defiling the bed where they had slept by employing a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ show in front of him. The hotel was known to be under FSB control with microphones and concealed cameras in all the main rooms.
• Chief Kremlin spokesman, Dmitriy Peskov was responsible for compiling a compromising dossier on Hillary Clinton under the explicit instructions of Putin. The dossier was not yet provided to Trump.

June 21, 2016

• Guccifer 2.0 blog publishes a dossier on Hillary Clinton compiled by the Democratic National Committee.

July 7, 2016

• Carter Page gives commencement address at the New Economic School (NES) in Moscow, Russia, an institution funded in part by major Russian oligarchs close to Putin.
• Page criticized sanctions on Russia, praised ‘Putin and his advisors.
• Page asserted “Washington and other West capitals” had impeded progress in Russia “through their often hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change.”
• Page refuses to answer Reuters’ questions about how the United States would shape its policy towards Russia. Page also declined to say whether he was planning to meet anyone from the Kremlin.
• A Dossier Entry from October 18, 2016 reports:
• A close associate of Rosneft President and Putin Ally Igor Sechin confirmed a meeting occurred between Carter Page and Igor Sechin in Moscow on July 7 or 8 2016, the same day or the day after Carter Page made a public speech to the Higher Economic School in Moscow.
• Rosneft President Igor Sechin offered Page and Trump’s associates the brokerage of up to 19 per cent stake in Rosneft in return. Page expressed interest and confirmed that if Trump were elected US president, sanctions on Russia would be lifted.

Approximately July 7, 2016

• US officials receive intelligence reports during that while on his three-day trip in Moscow, Page met with Igor Sechin (executive chairman of Rosneft). US intelligence agencies also receive reports Page met with Igor Diveykin.
• A congressional leadership staffer familiar with the intelligence briefings later tells a Politico journalist “the meetings did happen and that’s been established as a fact. I think the investigation is more what happened in them.”

July 9, 2016

• The Washington Post reports Trump is considering tapping Michael Flynn for Vice President to project strength and know-how on national security.

July 11 or 12, 2016

• At GOP Platform meeting prior to the Republican Presidential Convention, Diana Denman — a platform committee member from Texas — attempts to introduce a platform amendment that would call for maintaining or increasing sanctions against Russia, increasing aid for Ukraine and “providing lethal defensive weapons” to the Ukrainian military. Two members of Trump’s campaign have her table the amendment while they made ‘some calls to clear it.’ ‘The Trump campaign convinced the platform committee to change Denman’s proposal. It went from calling on the U.S. to provide Ukraine ‘lethal defensive weapons’ to the more benign phrase ‘appropriate assistance.’”

July 18, 2016

• Michael Flynn defends payment for a speaking engagement in Russia to Yahoo News’ Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff
• Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the head of Donald Trump’s national security advisory team, meets with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in a small group and one-on-one following a Heritage Foundation panel on relations in Europe that focused on “Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and Georgia.”

Week of July 18, 2016

• Trump Campaign national security advisors Carter Page and J.D. Gordon meet with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at “a diplomacy conference connected to the Republican National Convention in July.”
• Trump wins the Republican nomination for President
• Members of the Democratic Party hire Chris Steele and Fusion GPS to continue their opposition research against Donald Trump.
• A Dossier Entry from before or on July 19, 2016 reports:
• Further evidence of extensive conspiracy between Trump’s campaign team and Kremlin, sanctioned at highest levels and involving Russian diplomatic staff based in the US
• Paul Manafort was using Carter Page and others as intermediaries. Two sides had a mutual interest in defeating Clinton, whom Putin hated and feared.
• Trump associate admits Kremlin behind recent appearance of DNC e-mails on WikiLeaks, as means of maintaining plausible deniability
• The operation had been conducted with the full knowledge and support of Trump and senior members of his campaign team. In return the Trump team had agreed to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue and to raise US/NATO defence commitments in the Baltics and Eastern Europe to deflect attention away from Ukraine, a priority for Putin.
• Agreed exchange of information established in both directions. Trump’s team using moles within DNC and hackers in the US as well as outside in Russia. Putin motivated by fear and hatred of Hillary Clinton. Russians receiving intel from Trump’s team on Russian oligarchs and their families in US.
• There were agents/facilitators within the Democratic Party structure itself; Russian emigre and associated offensive cyber operators based in the US; and state-sponsored cyber operatives working in Russia formed the intelligence network being used against clinton.
• The mechanism for relevant assets in the US, and effecting a two-way flow of information was based on using the emigre pension distribution system. Tens of thousands of dollars were involved.
• Mechanism for transmitting this intelligence involves “pension” disbursements to Russian emigres living in US as cover, using consular officials in New York, DC and Miami.
• Suggestion from source close to Trump and Manafort that Republican campaign team happy to have Russia as media bogeyman to mask more extensive corrupt business ties to China and other emerging countries, where Trump had been involved in large bribes and kickbacks, which if were to become public knowledge would be damaging to the campaign.
• A Dossier Entry from before or on July 19, 2016 reports:
• Trump advisor Carter Page holds secret meetings in Moscow with Sechin and senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official Diveykin.
• In July 2016, Presidential Administration Head Ivanov confided that a senior colleague in the Internal Political Department of the PA, Diveykin, had met secretly with Page on his recent visit. Their agenda included Diveykin raising a Dossier of compromising material the Kremlin possessed on Trump’s Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, and its possible release to the Republican’s campaign team.
• The Kremlin official close to Ivanov added that he believed Diveykin also suggested that the Russian leadership had compromising material on Trump, which Page should bear in mind in his dealings with him.
• Sechin raises issues of future bilateral US-Russia energy cooperation and associated lifting of western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. Page noncommittal in response.

July 19–21, 2016

• Ukrainian MP Andrii Artemenko travels to the Republican National Convention, “seizing on the chance to meet with members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.”

July 23, 2016

• Chris Steele provides a memo to the FBI, stating that Trump’s campaign team had agreed to a Russian request to dilute attention on Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine

July 26, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from July 26, 2016 [improperly dated 2015] reports:
• “Russia has extensive programme of state-sponsored offensive cyber operations. FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes.
• Example cited of successful Russian cyber operation targeting senior Western business visitor. Provided back door into important Western Institutions.
• This memo provides great detail on cyber attacks and cyber crime within the Russian state.

