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This resource page compiles information on President Donald Trump and associates’ alleged ties to Russia.

Developments are loosely divided into story arcs for readability but are otherwise organized by chronology. Efforts have been made to provide available primary source materials and the most definitive secondary source accounts. Dates for secondary source materials are noted in brackets wherever they differ from the dates of the events reported.

Apparent gaps in timeline under particular story arcs may be addressed under other arcs. Materials have been organized and annotated and naming conventions are consistent throughout to facilitate simple Ctrl+F searches.

This page is still a work in progress but is designed to provide up-to-date, accurate and comprehensive coverage of Trump-Russia developments and allegations. We welcome you to submit comments and suggestions to that end to Quinta Jurecic.

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2. Russia Hacks and DC Leaks, WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 Data Dumps

September 2015: FBI informs the DNC that at least one DNC computer system had been breached by a Russian group that investigators dubbed "the Dukes," and later as "Cozy Bear" and "Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 29." [New York Times, December 13, 2016] A GRU-controlled unit dubbed “Fancy Bear,” or “APT 28,” is believed to have created Guccifer 2.0 and DC Leaks, as fora for disclosing the stolen documents. [New York Times, December 9, 2016]

2016

Check George Soros's OSF plans to counter Russian policy and traditional valueshttps://t.co/jehWtudCin pic.twitter.com/L1ZQS6yBJ1 — DC Leaks (@DCleaks_) August 3, 2016

October 10, 2016 : At a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania rally, Trump states, “I love WikiLeaks,” and cites some of the hacked emails to criticize Hillary Clinton. [The Hill, YouTube]

October 11, 2016 : Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta tells reporters there may be a connection between Trump and WikiLeaks through Trump ally Roger Stone: “I think it’s a reasonable assumption to—or at least a reasonable conclusion—that Mr. Stone had advance warning and the Trump campaign had advance warning about what Assange was going to do.” [Washington Post]

October 12, 2016 : Roger Stone tells CBS Miami that he had “back-channel communications” with Assange about the release of the stolen DNC emails but denies being involved in the timing of their release. [CBS Miami]

October 19, 2016 : At the final presidential debate, Clinton criticizes Trump for refusing to admit that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States. [New York Times (transcript)]

October 31, 2016: The New York Times publishes story with the headline, “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link To Russia.” [New York Times]

2017

February 16, 2017 : At his first solo press conference at the White House, Trump criticizes the leaks that led to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn as a "real problem." In response to a reporter's observation that the president had encouraged leaks during the campaign, Trump stated: "So in one case you’re talking about highly classified information. In the other case you’re talking about John Podesta saying bad things about the boss."

April 20, 2017 : CNN reports that the United States is preparing charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, based on statements from unnamed U.S. officials. [CNN]

August 16, 2017 : Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, meets with U.S. congressman Dana Rohrabacher promising to prove Russia didn’t provide him the leaked documents. [The Hill]

September 20, 2017 : Wikileaks releases 35 documents, dubbed “Spy Files Russia”, about Russian government surveillance. [Wired]

October 5, 2017: Russian hackers used Kaspersky anti-virus software to steal hacking tools and documents from NSA contractor. [Wall Street Journal]

October 11, 2017: Israeli intelligence officers found Russian hackers searching for American intel secrets. [New York Times]

October 25, 2017: Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics firm that worked for Trump’s campaign, reveals that it emailed Julian Assange about Hilary Clinton’s 33,000 missing emails during the campaign. Assange confirms that the approach was rejected by WikiLeaks. [The Daily Beast]

October 27, 2017: As part of the Senate Judiciary committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Twitter to disclose direct message history of @wikileaks, @WLTaskForce, @JulianAssange_, @JulianAssange, @GUCCIFER_2, and @granmarga. [Letter]

November 2, 2017 : According to people familiar with the investigation, the Department of Justice has identified six Russian government officials involved in the DNC hack. [Wall Street Journal]

November 3, 2017 : Business Insider reports that when Guccifer 2.0 leaked the first DNC document, the hacker altered the original document by photoshopping the word “classified” onto it. [Business Insider]

November 4, 2017 : Hackers took over 195 web addresses belonging to the Trump Organization or the Trump family; visitors to the sites were redirected to malware-ridden servers in Russia. [The Hill]

November 8, 2017 : Robert Johnston, one of the cybersecurity experts who cleaned up the DNC hack stated that the June 2016 Washington Post story that identified the DNC hackers as Russians likely accelerated their timeline. After the story, Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks began releasing information they claimed to have obtained from the hack. Johnston believes they would have held onto this information until the week or so preceding the election. [BuzzFeed News]

November 9, 2017 : WikiLeaks claims to publish CIA source code for Hive, a tool that allows the CIA to masquerade itself as Kaspersky Lab software. [Twitter]

November 10, 2017 : Data firm Cambridge Analytica reached out to WikiLeaks for Clinton emails after it had already started working for the Trump campaign. [The Wall Street Journal]

December 22, 2017 : An Associated Press investigation found that Russian hackers targeted 200 journalists who report on Russia or the Intelligence Community. [The New York Times]

December 27, 2017 : Konstantin Kozlovsky, a jailed Russian hacker, claims that he hacked the DNC at the command of the Kremlin and that he can prove it because he hid personal information in a file left behind after the hack. [The Daily Beast]

January 5, 2018 : According to the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Hamilton 68, pro-Kremlin Twitter trolls’ most shared articles in December related to undermining both Mueller and DOJ’s investigation. [Wired]

February 7, 2018 : According to an AP report, FancyBear conducted a targeted campaign of email phishing against contractors working on some of the most advanced projects of the Department of Defense. [AP]

February 8, 2018 : In an interview with NBC news, Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, said: “[In 2016,] we saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually penetrated.” [NBC News]

February 15, 2018: The White House publically attributed last year’s NotPetya attacks to Russia and promised “international consequences.” [Reuters]​

February 24, 2018 : Two U.S. intelligence officials spoke anonymously to the Washington Post and attributed the Olympics hack to Russia. The operation was a “false flag” operation, meaning that the Russians left signals to make it look like North Korea perpetrated the hack. [The Washington Post]

