Dec. 10 — Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn speaks at RT’s anniversary conference in Moscow. RT is a Russian government-funded TV station once known as Russia Today. Flynn, who would become a foreign policy adviser to Trump during the campaign and national security adviser in the Trump administration, sits next to Putin at the event. In remarks at the event, Flynn is critical of the Obama administration’s foreign policy and supportive of working with Russia to battle ISIS. (It’s later learned that he was paid $45,000 for his appearance, and failed to report the income on his government financial disclosure forms.)

Dec. 19 — Sater sends Cohen an email. “Please call me I have Evgeney [Dvoskin] on the other line. He needs a copy of your and Donald’s passports they need a scan of every page of the passports. Invitations & Visas will be issued this week by VTB Bank to discuss financing for Trump Tower Moscow,” Sater writes, trying to arrange a visit to Moscow for Cohen and Trump. “Politically neither Putins office nor Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot issue invite, so they are inviting commercially/ business. VTB is Russia’s 2 biggest bank and VTB Bank CEO Andrey Kostin, will be at all meetings with Putin so that it is a business meeting not political. We will be invited to Russian consulate this week to receive invite & have visa issued.”

2016

Jan. 14 and 16 — Cohen, chief counsel for the Trump Organization, writes two emails to Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking the Russian government’s help “regarding the development of a Trump Tower-Moscow project in Moscow City.” (Cohen would later disclose his correspondence with Peskov in a statement to congressional investigators on Aug. 28, 2017, as reported that day by the Washington Post and later confirmed by the criminal information filed against Cohen in federal court on Nov. 29, 2018.)

Jan. 20 – Peskov’s assistant emails Cohen, telling him to give her a call. Cohen calls Peskov’s assistant and speaks to her for 20 minutes. Cohen outlines the Moscow Trump Tower project and asks for the Russian government’s assistance.

Jan. 21 – Sater contacts Cohen and says, “It’s about [Putin] they called today.”

Feb. 26 — Reuters reports that Flynn “has been informally advising Trump” on foreign policy during the presidential campaign.

March — Russian intelligence services probably begin the cyber operations that resulted in the compromise of the personal email accounts of Democratic Party officials and political figures. (This is according to the Jan. 6, 2017, report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.) More than “300 individuals affiliated with the Clinton Campaign, DCCC, and DNC” were targeted. (This is according to the July 13, 2018, indictment filed against 12 Russian military intelligence officers. The indictment confirms that the start date of the operation.)

March 3 — Trump names Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama chairman of the campaign’s National Security Advisory Committee. In a statement, Sessions says that Trump knows “our country needs a clear-eyed foreign policy rooted in the national interest.”

March 6 — George Papadopoulos accepts an offer to be a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. (“Approximately a week after signing on as a foreign policy advisor, Papadopoulos traveled to Rome, Italy,” where he was introduced to Joseph Mifsud — a professor who “maintained various Russian contacts while living in London,” according to the Mueller report. Mifsud’s contacts included a former employee of the Internet Research Agency, the Russian online propaganda operation that waged a social media campaign in support of Trump’s election, the report said.)

March 19 — Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev, a senior lieutenant in the Russian military, and other Russian intelligence officers send a spear-phishing email to John Podesta, chairman of the Clinton campaign. (This is according to the July 13, 2018, indictment filed against the Russian military officers.)

March 21 — Lukashev and other Russian military intelligence officers steal more than 50,000 emails from Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman.

At an editorial board meeting with the Washington Post, Trump tells the Washington Post that Carter Page, an American businessman who has worked in Russia and now owns a consulting firm called Global Energy Capital, is a member of his foreign policy team. (Seven months later, the FBI would receive court approval to monitor Page’s communications.)

Trump also publicly identifies George Papadopoulos as one of his foreign policy advisers. “George Papadopoulos. He’s an oil and energy consultant. Excellent guy,” Trump tells the Post. (Papadopoulos would later plead guilty to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with people that he believed to have substantial Russian ties.)