July 27, 2016

• When asked by German Journalist Mareike Aden if he would “want to recognize Crimea as Russian, lift sanctions?” Trump replies “Yes we would be looking at that.”
• In a public press conference, Trump calls for Russia to hack and disseminate Hillary Clinton’s emails.
• “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. ”
• Trump also states:
• “I have nothing to do with Russia. I said that Putin has much better leadership qualities than Obama.”
• Trump also promises to release his tax returns following the completion of the IRS audit.

July 30, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from July 30, 2016 reports:
• Kremlin concerned that political fallout from DNC e-mail hacking operation is spiraling out of control. Nervousness among Trump associates as result of negative media attention/accusations.
• Russians keen to cool situation and maintain ‘plausible deniability.’ The report claims unlikely to be any ratcheting up offensive plays in immediate future.
• Source close to Trump campaign confirms regular exchange with Kremlin has existed for at least 8 years, including intelligence fed back to Russia on oligarch’s activities in the US.
• Russians apparently have promised not to use compromising materials they hold on Trump as leverage, given high levels of voluntary cooperation from his team.

Late July and Early August 2016

• MI6 begins receiving information about Trump
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation receives the dossier compiled by Chris Steele with memos up to August 2016.

August 5, 2016

• Michael J. Morell, acting director and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2010 to 2013, writes an op-ed for the New York Times endorsing Hillary Clinton and criticizing Donald Trump. He writes:
• “Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security.” “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”
• The Washington Post publishes a profile of Carter Page. The profile reports Page moved to Moscow in 2004, where he worked for Merrill Lynch until 2007. Page developed a relationship with Gazprom, advising them “on its largest deals,” which he also mentions in his web biography.
• A Dossier Entry from August 5, 2016 reports:
• Head of Putin’s Presidential Administration Sergei Ivanov believes Kremlin team involved, led by presidential spokesman Dimitriy Peskov, had gone too far in interfering with foreign affairs. Ivanov claimed to always have opposed the handling and exploitation of intelligence by this PR “team.” Following the backlash against such foreign interference in US politics Ivanov was advocating that the only course of action for Russian leadership was to deny everything.

August 10, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from August 10, 2016 reports:
• Sergei Ivanov assessed the impact and results of Kremlin intervention in the US presidential election. Ivanov reported that the Kremlin had underestimated the strength of US media and liberal reaction to the DNC hack and Trump’s links to Russia. Putin was generally satisfied with the progress of the anti-Clinton operation to date.
• A Kremlin official involved in US relations commented the Russian operation had three goals: asking sympathetic US actors how moscow could help them; gathering relevant intelligence; and creating and disseminating compromising information. This had involved the Kremlin supporting various US political figures, including funding their visits to Moscow. She named Lyndon Larouche, Jill Stein, Carter Page, and Michael Flynn as examples of successes.

August 12, 2016

• Putin unexpectedly dismisses chief of staff Sergei Ivanov.
• At a campaign rally in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump states “The only way we can lose, in my opinion — I really mean this, Pennsylvania — is if cheating goes on.”

August 14, 2016

• Ivanka Trump posts a photo on Instagram of her vacation with Wendi Deng, rumored to be dating Vladimir Putin.
• New York Times publishes article alleging millions in off-the-book payments for Paul Manafort from ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian party:
• “Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau.”
• “Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.”
• The New York Times also reports while working in Ukraine Mr. Manafort had positioned himself to profit from business deals that benefited from connections gained through political consulting. One of them, involved a network of offshore companies that government investigators and independent journalists in Ukraine have said was used to launder public money and assets stolen by cronies of the government.
• The New York Times cites demonstrates a relationship between Manafort and Deripaska through public record court filings in the Cayman Islands and Virginia related to investment fund Pericles Emerging Markets. The filings show the fund’s major backer was Deripaska, who the State Department refused to issue a visa over allegations linking him to russian organized crime.
• The New York Times reported Manafort continued working in Ukraine after the demise of Yanukovych’s government, helping allies of the ousted president and others form a political bloc to oppose the new pro-Western administration.

August 15, 2016

• Michael Flynn is interviewed by The Washington Post
• Flynn explains his relationship with RT. Describing the 10th anniversary gala, Flynn states:
• “It was a paid speaking opportunity. I get paid so much. The speaker’s bureau got paid so much, based on our contract.”
• Flynn claims he’s “talked with Paul Manafort, met him, but if Carter Page walked in here, I wouldn’t know who he is.”
• When asked “Why would you go on RT, they’re state run?” he replies “Well, what’s CNN.”
• A Dossier Entry from August 22, 2016 reports:
• On August 15, following Paul Manafort’s resignation as Trump campaign manager, Putin and ex-President of Ukraine Yanukovych met in secret near Volgograd, Russia. Yanukovych told Putin he authorized and ordered substantial kickback payments to Manafort, as alleged by western journalists. Yanukovych assures Putin there is no evidence or paper trail. Given Yanukovych’s historical inability to cover up his own corruption, Putin is skeptical.

August 17, 2016

• Donald Trump appoints Stephen K. Bannon, chairman of Breitbart News to run his campaign.
• A Dossier Entry from August 17, 2016 reports:
• Trump associate reports aim of leaking DNC e-mails to wikiLeaks during the Democratic Convention had been to swing Sanders supporters away from Clinton and to Trump. This was discussed by Carter Page with an unnamed Russian associate.
• Trump’s associate admitted there was anger and resentment within Trump’s team at what was perceived as Putin going too far — past weakening Clinton and bolstering Trump and instead exploiting the situation to undermine the US government and democratic system more generally.

August 19, 2016

• In the wake of The New York Times’ story showing more than $12 million in secret payments, Paul Manafort quits Donald Trump’s Campaign
• Eric Trump states in a Fox News interview, “I think my father didn’t want to be, you know, distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with.” He clarifies, “My father just didn’t want to have the distraction looming over the campaign”

August 21, 2016

• Trump confidante and former campaigner Roger Stone tweets:
• Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary
• Stone tweets this days before WikiLeaks releases Podesta’s emails, stolen by Russian hackers
• Stone later tells The Guardian he was briefed about the embarrassing and sensitive leaked emails by a ‘mutual friend’ of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
• Roger Stone is a Trump campaign advisor and former principal of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, a D.C. political lobbying organization. Paul Manafort and Roger Stone were among its principals.