: Two U.S. intelligence officials spoke anonymously to the Washington Post and attributed the Olympics hack to Russia. The operation was a “false flag” operation, meaning that the Russians left signals to make it look like North Korea perpetrated the hack. [The Washington Post] February 27, 2018 : The Atlantic released Twitter messages between Stone and WikiLeaks. These messages contradicted Stone’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee that he communicated with WikiLeaks through an intermediary journalist. It also contradicts WikiLeaks tweet that it had never communicated with Stone. [The Atlantic]

February 28, 2018 : Germany confirmed that its federal computer networks were hacked; anonymous sources attributed the attacks to the Russian hacking group APT28 or Fancy Bear. [DW]

March 15, 2018: The Trump administration blamed Russia for a two-year long campaign of cyber attacks that targeted the U.S. power grid. [Reuters]

March 22, 2018: The U.S. government has discovered that Guccifer 2.0 was an officer of Russia’s military intelligence directorate (GRU). At one point, Guccifer 2.0 failed to activate his VPN and revealed a Moscow IP address. From that IP address, U.S. investigators were able to identify the officer. Additionally, Mueller has taken over the probe into Guccifer 2.0. [The Daily Beast]

3. Intelligence Community Statements and Actions

September 2015: FBI informs the DNC that at least one DNC computer system had been breached by a Russian group that investigators dubbed "the Dukes," and later as "Cozy Bear" and "Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 29." [New York Times, December 13, 2016] A GRU-controlled unit dubbed “Fancy Bear,” or “APT 28,” is believed to have created Guccifer 2.0 and DC Leaks, as fora for disclosing the stolen documents. [New York Times, December 9, 2016]

2016

Summer 2016 : Intelligence officials begin briefing senior members of Congress about Russian interference operations designed to help elect Donald J. Trump president. In August, then-CIA director John O. Brennan begins a series of individual briefings for the Gang of Eight (the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and the Senate and their intelligence committees). [New York Times, April 6, 2017]

Late July 2016: FBI begins counterintelligence investigation into possible links between Trump campaign and Russia. FBI Director James Comey confirms this timeline during the first hearing held by the House Intelligence Committee on Russian interference [Washington Post (transcript & video), March 20, 2017]

August 4, 2016 : CIA Director John Brennan warns Alexander V. Bortnikov, the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) not to interfere in the U.S. election. [New York Times]

September 7, 2016 : At the Intelligence and National Security Summit in D.C., Director of National Intelligence James Clapper declines to discuss the hacks of the DNC or DCCC and says “I won’t get out ahead of the president on this, particularly while the FBI is conducting an investigation,” but he observes that "[t]he Russians hack our systems all the time." [The Hill]

October 7, 2016 : The day WikiLeaks publishes the first in a series of emails to or from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta [Twitter (WikiLeaks)], the Intelligence Community and DHS issue a joint statement publicly charging the Kremlin with “direct[ing] the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations" and “disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona . . . to interfere with the U.S. election process.”

October 30, 2016 : In a letter to FBI Director James Comey, Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the FBI chief has withheld “explosive information” about Trump-Russia ties [Associated Press, October 31, 2016]

November 8, 2016 : Trump wins the U.S. election.

November 15, 2016: Admiral Mike Rogers, NSA director and head of U.S. Cyber Command, attributes DNC hacks to Russia at the Wall Street Journal CEO Summit: “There shouldn't be any doubt in anybody's mind. This was not something that was done casually. This was not something done by chance. This was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily. This was a conscious effort by a nation-state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.” [Wall Street Journal; The Hill, November 16, 2017]

December 29, 2016 : The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI release a joint report that "provides technical details regarding the tools and infrastructure used by the Russian civilian and military intelligence Services (RIS) to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election," activity which the report dubs GRIZZLY STEPPE. The White House issues a fact sheet formally accusing Russia of cyber activities intended to influence the election and undermine confident in U.S. institutions and processes. President Obama amends Executive Order 13964 (originally issued in April 2015) to authorize sanctions on those found to be “tampering with, altering, or causing a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions.” [Executive Order 13964 (April 1, 2015); Annex to Executive Order 13694 (December 29, 2016)] Sanctions include the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats suspected of being spies and penalization of two Russian intelligence agencies and four officers of GRU. [New York Times]

December 30, 2016 : In a post on his personal website, Robert Lee, a cybersecurity fellow at New America, CEO of cybersecurity company Dragos, and former Air Force cyberwarfare officer, supports the White House statement as "a strong and accurate statement" but criticizes the joint DHS/FBI report for "read[ing] like a poorly done vendor intelligence report stringing together various aspects of attribution without evidence."

December 31, 2016: In a Medium post, cybersecurity researcher Jeffrey Carr criticizes the DHS/FBI report for "add[ing] nothing to the call for evidence that the Russian government was responsible" for the election hacks.

2017

January 6, 2017 : President Obama and President-elect Trump and leaders of House and Senate intelligence committees are briefed on the Intelligence Community’s unanimous conclusion that Russia waged a sophisticated cyberattack to harm Hillary Clinton and advantage Trump in the race for the White House. Obama and Trump are also briefed on ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele’s dossier alleging Russia’s kompromat material on Trump, as revealed by the press four days later. [Washington Post, January 10, 2017] The Intelligence Community releases a declassified version of its report concluding the Kremlin interfered with the U.S. election to elect Trump. The 25-page report, entitled “Background to ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution,” states: “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.”