March 24 — Mifsud, the London-based professor, introduces Papadopoulos to Olga Polonskaya. Mifsud introduces her as a former student who has connects to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “During the meeting, Polonskaya offered to help Papadopoulos establish contacts in Russia and stated that the Russian ambassador in London was a friend of hers,” according to the Mueller report.

Papadopoulos emails Carter Page and other campaign officials about his meeting with Mifsud and Polonskaya. “The topic of the lunch was to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump,” he writes. “They are keen to host us in a ‘neutral’ city, or directly in Moscow. They said the leadership, including Putin, is ready to meet with us and Mr. Trump should there be interest. Waiting for everyone’s thoughts on moving forward with this very important issue.”

March 29 — Trump announces that Paul Manafort, a longtime Republican operative, will be his campaign convention manager. Manafort had worked for more than a decade for pro-Russia political organizations and people in Ukraine — including Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine and a close ally of Putin.

March 31 — Trump attends a national security meeting that was chaired by Sessions and attended by his foreign policy advisers, including Page and Papadopoulos. At the meeting, Papadopoulos says he has connections in Russia and could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin, according to the Justice Department. “Papadopoulos and Campaign advisor J.D. Gordon — who told investigators in an interview that he had a “crystal clear” recollection of the meeting — have stated that Trump was interested in and receptive to the idea of a meeting with Putin,” according to the Mueller report.

April — The Internet Research Agency, a Russian online propaganda operation, begins to “produce, purchase, and post advertisements on U.S. social media and other online sites expressly advocating for the election of then-candidate Trump or expressly opposing Clinton.” (This is from the Feb. 16, 2018, indictment of the Internet Research Agency and 13 Russian nationals. The advertising continued through November 2016.)

April 6 — Russian military intelligence officers create an email account similar to a Clinton campaign staffer and then send emails to more than 30 Clinton campaign employees that include a link to a document titled, “hillary-clinton-favorable-rating.xlsx.” The link directs the recipients’ computers to a website created by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency.

April 12 — Russian military intelligence officers use the stolen credentials of a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee employee to access the DCCC computer network. (By June, they had gained access to 33 DNC computers.)

April 18 — Mifsud, while in Moscow, introduces Papadopoulos via email to “Ivan Timofeev, a member of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). Mifsud had described Timofeev as having connections with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the executive entity in Russia responsible for Russian foreign relations,” according to the Mueller report.

April 26 — At a meeting in London, Mifsud tells Papadopoulos that the Russian government has “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” (The meeting would be disclosed later in a plea agreement between Papadopoulos and the Justice Department and detailed in the Mueller report.)

April 27 – Trump delivers a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the United States, attends the event. Trump vows to improve relations with Russia by finding shared interests, such as combating terrorism. “I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia — from a position of strength only — is possible, absolutely possible,” Trump says. (Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, would later tell congressional investigators on July 24, 2017, that he spoke briefly to Kislyak and three other foreign ambassadors at the event. “[W]e shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy,” Kushner says. “Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.”)

May 4 — Sater, a Russian-American and Trump business associate, sends an email to Cohen, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, about arranging for Cohen and Trump to visit Russia and discuss plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow. “I had a chat with Moscow. ASSUMING the trip does happen the question is before or after the convention … Obviously the pre-meeting trip (you only) can happen anytime you want but the 2 big guys where [sic] the question. I said I would confirm and revert.” In response, Cohen wrote, “My trip before Cleveland. [Trump] once he becomes the nominee after the convention.” (The existence of this email was disclosed in a criminal information filed against Cohen in federal court on Nov. 29, 2018 as part of Cohen’s plea deal. Trump is identified in the information as Individual 1 and Sater as Individual 2.)