August 22, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from August 22, 2016 reports:
• On August 15, following Paul Manafort’s resignation as Trump campaign manager, Putin and ex-President of Ukraine Yanukovych met in secret near Volgograd, Russia. Yanukovych told Putin he authorized and ordered substantial kickback payments to Manafort, as alleged by western journalists. Yanukovych assures Putin there is no evidence or paper trail. Given Yanukovych’s historical inability to cover up his own corruption, Putin is skeptical.

August 27, 2016

• Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, asked the FBI to investigate evidence suggesting that Russia may try to manipulate voting results in November. In a letter to FBI Director James Comey, Mr. Reid wrote that the threat of Russian interference ‘is more extensive than is widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results.’
• “Questions have been raised about whether a Trump advisor who has been highly critical of U.S. and European economic sanctions on Russia, and who has conflicts of interest due to investments in Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom, met with high-ranking sanctioned individuals while in Moscow in July of 2016.”
• This refers to Carter Page’s August 2016 Moscow visit.
• “Recent classified briefings from senior intelligence officials, Mr. Reid said in an interview, have left him fearful that Putin’s “goal is tampering with this election.”

August 31, 2016

• The New York Times publishes “How Russia Often Benefits When Julian Assange Reveals the West’s Secrets.”

September 1, 2016

• Trump states he has no relationship with Putin, nor has he ever had one.

September 2, 2016

• In an interview with Bloomberg, Putin calls DNC hack a public service and says “Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data? The important thing is the content that was given to the public.” Putin continues, “there’s no need to distract the public’s attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it.” Putin concludes “But I want to tell you again, I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russia has never done this.”

September 5, 2016

• The Washington Post reports:
• “U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions, intelligence and congressional officials said.”
• “U.S. intelligence officials described the covert influence campaign here as “ambitious” and said it is also designed to counter U.S. leadership and influence in international affairs.”

September 8, 2016

• Senator Jeff Sessions meets with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in his Capitol Hill office, accompanied by two top aides.

September 14, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from September 14, 2016 reports:
• Kremlin orders senior staff to remain silent in media and private on allegations of Russian interference in US presidential campaign
• Putin was receiving conflicting advice
• Russian ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged caution and the potential negative impact on Russia from the operation/s.
• Former Presidential Administration Head, Sergei Ivanov and Foreign Intelligence, who had advised the operations would be effective and plausibly deniable.
• There was blowback, and this was the cause of Putin’s decision to sack Ivanov as Presidential Administration Head. Ivanov’s replacement, Anton Vaino, was selected partly because he had not been involved in the US presidential election operation.
• Kremlin has further compromising material on Clinton in the form of emails and considers disseminating it after parliamentary elections in late September. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dimitriy Peskov is in charge.
• Ivanov sacked as Head of Administration on account of giving Putin poor advice on issue. Vaino selected as his replacement partly because he was not involved in the pro-Trump/anti-Clinton campaign.
• Senior Russian diplomat, Mikhail Kulagin was withdrawn from Washington embassy on account of potential exposure in US presidential election operation. His replacement, Andrei Bondarev, was not affiliated with the operations.
• The content of this entry was independently corroborated by a former top level Russian intelligence officer.
• A Dossier Entry from September 14, 2016 reports:
• “Alpha Group” (hereafter, Alfa Group) and Putin have a close relationship. Significant favors are done in both directions between Putin, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, and German Khan.
• A Dossier Entry from September 14, 2016 reports:
• Two knowledgeable sources in St. Petersburg claim Trump paid bribes and engaged in sexual activities while there but key witnesses have been silenced and evidence is hard to obtain.
• Both believe Araz Agalarov has been closely involved.

September 22, 2016

• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Congressman Adam Schiff (D), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, release the following statement:
• “Based on briefings we have received, we have concluded that the Russian intelligence agencies are making a serious and concerted effort to influence the U.S. election.”
• “At the least, this effort is intended to sow doubt about the security of our election and may well be intended to influence the outcomes of the election — we can see no other rationale for the behavior of the Russians.” “We believe that orders for the Russian intelligence agencies to conduct such actions could come only from very senior levels of the Russian government.”
• “We call on President Putin to immediately order a halt to this activity. Americans will not stand for any foreign government trying to influence our election. We hope all Americans will stand together and reject the Russian effort.”

September 23, 2016

• Yahoo News reports U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether Carter Page has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials — including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president.

September 26, 2016

• In his first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump rejects the cyber intelligence community’s conclusions that Russia hacked the DNC and instead suggests that the hacks on the Democratic National Committee could have been committed by China or “someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”
• “I don’t know if we know it was Russia who broke into the DNC…Maybe it was. It could also be China.”

October 2, 2016

• Trump aide Roger Stone, a campaign advisor and former principal of lobbying agency Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly tweets:
• “Wednesday [October 4] @HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.”
• Stone later states on the January 31, 2017 episode of the Mack on Politics podcast (produced in partnership with The Washington Times), there’s no evidence he colluded with Russia during last year’s campaign but acknowledges he received an indirect heads-up that Wikileaks had politically explosive material.

October 4, 2016

• Guccifer 2.0 blog publishes a post announcing hack of the Clinton Foundation, posts donor list and additional files as evidence.
• The New York Times reports:
• “Julian Assange promised on Tuesday to release significant material over the next 10 weeks about arms, Google, mass surveillance, oil, the United States election and war.”

October 7, 2016

• Department of Homeland Security and office of the Director of National Intelligence report they believe Russia was behind DNC hacking operation to interfere with the election. They report ‘only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities’
• “The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
• Donald Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood “grab them by the pussy” tape comes out in which he brags to Billy Baldwin about sexually assaulting women.
• One hour later, Wikileaks begins publishing the hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. Wikileaks goes on to publish fifty thousand e-mails from Podesta’s account.

October 11, 2016

• Donald Trump Jr. attends a secret meeting in Paris with a Syrian pro-regime politician with strong ties to Russia.
• Russian ambassador argues faulty intelligence is behind Washington’s decision to accuse the Kremlin of hacking and trying to influence the US election.
• Kislyak states “We do not interfere into internal affairs in the United States, not by my statements, not by electronic or other means.”