January 11, 2017 : Regarding the Steele dossier, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper states the Intelligence Community "has not made any judgment that the information in the document is reliable, and we did not rely on it in any way for our conclusions. However, part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security." [CNN]

April 4, 2017: The Pentagon opens a probe into Flynn's payments; the Inspector General for the DoD confirms the probe on April 27, 2017. [Wall Street Journal]

May 17, 2017 : Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller Special Counsel for the Russia investigation. [New York Times]

: Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller Special Counsel for the Russia investigation. [New York Times] May 22, 2017 : The Washington Post reports that Trump personally asked two top intelligence officials, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the chief of the National Security Agency, to make public statements denying evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russian officials. [Washington Post]

: The Washington Post reports that Trump personally asked two top intelligence officials, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the chief of the National Security Agency, to make public statements denying evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russian officials. [Washington Post] May 23, 2017 : Former CIA Director John Brennan says he is convinced that the Russians were aggressively interfering in the election during testimony before the House Intelligence Community. [NPR]

June 7, 2017 : Admiral Mike Rogers during Senate Intelligence testimony: “We continue to focus analytic and collection effort trying to generate insights as to what the Russians and others are doing particularly with respect to U.S. infrastructure, U.S. processes like elections, we continue to generate insights on a regular basis. If my memory is right, I testified before the SSCI, we did open threat assessment. In that hearing, I think it was the 11th of May, I reiterated that we continue to see similar activity that we identified and highlighted in the January report. Those trends continue, much of that activity continues.” [CNN Transcript]

June 8, 2017 : FBI Director James Comey during Senate Intelligence testimony: “It's not a close call. That happened. That's about as unfake as you can possibly get. It is very, very serious, which is why it's so refreshing to see a bipartisan focus on that.” [CNBC]

July 7, 2017 : Sally Yates tweets that Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Russian interference is an insult to IC. POTUS' inexplicable refusal to confirm Russian election interference insults career intel pros & hinders our ability to prevent in future. — Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) July 7, 2017

July 20, 2017: CIA Director Mike Pompeo says: "I am confident that the Russians meddled in this election, as is the entire intelligence community." [NBC]

July 21, 2017 : DNI Dan Coats says that U.S. intelligence agencies agree about 2016 Russian election interference. [NBC]

September 23, 2017 : Former DNI James Clapper says that Russian interference “casts doubt on the legitimacy” of Trump’s election. [Business Insider]

October 19, 2017: At an event for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, CIA Director Mike Pompeo stated that U.S. intelligence agencies determined the outcome of the presidential election was not altered by Russia’s inference. However, the January report reached no conclusion about the outcome. [Washington Post]

October 26, 2017 : Robert Litt, former General Counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, stated that the dossier played no role in the coordinated intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the presidential election. [Lawfare]

October 30, 2017: Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper believes that “the Russians have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.” [Politico]

November 4, 2017: Former CIA Director Michael Hayden told Newsweek reporters that the Papadopoulos indictment was the “big one” because it showed how eager Trump staff were to collude with Russian officials when negative information about Hilary Clinton was on the table. [Newsweek]

November 6, 2017: CIA Director Mike Pompeo made the following statements at a Wichita Kansas rotary club meeting: You may be referring to these stories about the president hating the intelligence community and everybody being in angst. I have not seen that. Indeed, I would argue that today they are thrilled with the change in administration. Not because of me, but because we’re allowing them to do what it is that they signed up to go do. My predecessor talked about the fact that we didn’t steal secrets. . . . I came in saying, ‘Hell yeah, [w]e steal secrets.’ That’s what we do. It’s in our charter.” When asked about Trump, he said: “He is largely the human being that you see. He is energetic. He has instincts that are incredible, truly. We’ve got folks that have been staring at problems an awfully long time, and he will provide insights, thinking about things in a way that we haven’t. He sends us back to the drawing board to do better, just in the way good leaders do. . . . This is a patriot of the most extraordinary level.” [Wichita Eagle] November 7, 2017 : Upon Trump’s Request, CIA Director Mike Pompeo met with William Binney, an NSA whistleblower who argues that the DNC information was leaked by insiders rather than hacked by the Russians. [The Intercept]

November 8, 2018 : During the inaugural guest speech at Penn State’s Center for Security Research and Education, retired Gen. Clapper, former DNI, said: “Russia is, right now and for the foreseeable future, our greatest adversary. With the sophistication of their intelligence gathering, we are only beginning to see what they did in our election, and what they continue to do, since they have been emboldened by their success.” [Penn State News] Both former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and Gen. Clapper expressed concern that CIA Director Pompeo met with a former NSA employee who denies the Russian hack of the DNC. Gen. Hayden said, “Why did the President turn to the CIA director rather than the DNI? Structurally, this should have been a DNI question since the Binney article challenged an overall community assessment." Gen. Clapper said, “"this episode, I think, adds to the image (perhaps unjustifiably) that Pompeo is a political activist, as a 'go-to' guy for Trump. [It is] not a good place for a director of the CIA to be." Both believed that Pompeo reluctantly took the meeting under pressure. [CNN]

November 11, 2017: Despite Trump’s statements that Putin believes Russia did not interfere with the election, CIA Director Mike Pompeo stands behind the Intelligence Community’s assessment that Russia interfered with the election. [The Hill] In response to Trump’s statements that Comey was a political hack, a leaker, and a liar, Comey tweeted:

“If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly; it is light as a feather and a breath will carry it.” Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1855). pic.twitter.com/YZf4q88wyi — James Comey (@Comey) November 11, 2017 I️ included the picture of the Great Falls of the Potomac because I️ like it and because it reminds me of my favorite scripture verse, from Amos: “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” — James Comey (@Comey) November 11, 2017 November 12, 2017 : Responding to Trump calling multiple intelligence officials “political hacks,” former CIA Director John Brennan said, “[w]ell first of all, he was referring to us as political hacks because he was trying to delegitimize the intelligence community assessment that was done.” [The Hill]

: Responding to Trump calling multiple intelligence officials “political hacks,” former CIA Director John Brennan said, “[w]ell first of all, he was referring to us as political hacks because he was trying to delegitimize the intelligence community assessment that was done.” [The Hill] December 14, 2017 : In the lawsuit between three individuals who had their personal information stolen in the DNC hack and the Trump campaign, numerous national security, intelligence, and foreign policy officials filed an amicus brief that underscored the Kremlin’s use of local agents in their influence operations. Included in the officials are former Director Brennan, former Director Clapper, former Director Hayden, former acting Director Morell, former Deputy National Security Advisor Haines, and former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. [ Business Insider ]