May 5 — In a follow-up email on a possible trip to Moscow, Sater tells Cohen that a Russian official “would like to invite you as his guest to the St . Petersburg Forum which is Russia’s Davos it’s June 16- 19. He wants to meet there with you and possibly introduce you to either [Russian President Vladimir Putin] or [Dmitry Medvedev], as they are not sure if 1 or both will be there. He said anything you want to discuss including dates and subjects are on the table to discuss.” (The existence of this email was disclosed in a criminal information filed against Cohen on Nov. 29, 2018. Putin is identified only as “the President of Russia” and Medvedev as “the Prime Minister of Russia.”)

May 6 — In a conversation with a representative of a foreign government, Papadopoulos suggests “that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton,” according to the Mueller report. “The foreign government conveyed this information to the U.S. government on July 26, 2016, a few days after WikiLeaks’s release of Clinton-related emails,” the Mueller report said. “The FBI opened its investigation of potential coordination between Russia and the Trump Campaign a few days later based on the information.”

Sater emails Cohen about attending the St. Petersburg Forum, asking the Trump Organization executive whether he would be able to travel to Moscow on those dates. “Works for me,” Cohen writes.

May 10 — Prior to the National Rifle Association annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky, Paul Erickson, a Republican strategist, emails Rick Dearborn, a Trump campaign official, with the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” Erickson says “President Putin’s emissary” will be at the NRA convention and would like to meet with Trump and present Mrs. Trump with a gift. “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump. He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election.” (This and other emails about the NRA meeting would later be disclosed in separate House intelligence reports written by the Republican staff and Democratic staff.)

May 16 — Rick Clay, an advocate for Christian causes, emails Dearborn with the subject line “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite.” Clay says Russia would like to set up a private meeting at the NRA convention between Trump and Alexander Torshin, deputy governor of Russia’s central bank. (The New York Times would later write about Clay’s email, which also was included in the House intelligence committee reports.)

May 17 — Dearborn forwards Clay’s email to Kushner, Manafort and Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, calling it an “interesting request.” He says Torshin would like to “meet with a high level official in our campaign” to discuss “an offer [Torshin] claims to be carrying from President Putin to meet with DJT.”

May 19 — Manafort is elevated from convention manager to campaign chairman and chief strategist.

May 20 — Trump gives a speech at the NRA convention in Kentucky. Torshin also attends the convention and meets with Donald Trump Jr. (Donald Trump Jr. told the House intelligence committee that he spoke to Torshin about “stuff as it related to shooting and hunting,” and the Republican staff report said no other witnesses interviewed by the committee “provided a contrary recollection.”)

May 21 — Papadopoulos emails Manafort: “Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss.” (The Post, which reported the email exchange in an Aug. 14, 2017, story, reported that Manafort forwarded the email to his deputy, Rick Gates, with a note saying, “We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips.”)

May 25 — Russian military intelligence officers successfully hack into the DNC’s server and over the course of a week stole thousands of emails from DNC employees.

June — The Internet Research Agency begins to organize political rallies in the U.S. (This is from the Feb. 16, 2018, indictment of the Internet Research Agency and 13 Russian nationals. The indictment provides examples of pro-Trump and/or anti-Clinton rallies during the campaign, including in Florida, Pennsylvania and New York. At “Florida Goes Trump” rallies in August, the Russians paid “one U.S. person to build a cage on a flatbed truck and another U.S. person to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform,” the indictment says.)

June 3 – Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s eldest son, receives an email about information that could be damaging to the Clinton campaign that was purportedly “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” The email from music publicist Rob Goldstone says that Russian pop star Emin Agalarov reached out to him on behalf of his father, Aras Agalarov, a Russian real estate developer who has ties to Donald Trump Sr., including his 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. “Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting,” Goldstone wrote. “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin.” Goldstone asks if Donald Trump Jr. would speak to Emin. The younger Trump responds, saying, “[I]f it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

June 7 – Goldstone again emails Donald Trump Jr., saying: “Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday.”

June 8 — Russian military intelligence officers launch the website dcleaks.com, which they use to release stolen emails from DNC and Clinton campaign. (The website falsely claims it was started by group of “American hacktivists.” It will receive more than 1 million page views before it shuts down in March 2017.)