October 12, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from October 12, 2016 reports:
• Putin angry with senior officials who over-promised on Trump. More people likely to be sacked. Lavrov may be next.
• Leadership of Trump operation moved from Foreign Ministry to FSB to Presidential Administration.
• Senior Russian leadership figure explains Russia needs to upset the liberal international status quo, including on Ukraine-related sanctions, which was damaging the country.

October 15, 2016

• Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court gives FBI warrant for records pertaining to Russia’s hacking operation to interfere with the election

Mid-October, 2016

• The FBI and Chris Steele reach an agreement to pay Steele to continue to compile the Trump dossier.

October 18, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from October 18, 2016 reports:
• A close associate of Rosneft President and Putin Ally Igor Sechin confirmed a meeting occurred between Carter Page and Igor Sechin in Moscow on July 7 or 8 2016, the same day or the day after Carter Page made a public speech to the Higher Economic School in Moscow.
• Rosneft President Igor Sechin offered Page and Trump’s associates the brokerage of up to 19 per cent stake in Rosneft in return. Page expressed interest and confirmed that if Trump were elected US president, sanctions on Russia would be lifted.

October 19, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from October 19, 2016 reports:
• Michael Cohen’s role grew in the Trump campaign following the departure of Paul Manafort. Cohen was heavily engaged in a cover up and damage limitation operation in attempt to prevent the full details of Trump’s relationship with Russia being exposed. Cohen met secretly with several Russian Presidential Administration officials in an EU country in August 2016. Immediate concern had been to contain Manafort scandals and limit damage coming from exposure of Carter Page’s secret meetings with Russian leadership figures in Moscow in July 2016.

October 20, 2016

• A Dossier Entry from October 20, 2016 reports:
• In August 2016, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen met with Kremlin representatives in Prague. Purpose of meeting was to clean up the mess left behind by western media revelations of Trump campaign ex-manager Paul Manafort’s corrupt relationship with the former pro-Russian Yanukovych regime in Ukraine and Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page’s secret meetings in Moscow with senior regime figures in July 2016.
• Kremlin insider highlighted the importance of Russian parastatal organization, Rossotrudnichestvo, in the contact between Trump campaign representatives and Kremlin officials.
• Kremlin insider identified Duma (Russian parliament) figure Konstantin Kosachev (Head of Foreign Relations Committee) as an important figure in the Trump campaign-Kremlin liaison operation.

October 28, 2016

• FBI Director James Comey provides letter to Congress which states “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation…Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.”

October 30, 2016

• Harry Reid sends a letter to FBI Director Comey which states:
• “I am writing to inform you that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”
• “It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity.”
• “The public has a right to know this information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public.”

October 31, 2016

• After meeting with Chris Steele, journalist David Corn publishes “A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump,” in Mother Jones.
• Steele tells Corn “the story has to come out.”
• This is the earliest media report of the Steele Dossier and its contents.

November 1, 2016

• The United States contacts the Russian government directly regarding malicious cyber activity targeting U.S. state election-related systems. The message is sent over a rarely used system, a hotline connecting the Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers in both countries.
• FBI starts ‘preliminary inquiry’ into Paul Manafort’s business ties to other countries

November 2, 2016

• During a morning interview with Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC, Michael Flynn chastises the anchor for her highly critical comments towards Russia and Putin. When she brings up Putin’s reputation for killing journalists and Russia’s invasion of Crimea, Flynn dismisses it as “rhetoric.” Flynn then tells her “Stop it with that kind of stuff.” Flynn concludes “We cannot make Russia an enemy. Russia is a country deeply involved in the Middle East right now.”

November 4 ,2016

• Guccifer 2.0 blog publishes a post warning “that the Democrats may rig the elections on November 8. This may be possible because of the software installed in the FEC networks by the large IT companies.”
• Guccifer Twitter handle @GUCCIFER_2 writes: “I’ll be an independent observer at the U.S. #Elections2016. I call on other hackers to monitor the elections from inside the system”

November 7

• Russia published a government decree ordering the sale of a 19.5 percent stake in state-controlled oil giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM) in time for the proceeds to be received by the end of the year.”
• On January 25, 2017 Reuters follows up, reporting “More than a month after Russia announced one of its biggest privatizations since the 1990s, selling a 19.5 percent stake in its giant oil company Rosneft, it still isn’t possible to determine from public records the full identities of those who bought it.”
• A Dossier Entry from October 18, 2016 reports:
• A close associate of Rosneft President and Putin Ally Igor Sechin confirmed a meeting occurred between Carter Page and Igor Sechin in Moscow on July 7 or 8 2016, the same day or the day after Carter Page made a public speech to the Higher Economic School in Moscow.
• Rosneft President Igor Sechin offered Page and Trump’s associates the brokerage of up to 19 per cent stake in Rosneft in return. Page expressed interest and confirmed that if Trump were elected US president, sanctions on Russia would be lifted.

November 8, 2016

• Russian Consulate General Deputy Commander Sergei Krivov is found dead at 7a.m. lying on the floor of the Russian Consulate in New York.
• Donald Trump wins U.S. presidential election

After November 8 (Exact Date Unknown)

• US Intelligence intercepts senior Russian officials celebrating Trump win.

November 10

• The New York Times reports:
• “The Russian government maintained contacts with members of Donald J. Trump’s ‘immediate entourage’ during the American presidential campaign, one of Russia’s top diplomats said Thursday.”
• Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with Interfax news agency that “there were contacts” with the Trump team. Ryabkov stated “Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage.”
• “Speaking to Bloomberg News, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said staffers at the Russian Embassy in Washington met with members of Trump’s campaign”
• Trump spokesman Hope Hicks swiftly denied this and said the campaign had “no contact with Russian officials” before the election.

November 17

• Researchers at Oxford University publish a report based on the analysis of 19.4 million Twitter posts from the first 9 days of November 2016. The report shows an automated army of pro-Trump chatbots overwhelmed Clinton bots five to one in the days leading up to the presidential election.
• The bots would send messages on Twitter for the purpose of confusing people on facts, rant, of muddy discussion. One author of the study described the bots as “yelling fools,” noting “a lot of what they pass around is false news.”
• “In some cases, the bots would post embarrassing photos, make references to the Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into Mrs. Clinton’s private email server, or produce false statements, for instance, that Mrs. Clinton was about to go to jail or was already in jail.”