: In the lawsuit between three individuals who had their personal information stolen in the DNC hack and the Trump campaign, numerous national security, intelligence, and foreign policy officials filed an amicus brief that underscored the Kremlin’s use of local agents in their influence operations. Included in the officials are former Director Brennan, former Director Clapper, former Director Hayden, former acting Director Morell, former Deputy National Security Advisor Haines, and former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. December 19, 2017: NBC News reported that in July, multiple intelligence agencies informed both the Trump and Clinton that foreign powers, including Russia, may attempt to infiltrate their campaigns. During the briefings, both were urged to contact the FBI if that type of contact occurred. Such briefings are commonly provided to presidential candidates. [NBC News] 2018 January 7, 2018: When asked if Russia was attempting to undermine U.S. elections, CIA Director Pompeo replied, “Yes, sir, have been for decades.” [Reuters] January 10, 2018: Trump tweets: The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018​ During a press conference, Trump said: “There is collusion. But it is really with the Democrats and the Russians far more than it is with the Republicans and the Russians. So the witch hunt continues.” When asked if he would agree to an interview with the special counsel he said: “Well again, there has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians or Trump and Russians. No collusion. When I watch you interviewing all the people leaving their committees, I mean the Democrats are all running for office and they’re trying to say this or that. But bottom line, they all say there’s no collusion. And there is no collusion. And when you talk about interviews, Hilary Clinton had an interview where she wasn’t sworn in, she wasn’t given the oath, they didn’t take notes, they didn’t record, and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend. That’s perhaps ridiculous and a lot of people looked upon that as being uh a very serious breach and it really was. But again, I’ll speak to attorneys, I can only say this: there was absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it. Every committee. I’ve been in office now for eleven months. For eleven months, they’ve had this phony cloud over this administration over our government and it has hurt our government. It does hurt our government. It’s a Democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election that frankly the Democrats should have won because they have such a tremendous advantage in the electoral college. So it was brought up for that reason. But it has been determined that there is no collusion by virtually everybody. So, we’ll see what happens. [Question repeated] We’ll see what happens. I mean, certainly, I’ll see what happens but when they have no collusion, and nobody’s found any collusion at any level, uh, it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview. [The Hill]

Trump issues a series of tweets:

The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace. Must have tough Primary! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 January 11, 2018: Trump tweets: Disproven and paid for by Democrats “Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election?” @foxandfriends Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 February 4, 2018 : In an interview with Meet the Press, former CIA Director Brennan said, “[Nunes] has abused the office of the chairmanship of HPSCI. And I don't say that lightly.” [NBC News]

February 9, 2018 : The New York Times reported that last fall, U.S. spies engaged in negotiations with a Russian for the return of highly classified NSA cyberweapons. The Russian insisted the deal would include compromising information on Trump’s connections with Russia but the Americans said they did not want this information. The Americans delivered $100,000 cash and the Russian only delivered possibly fabricated information about Trump. According to the Times, “The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government. They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president.” The article noted that Cody Shearer, an American political operative tied to the Democratic party, has been “crisscrossing Eastern Europe for more than six months to secure the purported kompromat from a different Russian.” [The New York Times]

February 10, 2017 : In response to reports to the prior day’s New York Times’ report, the CIA made a statement to CBS News: “The fictional story that the CIA was bilked out of $100,00 is patently false.” [CBS News]

February 12, 2018 : Jeanette Manfra, the Department of Homeland Security’s chief cybersecurity official, pushed back against NBC’s story last week that included an exclusive interview with her. She said, “Recent NBC reporting has misrepresented facts and confused the public with regard to Department of Homeland Security and state and local government efforts to combat election hacking.” “NBC News continues to falsely report my recent comments on attempted election hacking — which clearly mirror my testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last summer — as some kind of 'breaking news,' incorrectly claiming a shift in the administration’s position on cyber threats. . . . As I said eight months ago, a number of states were the target of Russian government cyber actors seeking vulnerabilities and access to U.S. election infrastructure,” she added. [The Hill]

February 13, 2018 : The Senate Intelligence Committee held its annual “Worldwide Threats” hearing with the top six intelligence chiefs, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo. During the hearing, Director Coats said "[f]rankly, the United States is under attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every major action that takes place" within the country. All of the intelligence chiefs agreed that Russia would continue targeting U.S. elections, including the 2018 midterms. [Business Insider]

February 15, 2018: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI are briefing election officials from all 50 states on potential election threats from foreign adversaries. [The Hill] 4. House and Senate Intelligence Committee Investigations and Hearings January 13, 2017 : Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA), chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issue joint statement announcing a bipartisan inquiry into Russian intelligence activities.

chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issue joint statement announcing a bipartisan inquiry into Russian intelligence activities. January 25, 2017: The House Intelligence Committee issues press release announcing bipartisan investigation into Russian interference with U.S. election.

November 14, 2017 : In a closed session, the House Intelligence Committee heard testimony from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson. Rep. Schiff said that the committee “learned a great deal” from the testimony. [The Hill]

November 15, 2017 : Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, send a letter to White House counsel Donald McGahn asking for any document on Comey and Flynn’s firings that was sent, received, or reviewed by Kushner, as well ask documents on the Trump Tower meeting and Don Jr.’s statements on it. [The Hill]

November 16, 2017 : According to CNN, Simpson testified that Christopher Steele did not pay for any of the sources that led to the contents of the dossier. [CNN]

November 18, 2017 : According to the AP, the committees have been investigating a meeting between Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist, and Ike Kaveladze, a business associate of a Moscow- based developer and a former Trump business partner, in Moscow in June 2017. Both men attended the Trump Towers meeting. [AP]

November 21, 2017 : Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, will testify before the House Intelligence Committee during “an open hearing in a closed space.” In April, The Washington Post reported that Prince met with a Russian close to Putin regarding a backchannel for communication between then President-elect Trump and the Russian government. [The Hill]

November 28, 2017 : Sen. Feinstein sent Carter Page a request for all documents related to his trip to Russia and adjusting the Republican platform on Russia and Ukraine, as well as his communications with Trump campaign staff, Russian officials, and specified information. [Letter]

November 29, 2017 : On December 6, Don Jr. is set to testify during a close session of the House Intelligence Committee. [CNN] The House Intelligence Committee interviewed Anatoli Samochornov, who was present during the Trump Tower meeting and functioned as a translator for Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. [Bloomberg]

