Timeline

| Trump sits next to Russian Ambassador Yuri Dubinin at a luncheon hosted by Leonard Lauder, the oldest son of Estée Lauder who managed the sprawling cosmetic business at the time. Read more

| Trump visits Moscow and tours various sites in an effort to strike real estate deals in Soviet-era Russia. He stays in a hotel overlooking the Kremlin, and tells Playboy that Russian jets escorted his own on the way to the airport. Read more

| Trump invites Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his wife to visit Trump Tower in New York, but the meeting never materializes. Read more

| Trump says he will hold a press conference with a Miami-based tobacco company in Moscow announcing plans to build an office and apartment complex similar to Trump Tower in New York. Read more

| Trump gave the development company Bayrock a one-year deal to find a site for a Trump Tower. Felix Sater later testified that he identified a former pencil factory as a site for the project, before the deal fell apart. Read more

| While in Moscow for his Miss Universe competition, Trump meets with Russian businessmen, including real estate developer Aras Agalarov, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Before the pageant, Trump said to MSNBC, "I do have a relationship" with Putin. Read more

| Trump tells a group at the National Press Club that while he was in Moscow, he spoke with Putin "indirectly and directly."

| Alexander Torshin, a former Russian senator from Putin's party who now heads Russia's central bank, told Bloomberg News that he had a friendly exchange with Trump at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association of America. A White House official said Trump does not recall the exchange. Read more

| At a town hall in Las Vegas, Trump tells an audience that he knew Putin. "I don't think you'd need the sanctions. I think that we would get along very, very well," he said. Read more

| Putin and Trump are on the season premiere of "60 Minutes." Although Trump would later say in a debate, "I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes.' We were stablemates," Time magazine revealed that they were interviewed in separate cities. Read more

| Post reporting shows Trump's company was seeking to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow during the presidential campaign. In July 2016 — during the height of the campaign when connections to Russia were under great scrutiny — Trump denied having any business connections to Moscow. Felix Sater, a Russian-born real estate developer, urged Trump to visit Moscow in November 2015 and suggested Putin might say "great things" about him. The deal is abandoned by January 2016 because because Trump's business lacked the land and permits. Read more

| Putin says Trump is "colorful" and "talented." Trump calls the compliment an “honor.” Even as ties to Russia become a campaign issue in 2016, Trump refuses to renounce Putin: “A guy calls me a genius, and I’m going to renounce? I’m not going to renounce him.” (Putin has not publicly called Trump a genius.) Read more

| Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attends a speech in Washington in which Trump vows to seek better relations with Russia. The president of the think tank that invited Kislyak said he introduced the two in a receiving line. Read more

| In a private conversation among GOP leaders that included Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that Putin "pays" Trump. Read more

| In news conferences and tweets, Trump says he has “nothing to do with Russia,” and "I don't know who Putin is. ... I've never spoken to him." He also tweeted, “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.” At the same time, at a news conference, Trump encouraged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's email. Read more

| Two days after the election, a Russian official tells a reporter in Moscow that the Kremlin had been in contact with Trump’s campaign. Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks denies it, saying, “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” Read more

| President Barack Obama personally warns Trump against hiring Michael Flynn as his national security adviser when the two meet in the Oval Office, current and former administration officials said. Read more

| Inauguration Day. Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. He designates the day as “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.” Read more

| Trump fires acting attorney general Sally Yates for not defending the travel ban. Just days before — on Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 — Yates warned White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was misleading Vice President Pence on his contacts with the Russian ambassador and that he could be blackmailed by Russia. Read more

| President Trump and Putin speak on the phone for an hour. Read more

| Trump pressures FBI Director James B. Comey to drop the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to the bureau chief's personal notes. People close to the matter said Comey kept detailed notes of his meetings with Trump. Read more

| After a briefing at the White House with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, associates of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Trump asked him to get then-FBI Director James Comey to pull back its focus on Flynn in the Russia investigation. Read more

| A day or two after the meeting, Trump calls Coats and asks him to issue a public statement denying the existence of any evidence of coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Coats declines to act on the request. Trump also approached Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, and asked him the same thing. Rogers also refused to comply. Read more

| Comey reportedly sought more money and resources for the Russia investigation. The Washington Post reports this on May 10, a day after Trump fires Comey. Read more

| Trump tells Vice President Pence and others that he wants to fire Comey because of his grievances with the bureau head, one of which includes the belief that Comey was focusing too much on the Russia investigation rather than finding the cause of leaks to journalists. Read more

| Trump fires Comey, who was leading the investigation into Trump team's ties to Russia. The stunning decision sparked fears that the investigation might be upended now that Trump himself can handpick a new supervisor. Read more

| Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House. Lavrov's official photographer, who also works for the Russian news agency Tass, took photos of the foreign minister, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Trump smiling and shaking hands in the Oval Office. Read more

| In an NBC interview, Trump reveals that Comey told him three times he was not under investigation. Read more

| The Post reports that Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. Read more

| The Post reports that a senior White House adviser close to President Trump is under scrutiny by investigators who are looking into the possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. Read more

| Trump's close personal friend Christopher Ruddy tells PBS’s “NewsHour” that the president could fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to oversee the Russia investigation. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says: "Chris Ruddy speaks for himself." Read more

| The special counsel plans to interview top intelligence officials as part of a larger investigation that now includes looking into whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said. Read more

| CNN publishes footage from 2013 showing Trump, Aras Agalarov, his son Emin Agalarov and the son's publicist at a dinner during the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas. Emin Agalarov's publicist, Rob Goldstone, sent an email to Donald Trump Jr. in 2016 saying a Russian lawyer had potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton and that the information "comes directly from the Russian government." Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner meet with the lawyer on June 9, 2016. Read more

| In an interview with The New York Times, Trump says he would have never appointed Sessions if he had known the attorney general would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump described the decision by the attorney general as "unfair." Sessions is one of Trump's most loyal supporters. Read more

| The Post reports special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is using a grand jury in federal court in Washington, D.C., as part of the Russia investigation, a sign that the investigators are continuing to aggressively gather evidence of possible coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. The special counsel investigation now includes a look at whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey. Read more

| President Trump directed the White House’s top lawyer, Don McGahn, to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the FBI's investigation into Russian election meddling and tried to persuade him not to do so, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The New York Times first reported the lawyer's efforts. Read more

| The same day the House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon for refusing to answer questions from investigators during a closed-door interview, it is revealed that the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has also subpoenaed Bannon to appear before a grand jury. The New York Times first reported the Mueller subpoena, which was issued the previous week. Bannon later agreed to be interviewed by Mueller's team rather than appear before a grand jury. Read more

| The Post identifies at least half a dozen politically connected Russians who were in Washington on Inauguration Day — including some whose presence has not been previously reported. Read more

| During an impromptu meeting in the West Wing with reporters, Trump says he is “looking forward” to testifying under oath to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as part of the probe of Russian investigation. “I would love to do it, and I would like to do it as soon as possible,” Trump said. “I would do it under oath, absolutely.” Read more

| McClatchy reports the FBI is investigating whether Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia's central bank who is known for his close relationship with Putin, funneled money to the NRA to help Trump win the presidency. Read more