November 21, 2016

• Donald Trump announces he will appoint General Michael Flynn as the next National Security Advisor.

Week of November 28, 2016

• The CIA shares its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Agency briefers told the senators it was now”quite clear” that electing Trump was Russia’s goal.

November 30, 2016

• Paul Manafort, still living in Trump Tower, resumes advising Donald Trump, helping with cabinet picks.
• Seven members of the Senate Intelligence Committee Members send a letter to President Obama requesting the President declassify Information regarding Russia and the U.S. election
• The letter, sent by Senators Mikulski, Warner, Heinrich, King, Hirono, Reed, and Wyden states “We believe there is additional information concerning the Russian Government and the U.S. election that should be declassified and released to the public. We are conveying specifics through classified channels.”

December 8, 2016

• Carter Page travels to Moscow to meet with “business leaders and thought leaders.”

December 9, 2016

• Eric Schultz, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary holds a press briefing discussing the 2016 election and malicious cyber activity. He re-affirms “the intelligence community made very clear that this was activity directed by the highest levels of the Russian government.”
• The Washington Post reports the CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system.”
• The article reports “Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances.”
• Obama Orders a review of Russia’s hacking operation by US Intelligence community to be followed up with a public report before the end of his term.
• John McCain gives the Steele dossier with memos from June through December 2016 to James Comey.
• American intelligence Agencies conclude with “high confidence” that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump.”
• “The Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from Republican networks.”

December 11, 2016

• United States Senate Committee on Armed Services releases a joint statement press release by Senators McCain (R), Graham (R), Schumer (D), Reed (D).The release includes:
• “Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American.”
• “Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks.This cannot become a partisan issue. The stakes are too high for our country.”
• “We are committed to working in this bipartisan manner, and we will seek to unify our colleagues around the goal of investigating and stopping the grave threats that cyberattacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security.”

December 12, 2016

• CNN reports U.S. intelligence believes Russia hacked GOP groups
• Trump tweets: “Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!”
• “Unless you catch “hackers” in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?”
• Sen. McConnell says a Senate intelligence panel will launch investigation of Russian election interference, but rejects an expanded congressional probe.
• Speaker of the House Paul Ryan issues statement dismissing calls for a special panel congressional probe: “foreign intervention in our elections is entirely unacceptable. And any intervention by Russia is especially problematic because, under President Putin, Russia has been an aggressor that consistently undermines American interests. At the same time, exploiting the work of our intelligence community for partisan purposes does a grave disservice to those professionals and potentially jeopardizes our national security. As we work to protect our democracy from foreign influence, we should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election.”
• Carter Page gives speech in Moscow at at the Russian government-owned Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.
• Page claims in this speech that he has no say in or contact with the Trump transition team, but explains how great a pick he believes Rex Tillerson will be for Secretary of State. This occurs before Tillerson’s nomination is officially announced:
• “There’s a lot of rumors out there. And I don’t have any specific insights into the rumors, but I’m really personally excited. Ya know, just as one small example, or one major example on one hand, but one of many examples about Rex Tillerson being awarded the Order of Friendship, the many joint ventures he worked to create in the Kara Sea, the Black Sea, tight oil, the list goes on and on.”

December 13, 2016

• Donald Trump’s transition team announces that Rex Tillerson will be the nominee for Secretary of State
• Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker (R) announces plan to launch a new review about Russia’s hacking of the elections. He states “We are going to systematically walk through the entire Russia issue and fully understand what has transpired.”.
• This is the third Senate committee planning to review the issue, joining the Armed Services Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence.
• These reviews stop short of a separate standing committee whose sole task is to investigate the matter — similar to the way House Republicans established a panel to review the 2012 Benghazi attacks.
• Corker also praises Trump’s pick of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State.
• He remarks “I have no idea what his feelings are on Russia.”
• Also notes he has “zero idea” about Tillerson’s views of NATO.
• A Dossier Entry from December 13, 2016 reports:
• Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer was accompanied to Prague in August/September 2016 by 3 colleagues for secret discussions with Kremlin representatives and associated operators. Kremlin operatives worked under cover of Russian “NGO” Rossotrudnichestvo. The meeting agenda comprised of questions on how deniable cash payments were to be made to the hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.
• One Russian NGO operative was Oleg Solodukhin.

December 15, 2016

• Senator Ron Johnson states he isn’t convinced that Russia interfered in the election. Johnson tells the Wisconsin State Journal he “would need more definitive information before drawing further conclusions” about Russian interference in the election.
• Johnson supports a bid by Bob Corker to launch a new probe of Russia’s hacking.
• James Clapper signs new rules granting the NSA new powers to disseminate “raw signals intelligence information.” to other the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies.

December 16, 2016

• CIA Director John Brennan says in message to employees that the FBI agreed with the CIA’s conclusion that Russia’s goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he had also spoken with James Clapper and said “there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election.”

December 26, 2016

• Oleg Erovinkin, a general in the FSB is found dead in the back of his car in Moscow. Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft.
• Erovinkin likely helped Chris Steele compile the dossier and served as a source.

December 29, 2016

• Obama Administration imposes additional sanctions on Russia based on US Intelligence reports of Russia hacking the DNC.
• Department of Homeland Security and the FBI release a Joint Analysis Report providing technical details and intelligence on tools and infrastructure used by the GRU and FSB (Russian civilian and military intelligence Services).
• The report made states reports have not attempted to attribute malicious cyber activity to specific entities. This report however makes clear its intent to say that enough public attribution of these activities to Russian Intelligence is supported by the technical details and IOCs (indicators of compromise) in the report.
• “In some cases, [Russian Intelligence Service] actors masqueraded as third parties, hiding behind false online personas designed to cause the victim to misattribute the source of the attack.”
• This report is an expansion of the October 7 Joint Statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence about Russian Government interference in the election.
• United States expels 35 Russian diplomats and closes Russian intelligence gathering facilities in New York and Maryland. Obama also signs an Executive order imposing sanctions on 9 individuals and groups for election related hacking
• Sanctions are imposed upon the GRU (Russian foreign military intelligence); the FSB; four GRU Officer; three companies that provided material support.
• Michael Flynn calls Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and discusses sanctions. Flynn later denies this to Vice President Michael Pence.