November 30, 2017 : The House Intelligence Committee interviewed Erik Prince, a military contractor and Trump donor, during a closed session. Prince traveled to the Seychelles in January to attend a secret meeting with a Kremlin business man reportedly in attempt to set up backchannel communications between President-elect Trump and the Russians. During his testimony, Prince denied that he was representing the Trump transition team and named the Russian businessman as Kirill Dmitriev [The Hill, Washington Post] Attorney General Sessions testified during a closed hearing before the House Intelligence Committee. Afterwards, Rep. Schiff said: I asked the attorney general whether he was ever instructed by the president to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation and he declined to answer the question. [Reuters] The New York Times reported that over the summer, Trump pressed Republicans to end the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation. Sen. Burr, the intelligence committee chairman said that Trump’s comments to him were along the lines of ‘I hope you can conclude this as quickly as possible.” [New York Times]

December 1, 2017 : Both Sen. Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Schiff released statements on the Flynn plea. Both statements affirmed the credibility of the special counsel’s investigation and stressed the need for the Congressional investigations to continue in their work without inappropriate presidential pressure. [Talking Points Memo]

December 3, 2017 : According to CNN, the Department of Justice is making the FBI agent who served as the main contact for the dossier available for testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. [CNN

December 11, 2017 : Despite that Rep. Nunes was recently cleared in a House ethics inquiry, Rep. Conaway is going to remain the leader of the Russia probe in the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Conaway gained control of the investigation when Rep. Nunes stepped down due to the ethics inquiry regarding handling classified information. [CNN]

December 12, 2017 : Sen. Burr said that he sees no need for additional open hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee; however, they do have dozens of witnesses left to interview in closed sessions [Bloomberg]; Sen. Feinstein called K.T. McFarland to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. [Newsweek]

December 14, 2017 : Don Jr. testified for nine hours before a closed session of the Senate Intelligence Committee. [U.S. News]

December 15, 2017 : Yesterday, members of the House Intelligence Committee held a Skype interview with Alexander Nix, the head of Cambridge Analytica. [CNBC]

December 16, 2017 : Rep. Schiff, the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee made the following statement: “I’m increasingly worried Republicans will shut down the House intelligence committee investigation at the end of the month. Beyond our investigation, here’s what has me really concerned: the attacks on [Robert] Mueller, the DoJ [the Department of Justice] and FBI this week make it clear they plan to go after Mueller’s investigation. By shutting down the congressional investigations when they continue to discover new and important evidence, the White House can exert tremendous pressure to end or curtail [Robert] Mueller’s investigation or cast doubt on it. We cannot let that happen.” [The Guardian]

December 18, 2017 : The Senate Intelligence Committee requested documents from Jill Stein’s campaign. According to the article, Sen. Burr said that the committee is "just starting" to investigate two additional campaigns, including Stein’s. [BuzzFeedNews]; House Intelligence Committee member Rep Schiff wrote an op-ed about the Russia investigation that both criticized Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee and named attacks on the special counsel as clear groundwork for reject the findings. [The Wall Street Journal]

December 19, 2017 : Rep. Conaway responded to criticism that he is rushing to close the House Intelligence Committee investigation by saying that “[t]he investigation is not over. We’re moving forward aggressively.” [Politico]; FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified during a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee. [NPR]

December 22, 2017 : Both Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski were sent letters requesting their testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. [Bloomberg]; Rhona Graff, a long time Trump associate, will testify before a closed session of House Intelligence Committee in New York. [NBC News]

December 26, 2017 : Both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees interviewed Irakly Kaveladez, a Georgian-American business man who attended the Trump Tower meeting. [Reuters]

December 27, 2017: The House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed David Kramer, the current senior director of the McCain Institute and a former state department officials. Kramer met with Steele about the dossier in London. [The Hill]

2018

January 2, 2018 : In an interview with the Post, Rep. Himes said that Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are “seriously exploring” issuing a minority report that, among other things, would detail how Republicans impeded the investigation [The Washington Post]

January 3, 2018: Sen. Feinstein requested an interview and materials related to contact with Russians and communications about DNC and Clinton emails from Brad Parscale, who ran the Trump campaign’s digital operations. Sen. Feinstein also requested an interview and materials from Dan Scavino, the Trump campaign’s social media director. [San Antonio-Express News] Sen. Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote Deputy A.G. Rosenstein asking a series of questions about the Comey memos. [U.S. Senate] Deputy A.G. Rosenstein and FBI Director Wray met with Paul Ryan. The meeting came at the request of Rosenstein and Wray. [The Hill] House Intelligence Committee chairman Nunes announced the Committee and DOJ reached a deal about outstanding material and witness requests related the dossier. [CNN] Sen. Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the special counsel’s investigation has better tools to deal with financial issues, which look more like criminal activity and fit within the special counsel’s scope. However, he said the conversation about where these issues belong is ongoing. [CNN]

January 4, 2018 : House Intelligence Committee Democrats announced their efforts to obtain equal access to the Steele dossier documents. [Business Insider]

January 5, 2018 : Sen. Grassley, joined by Sen. Graham, sent a criminal referral to DOJ; it suggested that DOJ investigate Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, for lying to the FBI. [Washington Post] TD bank produced the documents surrounding Fusion GPS’s financial transactions that the House Intelligence Committee requested. [CNN]

January 6, 2018 : Rep. Stewart, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called on Sessions to resign because Sessions cannot direct the Russian investigation because he recused himself. [CNN]

January 8, 2018 : Sen. Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated that Committee will release recommendations to prevent Russian interference in U.S. elections. [USA Today]

February 5, 2018 : The House Intelligence Committee unanimously voted to release the Democrats’ memo that counters the Nunes memo. [NPR]

February 6, 2018 : The House Intelligence Committee gave Bannon an additional week to comply with its subpoena. Bannon was set to testify today, but sources said he was not going to attend. Allegedly, the disagreement between the two is over the scope of the questions. [CNN] Michael Caputo, a political consultant for the Trump campaign received from letters from the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee that expressed interest in interviewing him. Caputo testified before the House Intelligence Committee in August of 2017. [The Buffalo News]

February 7, 2018 : Senate Judiciary chairman Grassley released a redacted copy of a criminal referral that the committee sent to the Department of Justice in January. It asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether Christopher Steele made false statements to the FBI about the allegations in the dossier and specifically “about the distribution of claims.” [Business Insider]