December 30, 2016

December 2016 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn meet with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower to “establish a line of communication” concerning U.S.-Russian relations.

Late December, 2016 (Exact Date Unknown)

• FSB official Sergei Mikhaillov is taken into custody with a bag over his head by his own FSB colleagues. He is later accused of transferring Russian state secrets to U.S. intelligence services.

December 30, 2016

• “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart!”
• @RusEmbUSA, the official Twitter account of the Russian Embassy retweets Trump’s message.

Late December, 2016 (Exact Date Unknown)

• Attorney General Loretta Lynch signs new rules formally relaxing limits on what the NSA may do with information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations which are unregulated by American wiretapping laws.
• This change means that far more officials will be searching through raw data, reducing the risk that the NSA will fail to recognize that a piece of information would be valuable to another agency.
• “Previously, the NSA filtered information before sharing intercepted communications with another agency, like the CIA…”
• Under the new rules “other intelligence agencies will be able to search directly through raw repositories of communications intercepted by the N.S.A. and then apply such rules for “minimizing” privacy intrusions.”
• Trump Tweets: The “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!”
• Intelligence officials state there had been no delay.

Week of January 1, 2017 (Exact Date Unknown)

• James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence) James Comey (FBI Director), John Brennan (CIA Director) and Adm. Michael Rogers (NSA Director) present two-page synopsis report to President Obama and President-elect Trump that “came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible” claimed Russian Intelligence had “compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.”
• “One reason the nation’s intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies”
• “Senior intelligence officials also included the synopsis to demonstrate that Russia had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats. This synopsis was not an official part of the report from the intelligence community case about Russian hacks, but some officials said it augmented the evidence that Moscow intended to harm Clinton’s candidacy and help Trump’s, several officials with knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.”

January 5, 2017

• United States Senate Committee on Armed Services holds a hearing to receive testimony on foreign cyber threats to the United States. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; Director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers; and undersecretary for defense for intelligence, Marcel Lettre make appearances.
• James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence; Marcel Lettre, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence; and Admiral Michael Rogers, Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency provide a Joint Statement for the Record. The Joint Statement includes:
• “Russia is a full-scope cyber actor that poses a major threat to U.S. Government, military, diplomatic, commercial, and critical infrastructure and key resource networks because of its highly advanced offensive cyber program and sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures.”
• “We assess that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets. Russia also has used cyber tactics and techniques to seek to influence public opinion across Europe and Eurasia. Looking forward, Russian cyber operations will likely target the United States to gather intelligence, support Russian decisionmaking, conduct influence operations to support Russian military and political objectives, and prepare the cyber environment for future contingencies.”
• Clapper explains “Russia’s multifaceted campaign” utilized RT, a Russian-state affiliated news station “very very active in promoting a particular point of view, disparaging our system, our alleged hypocrisy about human rights, etc”; social media; and fake news in addition to the hacking to debase the electoral system and process.
• Lindsey Graham (R) states “I think what Obama did was throw a pill. I’m ready to throw a rock…If we don’t throw rocks, we’re going to make a huge mistake…Putin’s up to no good; he’s got to be stopped.” Graham directly implores Trump to listen to the intelligence community.
• John McCain comments “Right now we have no policy, no strategy to counter cyberattacks.”
• When asked by Senator Donnelly (D) “how far up the chain does this go?” Clapper responds “I can’t speak to that in this setting.”

January 6, 2017

• DNI releases a declassified report on Russian election interference and “The report concluded with “high confidence” — intelligence community speak for virtual certainty — that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacking operation in an effort to hurt Clinton’s campaign and help elect Trump. The report also found that the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, gave the information it obtained from the DNC and Clinton campaign’s emails to WikiLeaks.”

January 10, 2017

• The Senate Intelligence Committee announces an inquiry into Russian interference, with Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) stating that the October 2016 report from US Intelligence “raised profound concerns”
• On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Kellyanne Conway is asked about the memos and claims “nothing’s been confirmed” and states Trump is “unaware” he had been briefed on the memos.

January 11, 2017

• Dossier author Chris Steele goes into hiding.
• Trump Tweets: “Russia just said the the unverified report paid for by political opponents is “A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.” Very unfair!”
• “Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA — NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!”
• “Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to “leak” into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

January 12, 2017

• Guccifer 2.0 blog publishes a post stating: “I have totally no relation to the Russian government.”

January 13, 2017

• The Wall Street Journal releases excerpts from an interview with Donald Trump. Trump postulates “if you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things.”
• A senior U.S. official tells Reuters that Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador have been in frequent contact in recent weeks, including on the day the Obama administration hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for election-related hacking.
• Andrei Gerasimov, head of the FSB’s Information Security Center since 20009, is dismissed.

January 15, 2017

• Vice President Pence is interviewed on Face the Nation and Fox News and states that Flynn hadn’t discussed sanctions with Russians. Flynn had, in fact, discussed sanctions.

January 18, 2017

• Economists Matthew Gentzkow (Stanford University) and Hunt Allcott (New York University) release a study which finds:
• “Fabricated stories favoring Donald Trump were shared a total of 30 million times, nearly quadruple the number of pro-Hillary Clinton shares leading up to the election.”
• The authors find that the most widely circulated hoaxes were seen by only a small fraction of Americans.
• “Social media was an important but not dominant source of news in the run-up to the election.”

January 23, 2017

• Sean Spicer, Press Secretary affirms that Flynn did not discuss sanctions

Late January 2017

• FBI interviews Flynn about calls with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. US Intelligence has transcripts of the calls.
• Michael Cohen, Andrii Artemenko, and Trump business associate Felix Sater meet at the Loews Regency Hotel in Manhattan to discuss a Ukraine “peace plan” that would lift international sanctions on Russia and “lease” Crimea to Russia in exchange for the withdrawal of Russian forces from eastern Ukraine.

January 25, 2017

• House Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes and Ranking Member Adam Schiff release statement that the committee has been performing a bipartisan inquiry into Russian aggression and cyber-attacks directed against the United States. The committee’s inquiry has included, and will continue to include:
• Russian cyber activity and other active measures directed against the U.S. and its allies; counterintelligence concerns related to Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, including any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns
• United States Government response to Russian active measures and any impact they may have on intelligence relationships and traditional alliances
• Possible leaks of classified information related to intelligence community assessments of these matters.

January 26, 2017

• Acting Attorney General Sally Yates tells Don McGahn, White House Counsel that there are discrepancies between what Flynn said about his call with Kislyak and what he told interviewers

February 1, 2017

• Rex Tillerson is confirmed as Secretary of State
• House Democratic Party leaders, including Representatives Cummings, Smith, Conyers, Thompson, Schiff, and Engel submit letter to Defense Secretary Mattis requesting the Department of Defense conduct a review of Michael Flynn’s involvement with Russia Today (RT). As a retired Army officer, Flynn was prohibited from accepting direct or indirect payments from foreign governments. The letter states: “Since his retirement in 2014, Flynn has made regular appearances on RT, Russia’s state-sponsored propaganda outlet.”
• The request asks for all documents in possession or control of the Department of Defense relating to communications between Flynn and Russian government/media, other foreign entities, payments, and Flynn’s speaker contract.
• During an August 15, 2016 interview with The Washington Post Flynn stated he received payments from RT. “I get paid so much.”
• Michael Flynn had also defended receiving payment for the Russian speaking to Yahoo News’ Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff on July 18, 2016.
• CBS News cites Russian reports that three officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and an executive for cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs have been arrested. All three are accused of transferring Russian state secrets to U.S. intelligence services. A specific agency is not specified, although the CIA is excluded as a possibility.

February 2, 2017

• Congress passes legislation ending an Obama-era regulation that requires oil and gas companies to disclose payments to the U.S. or foreign governments for commercial development.
• Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism announced it was launching a separate probe into Russia’s election hacking

February 5, 2017

• In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, after being asked about Putin, Donald Trump says:
• “I do respect him… I respect a lot of people but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with him,”
• “He’s a leader of his country. I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not, and if Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS — which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all over the world — that’s a good thing. Will I get along with him? I have no idea.”
• O’Reilly pressed Trump on his statement, saying, “But he’s a killer though. Putin’s a killer.” Trump replies “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?” Trump responded.

Week of February 6, 2017

• Michael Cohen hand-delivers the Ukraine “peace plan” to Michael Flynn’s office.

February 7, 2017

• Trump Tweets: “I don’t know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy — yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!”

February 9, 2017

• The Washington Post reports Michael Flynn had talked about sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and that the two had begun communicating before November 8.

February 10, 2017

• CIA denies security clearance to a key aid to Michael Flynn
• Top Democratic Party member on the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, pleads with Republicans to investigate Flynn.
• Multiple Democrats including Reps. Schiff, Hoyer, and Swalwell follow Cummings’ lead.

February 11 or 12, 2017

• Donald Trump encourages Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost ties with Russia

February 12, 2017

• Former NSA analyst and counterintelligence officer, John R. Schindler, writes in The Observer that the intelligence community is beginning to withhold intelligence from the White House out of a lack of trust. Schindler quotes a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM.” “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point.”
• Carter Page pens a 37 page letter to the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice
• Page requests an “urgent review of the severe election fraud in the form of disinformation, suppression of dissent, hate crimes and other extensive abuses led by members of Mrs. Hillary Clinton’s campaign and their political allies last year.”

February 13, 2017

• Michael Flynn Resigns

February 14, 2017

• Sean Spicer states that Trump had known of the content of Flynn’s calls for 2 weeks before the resignation, and that Pence found out via the media 14 days after Trump found out.
• Spicer also states that President Donald Trump did not tell Michael Flynn to discuss sanctions with Russia during his transition into office.
• “No, absolutely not, no, no, no
• New York Times reports multiple members of Trump campaign had had communications with Russian officials intercepted by US Intelligence
• Paul Manafort tells the New York Times that he has “never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers and [he has] never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin by administration or any other issues under investigation today.”
• An article in the March 7, 2017 issue of The New Yorker reports: “Whether he knew it or not, Manafort was around Russian intelligence all the time,” an anonymous official told the authors. The New Yorker article continues “Investigators are likely to examine Trump and a range of his associates — Manafort; Flynn; stone; a foreign policy adviser, Carter Page; the lawyer Michael Cohen — for potential illegal or unethical entanglements with Russian government or business representatives.”

February 15, 2017

• White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer contacts CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC), connecting them with New York Times and Washington Post reporters to rebut the NYT story on repeated contacts between Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officials. Pompeo and Burr “told the journalists that the Times story wasn’t true but provided no details.”
• Spicer also “provided reporters’ phone numbers to House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA), who offered to make the calls himself.”
• Trump Tweets: “This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.”
• “Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?”

February 16, 2017

• Trump Tweets: “The Democrats had to come up with a story as to why they lost the election, and so badly (306), so they made up a story — RUSSIA. Fake news!”
• After Trump receives more mentions in Russian media than Putin in the month of January 2016, Bloomberg reports Kremlin orders media to cut back on fawning Trump coverage.
• Trump holds a press conference where he defends Flynn’s actions, and addresses the linkages between members of his campaign and Russia. Regarding the members of his campaign, Trump states:
• “They weren’t even a part, really — I mean, they were such a minor part. They — I hadn’t spoken to them.”
• “I think the one person — I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him. I don’t think I’ve ever met him. And he actually said he was a very low-level member of I think a committee for a short period of time. I don’t think I ever met him. Now, it’s possible that I walked into a room and he was sitting there, but I don’t think I ever met him. I didn’t talk to him ever. And he thought it was a joke.”
• “The other person [Paul Manafort] said he never spoke to Russia; never received a call. Look at his phone records, et cetera, et cetera. And the other person, people knew that he represented various countries, but I don’t think he represented Russia, but knew that he represented various countries. That’s what he does. I mean, people know that.”
• “That’s Mr. Manafort, who’s — by the way, who’s by the way a respected man. He’s a respected man. But I think he represented the Ukraine or Ukraine government or somebody, but everybody — people knew that. Everybody knew that.”
• Trump concludes “nobody that I know of” within his campaign had been in contact with Russian officials during the campaign. He also stated that he had NO ties to Russia and that he hadn’t “made a phone call to Russia in years”
• Trump states “I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia. President Putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election. He then, called me up extremely nicely to congratulate me on the inauguration, which was terrific.”
• Trump concludes: “Russia is fake news. Russia — this is fake news put out by the media.
• Trump is later asked further if he can definitively say that nobody on the campaign had any contacts with the Russian during the campaign. The journalist also asks him to comment on the leaks, if they’re fake news or real leaks.
• Trump states “The leaks are real…I mean the leaks are real…the leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake.”
• After being asked further about Russian connections Trump finishes “I had nothing to do with it. I have nothing to do with Russia. I told you, I have no deals there, I have no anything.”
• Asked about those who advised of his campaign Trump concedes “Gen. Flynn obviously was dealing. So that’s one person. But he was dealing, as he should have been.”
• Trump then denies this occurred during the election and asserts “Russia is a ruse.”
• Trump finishes “I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge no person that I deal with does.”