February 8, 2018 : The House Intelligence Committee staff is planning to build a wall between the Republican and Democratic staff who used to sit side by side. [ PBS NewsHour Rep. Tom Rooney said that the House Intelligence Committee’s atmosphere was “absolute poison.” According to CBS News, “Rooney said one reason for the tension is an erosion of trust, exacerbated by an ongoing ethics investigation into the ‘entire Republican staff,’ including ‘the woman up front that answers the phone’ for alleged leaks. He later added that the matter was being handled by the Office of Congressional Ethics.” [ CBS News Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are pushing for public hearings with testimony from both Kushner and Don Jr. [The Hill] The Senate Intelligence Committee is writing a report on vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system and it hopes to release it before the 2018 midterm elections. [The Hill] Britain’s House of Commons held its first meeting outside of the UK at George Washington University. During the meeting, Twitter’s head of public policy for the UK, Nick Pickles, said: “We are not the arbiters of truth. We are not going to remove content based on the fact this is untrue. The one strength that Twitter has is it's a hive of journalists, of citizens, of activists correcting the record, correcting information.” [The Washington Post] Sen. Grassley said the Senate Judiciary Committee is still several weeks away from releasing transcripts of Don Jr. and other key witnesses’ testimony. [ Politico

February 9, 2018 : House Intelligence Committee Republicans are going to continue probing into the dossier; however, they are not going to use memos going forward. [The Washington Post]

February 12, 2018 : Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley and Sen. Graham wrote Susan Rice a letter, expressing concern and asking additional questions about an email she sent herself on January 20, 2017. In part, the letter read: “It strikes us as odd that, among your activities in the final moments on the final day of the Obama administration, you would feel the need to send yourself such an unusual email purporting to document a conversation involving President Obama and his interactions with the FBI regarding the Trump/Russia investigation.” In the letter, they included part of Rice’s email: “The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book. . . . From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming [Trump] team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia." [The Hill]

February 15, 2018 : After members of the House Intelligence Committee were reportedly frustrated that Bannon did not answer their questions, House Republican leaders are weighing “further steps” to force him to answer those questions. [The Washington Post] Democratic sources told the Hill that the Russian investigation has “complicated” the House Intelligence Committee’s annual hearing on the global threat assessment. The hearing has not yet been scheduled. [The Hill]

February 20, 2018: Facebook has scrubbed the Kremlin-linked ads used on their platform and turned the ads over to the House Intelligence Committee. However, the committee has not released them. [USA Today]

February 21, 2018 : Rep. Nunes tweeted:



Catch up on mainstream media Russian conspiracy theories in this piece by @FDRLST PS-If you are a Russian Bot please make this go viral PSS-If you’re not a Russian Bot you will become one if you retweet https://t.co/05Gw8cinNX — Devin Nunes (@DevinNunes)

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have asked to subpoena Twitter for direct messages of Trump associates, but Republicans have refused. [The Daily Beast]

February 22, 2018 : David Kramer, a former State Department official and the current senior director of the McCain Institute, invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to the House Intelligence Committee’s subpoena regarding the dossier and a meeting with Christopher Steele in London. [The Hill]

February 23, 2018 : Rep. Schiff called for Gates to testify before the House Intelligence Committee after his pleads guilty. [The Hill]

February 24, 2018: The House intelligence committee releases the Democratic rebuttal to the Nunes memo, which offered a point-by-point counter to Republican charges that the Department of Justice abused its FISA surveillance powers to monitor Trump campaign officials. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said the memo clears up any allegation of misuse of FISA surveillance. The memo also confirms that the FBI only used a small part of the information in the Steele dossier to justify the surveillance of Carter Page. [New York Times]

February 27, 2018 : During testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Hope Hicks said that sometimes she has to tell white lies for Trump but that she has never done so in regards to the Russia investigation. [New York Times]

March 1, 2018 : The Senate Intelligence Committee found that the leak of Sen. Warner’s text messages with Adam Waldman, a lawyer with connections to Russians, came from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. [The New York Times]

March 5, 2018 : After the Daily Beast reported on discovered internal data from the Internet Research Agency that showed their content received thousands of upvotes on Reddit, the Senate Intelligence Committee is seeking additional information from Reddit. [The Washington Post]

March 7, 2018 : One House Intelligence Committee witness gave Michael Cohn, Trump’s personal lawyer, secret information about the testimony of another witness. [CNN] During her testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Hope Hicks allegedly noted that one email account was hacked but it was not clear whether she was referring to her personal email account or her email account associated with Trump’s campaign. [NBC]

March 12, 2018 : The House Intelligence Committee has concluded its Russia investigation and is drafting its report. As for the findings, Rep. Conaway stated, “We found no evidence of collusion. We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings — but only Tom Clancy could take this series of inadvertent contacts, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a spy thriller that could go out there.” He added, “we couldn’t establish the same conclusion that the CIA did that [the Russians] specifically wanted to help Trump.” [The Hill]

March 13, 2018 : In response to the Republicans shutting down the House Intelligence Committee Russia investigation, the Democrats on the Committee released a letter detailing the outstanding lines of inquiry, over 30 key witnesses it has not interviewed, over 20 entities from which it has not requested documents, and over 15 people it believes the compulsory process for appearance or production is necessary. [Letter]

March 14, 2018 : The House Intelligence Committee has set an internal deadline of March 22 to revise its draft report on the Russia investigation. After the final report is adopted, it will be sent to the intelligence community for necessary redactions. [The Washington Post]

March 18, 2018 : In response to his earlier statement about the House Intelligence Committee finding no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Rep. Conaway walked back the statement by noting that “our committee was not charged with answering the collusion idea. So we really weren’t focused on that direction.” [The Hill]

March 22, 2018 : In a party line vote, the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the Republican report on the committee’s Russia investigation. The report now goes to the intelligence community for redaction before it is released to the public. [CNN] The House Intelligence Committee released a summary of its Russia investigation findings and recommendations. [Report] The Senate Intelligence Committee released preliminary recommendations on election security. [Document]

March 25, 2018 : Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, made the following statement about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: “I don’t think Facebook has been fully forthcoming. I called out Facebook back in December of ‘16. In the Spring of ’17 I questioned micro-targeting and the use of this really sketchy firm Cambridge Analytica. Early on for most of 2017 they blew that off.” [NBC]

April 4, 2018: Felix Sater met with the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sater is a Trump associate who reportedly helped to broker a deal that would have built a Trump Tower in Moscow. Sater has already met with the House Intelligence Committee and the special counsel. [The Hill]

April 7, 2018 : CNN reported that during Corey Lewandowski’s interview with the House Intelligence Committee, he told Democrats on the committee that he wasn’t going to answer their questions. He was the last person the committee heard testimony from before it concluded its Russia investigation. [CNN]

April 10, 2018: Sen. Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, "I have confidence in Mueller, the president ought to have confidence in Mueller, and I think to answer your question, it would be suicide for the president to want — to talk about firing Mueller.” [CNBC]

5. Putin Statements, Russian Media, and Russia Developments

February 2014: Russia begins military operations against eastern Ukraine and annexes Crimea.