February 17, 2017

• FBI Director James Comey meets with the Senate Intelligence Committee panel investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election in a closed briefing. Details of the meeting, to date, remain secret.

February 18, 2017

• Senate Committee on Homeland Security chairman Ron Johnson says he doesn’t see the “need for speed” or need to get his own Committee on Homeland Security involved in the investigation of the Trump-Russia connections.

February 19, 2017

• Michael Cohen changes his story on the Ukraine “peace plan,” telling The Washington Post that he met with Sater and Artemenko at the Loews Regency to discuss the plan, but “emphatically” denied discussing or delivering it to Flynn or the White House.

February 20, 2017

• Cohen provides a third version of his story to Business Insider, claiming to deny “’even knowing what the plan is.’ But he said in a later message that he met with Artemenko in New York for ‘under 10 minutes’ to discuss a proposal that Artemenko said ‘was acknowledged by Russian authorities that would create world peace.”
• Cohen provides a fourth version to NBC News, stating “‘I’ve known Felix for years,’ Cohen said. “I received a phone call: ‘Hey Mike, you have a few minutes? Can I meet you for coffee? You mind if I bring a friend?’ Little did I know it would be a guy who wants to run for president of Ukraine.” However, he also “added that even if he had taken an envelope with a Ukrainian peace plan to the White House, ‘So what? What’s wrong with that?”

Week of February 20, 2017

• Aware of leaks coming from White House and trying to identify the leakers, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has staffers dump their phones on a table for a “phone check” to prove they have nothing to hide. Spicer then warns the group that news of phone checks and the meeting about leaks should not be leaked to the media.

February 23, 2017

• CNN reports “the FBI rejected a recent White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to US intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign.”
• “Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.”

February 24

• White House confirms Chief of Staff Reince Priebus spoke with top FBI officials.
• Andrii Artemenko tells CNN that his meeting with Cohen and Sater was a dinner, and that the pro-Russian “peace plan” was produced “after 25 minutes.” Artemenko also told CNN that Cohen, “who has long advised Trump, wanted to take the plan to Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.”
• Cohen told CNN that “although he had dinner with Artemenko, they never discussed peace in Ukraine.”
• “Michael Flynn is the best person, the best of my connections in the Trump administration, who if he likes [it], it’s going to [get] huge support, huge support,’ Cohen said, according to Artemenko.”
• Felix Sater confirmed to CNN that the plan was discussed, and that Cohen felt the plan should be handled by Flynn.

February 26, 2017

• Trump tweets: “Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!”
• White House does not rule out Sessions recusal on Russia probes. Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders states: “I wasn’t saying that he shouldn’t recuse himself or that he should…My point is I don’t think we’re there yet. Let’s work through this process.”
• Rep. Darrell Issa (R) calls for a special prosecutor, while Sen. Tom Cotton (R) says that a appointing a special prosecutor would be “getting ahead of ourselves,”
• House Intel Chair Devin Nunes (R) refers to an investigation of Trump-Russia ties as a “witch hunt.”
• Andrii Artemenko tells Business Insider that Felix Sater gave him “confirmation” “that his plan was delivered to the White House.”
• “But some Ukrainians have characterized Artemenko as a relatively marginal, if not virtually unknown, player, whose “peace” plan was probably not his own creation but that of Ukraine’s pro-Russia Opposition Bloc formed after former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in 2014.”
• Cohen and Artemenko now deny meeting in spring 2016.

February 28, 2017

• Newt Gingrich, a longtime supporter of President Trump calls for an “independent person” to lead White House efforts examining the alleged communication between Trump’s campaign team and various Russian officials.
• Paul Ryan tells reporters he had seen “no evidence so far” of Trump campaign contacts with Russia but said a bipartisan House inquiry would proceed so that “no stone is unturned.”
• The Washington Post reveals FBI had planned to compensate Chris Steele to continue his work.

March 1, 2017

• The New York Times reveals that the U.S. has received intelligence from allies confirming meetings between Trump associates and Russian officials in European cities, as well as the existence of U.S. intelligence concerning discussions between Russian officials, some of which concerned their contacts with Trump associates. The paper also documents an effort by outgoing Obama Administration personnel to ensure that information related to the investigation is not destroyed.
• The Washington Post reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign, despite stating in his confirmation hearing that he did not have contact with Russia during the campaign.
• The Wall Street Journal reveals that investigators “examined contacts” between Attorney General Sessions and Russian officials during Donald Trump’s campaign.

March 2, 2017

• Many Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, call for Jeff Sessions to resign in light of his misleading statements under oath concerning Russia contact. Other Democrats reiterate calls for Sessions to recuse himself from any investigations of Trump and Russia. Several leading Republicans, including House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Senators Rob Portman, Susan Collins, and Lindsey Graham call for Sessions to recuse himself. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy initially seems to call for Sessions’ recusal, then walks it back.
• House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) states that he sees no reason for Sessions to recuse himself unless he is the “direct” subject of an investigation.
• Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) defends Sessions from calls for recusal and calls his meetings with Kislyak a “Nothing Burger.”
• Sessions recuses himself from all Trump-Russia investigations.
• NBC News reports the Senate may question Chris Steele, who compiled the Trump Dossier. Steele is in hiding.