March 6, 2014: President Obama issues a statement and signs the first of a series of executive orders authorizing sanctions "on individuals and entities responsible for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, or for stealing the assets of the Ukrainian people." [C-SPAN (video); (Executive Order 13660 (March 6, 2014); Executive Order 13661 (March 17, 2014); Executive Order 13662 (March 20, 2014); Executive Order 13685 (December 24, 2014)]

2016

Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)December 30, 2016

December 2016: Sergei Mikhailov, deputy head of FSB's Centre for Information Security, and Dmitry Dokuchaev are arrested on treason charges for allegedly passing information to the CIA. [AP, January 31, 2017]

2017

January 5, 2017 : The Washington Post reports that U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted communications of Russian officials congratulating themselves on Trump's presidential win. [Washington Post]

January 9, 2017 : Andrei Malaninuk, Russian Consul in Athens, Greece, is found dead in his apartment. [Reuters]

January 17, 2017 : Responding to the release of the Steele kompromat dossier, at a joint press conference with Moldovan President Igor Dodon, Putin says dossier is fake and being used to “smear” Trump. He states: “Why would he run to a hotel to meet up with our girls of limited social responsibility? Although they are, of course, the best in the world. But I doubt that Trump fell for it.” [The Kremlin]

January 26, 2017 : Alexander Kadakin, Russian Ambassador to India, dies of reported heart attack. [The Hindu]

January 28, 2017 : Kremlin issues press statement on phone call between Trump and Putin, stating that they discussed "restoring mutually beneficial trade and economic ties between business circles of the two countries."

February 17, 2017 : Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia's most popular tabloid, says President Trump is making "contradictory" statements about NATO. [The Hill]

February 20, 2017: Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, dies in New York of reported cardiac arrest. [New York Times]

April 7, 2017 : Russian foreign ministry issues statement calling U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile strike on Syria "clearly an act of aggression against a sovereign Syria" and "an egregious and obvious violation of international law." In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev says that the strike has "completely ruined" the Russia-U.S. relationship.

April 19, 2017 : Reuters reports that U.S. intelligence officials have acquired document prepared by Kremlin-controlled, Moscow-based think tank, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies [en.riss.ru/], recommending Putin launch a propaganda campaign to persuade U.S. voters to elect a president good for Russian interests. [Reuters, April 21, 2017]

May 10, 2017 : The Russian state news agency, TASS, publishes pictures of Trump standing with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislak in the Oval Office during a closed-door meeting that excluded U.S. media. [TASS, New York Times, May 11, 2017]

May 17, 2017 : At a news conference in Sochi, Putin offers to provide the U,S, Congress with a record of the May 10 closed-door meeting between Trump, the Russian ambassador, and Russia’s foreign minister. [New York Times]

June 1, 2017 : Putin suggests to reporters, for the first time, that “patriotically minded” private Russian hackers might have been involved in cyberattacks connected to the U.S. election. He says hackers “are like artists” who choose their targets depending how they feel “when they wake up in the morning.” [New York Times]

September 12, 2017: BuzzFeed News reports that in early 2017, Russia delivered a plan to the Trump administration detailing a full normalization of relations with the U.S. The Russian proposal offered the reopening of numerous cybersecurity, defense, and law enforcement channels and high-level meetings with U.S. officials. Sources within the Trump administration said only a few of the meetings took place. [BuzzFeed News] Yahoo News reports that the FBI is investigating whether Sputnik and RT, the Russian news agencies, are in violation of requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The Bureau obtained thousands of internal Sputnik documents and emails. The Justice Department notified one of RT’s U.S. affiliates that it must register as a foreign agent that is disseminating propaganda in the United States. [Yahoo News: September 11, September 12]

October 4, 2017: Putin claims that he has “no personal relationship” with Trump and that they have only met once. [Politico]

October 19, 2017: Putin said, quoting the Reuters article, “that if President Donald Trump is unpredictable, it is because his domestic opponents are stopping him from delivering on many of his election promises.” [Reuters]

October 20, 2017: Putin stated that Americans should show respect to Trump, saying “Mr. Trump was elected by the American people. And at least for this reason, it is necessary to show respect for him, even if you do not agree with some of his positions.” [The Hill]

November 11, 2017: Putin stated that Manafort had no ties to Russia and that the transactions between Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Russians were simply business and had nothing to do with politics. [The Hill]

November 14, 2017 : The Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, told press that the meeting between Trump and Putin and the documents they both approved shows that they have “common goals and common tasks” and “can work together.” [Novinite]

November 16, 2017 : Russian Lt. Gen. Leonid Reshetnikov, the head of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), the Kremlin's think tank said that the RISS did not produce documents about how to influence the election in Trump’s favor or to discredit the results if he lost. Instead, he said that “[t]he American intelligence services are a machine that is always working, constantly making up anti-Russian cases.” [The Daily Beast]

November 17, 2017 : Russian government ran Sputnik News featured an interview with Bill Binney, the ex-NSA employee who argues that Russia was not involved in the DNC hack. In the interview, Binney reportedly said that NSA intelligence agents do not report problems with data collection and offensive capabilities so that they “can exploit them on their own without their superiors knowing about it.” Reportedly, Binney also said that “vulnerabilities have become a feature, not a bug, of the intelligence community.” [Sputnik]

November 22, 2017 : The Russian News Agency reported the following statement by Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev on Trump and Putin’s phone call: “The long-lasting and substantial conversation between Putin and Trump, according to mutual assessments, confirmed that a vast agenda remains in Russian-US relations, which may and should be discussed without preconditions and on an equal basis.” The statement was originally made on Facebook. [TASS]

November 25, 2017: Putin signs a bill that forces foreign media organizations to register with the Russian government. The new law could allow crackdowns against media organizations such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. The move is seen as retaliation for U.S. enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act against RT and Sputnik for their role promoting pro-Russian propaganda. Notably, the Russian law goes much further than FARA. [NBC News]

December 2, 2017: Two Russian lawmakers made statements about Flynn’s plea. Russian Senator Franz Klintsevich said that “[t]he former US national security adviser Michael Flynn was just the one they caught. The main object of this attack is of course Donald Trump.” Russian Senator Alexey Pushkov tweeted, “In the United States they continue to inflate a 'sack of smoke.’ With Manafort and Papadopoulos, nothing came out. Now they are hyping up the no less empty 'Flynn case.' [CNN]

December 12, 2017 : Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, said “[e]verything that comes out of [Trump’s] authorized Twitter [account] is perceived in Moscow as his official statements, and nothing else. Of course this is reported to President Putin alongside other information from official statements by politicians and heads of state from other countries in the world.” [Newsweek]

December 27, 2017: In response to a State Department spokesperson’s concern that Russia’s top electoral body voted to exclude the opposition leader from the presidential election, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson issued the following statement: “This State Department statement, which I’m sure will be repeated, is a direct interference in our electoral process and internal affairs. [Business Insider]

December 29, 2017: When Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was asked about the Kremlin’s biggest disappointments of 2017, he listed worsening ties with the United States. [Newsweek]

December 30, 2017: Putin sent Trump a New Year telegram, asking for “equality and mutal respect” to be the foundation for “pragmatic cooperation aimed at long-term perspective.” [CNBC]; Margarita Simonyan, RT’s Editor-in-Chief, responded to the United States requiring RT to register as a foreign agent. She stated that RT was no more propaganda than Radio Free Europe or Voice of America; she also said that Russia is no longer communist and the United States does not have “to be afraid of us anymore.” [The Hill]

2018

January 8, 2018 : In response to CIA Director Pompeo’s statement that Russia has been interfering in U.S. elections for decades, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded in a Facebook post: “The best proof that these are pure lies is that, in all of these ‘decades,’ American intelligence agencies and officials have never claimed anything of the sort. [U.S. did not start] wailing about the Kremlin’s hand [...] until the American electoral system produced the result that was President Trump.” [The Moscow Times]

February 8, 2018 : Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Progress Party in Russia who was banned from participating in the upcoming election, released a video that claims Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska was the link between Manafort and a top Kremlin foreign policy official. [The Moscow Times] When Alexei Navalny was asked in an NPR interview if there was Russian interference in the U.S. election, his response was translated as: “He doesn't have the tiniest doubt about it because that's also what the Kremlin does inside Russia. He says that he and also other opposition leaders have had their email accounts hacked. And their Twitter accounts and even YouTube have been attacked by these armies of bots.” [NPR]

February 9, 2018 : Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska defended himself against Navalny’s claims. He also warned the media via email: “I want to warn the media against the dissemination of these mendacious accusations. I will severely suppress any attempts to create and disseminate false information flow using all legal measures and will defend my honor and dignity in court.” [The Washington Post]

February 10, 2018 : Despite earlier assurances that he would release the memo, Trump sent it back to the House Intelligence Committee for further revisions. According to the letter written by White House counsel Don McGahn, “although the President is inclined to declassify the February 5th Memorandum, because the Memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time." [CNN, Letter]

February 12, 2018 : Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media and telecommunication watchdog agency, ordered YouTube to remove several videos and for Instagram to remove more than a dozen posts of Oleg Deripaska. The agency also ordered YouTube to remove the video of Aleksei Navalny explaining his investigation into Deripaska’s ties to Paul Manafort. [The New York Times]

February 15, 2018 : Due to Aleksei Navalny’s investigation of Oleg Deripaska’s connections to Paul Manafort, Navalny’s website was blocked by Russia. [The Telegraph]

February 19, 2018 : Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Putin, dismissed Mueller’s indictiment of thirteen Russians by saying that there was no “substantial evidence” of election meddling and there were “no indications that the Russian state could have been involved.” [CNN]

February 21, 2018 : Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, called for the boosting of Russia’s election security because Russia predicts cyber operations that attempt to disrupt the election process. Patrushev also expects “political, economic, and information actions.” He also warned Russians not to use Google or Yahoo. [Cyberscoop]

March 1, 2018 : While en route to prison in Thailand, Russian model Anastasia Vashukevich posted a video to her Instagram account in which she promised to have information and evidence that connects Russian lawmakers to Trump and his associates. “I'm ready to give you all the missing puzzle pieces, support them with videos and audios, regarding the connections of our respected lawmakers with Trump, Manafort and the rest. I know a lot. I'm waiting for your offers and I'm waiting for you in a Thai prison," she said. [CNN]

March 2, 2018 : In an address to parliament, Putin played animations of nuclear weapons appearing to target Florida. [CNN]

March 3, 2018 : In an interview with NBC, Putin made the following statements: "We can not respond to that if they do not violate Russian laws. . . . With all due respect for you personally, with all due respect for Congress, you must have people with legal degrees, 100 percent you do. . . . This has to go through official channels, not through the press or yelling and hollering in the United States Congress.” [Business Insider]

March 10, 2018 : When Megyn Kelly interviewed Putin and asked about Russia meddling in the U.S. election, Putin responded: "So what if they're Russians? There are 146 million Russians. So what? ... I don't care. I couldn't care less. ... They do not represent the interests of the Russian state. Maybe they're not even Russians," he said. "Maybe they're Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship. Or maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don't know." [NBC]

April 2, 2018: Yuri Ushakov, Russian foreign policy adviser, pressed Trump for a meeting with Putin in the White House. [The New York Times]

6. Donald Trump and Trump Organization's Alleged Ties to Russia

1996-2008: Trump hires the Russian intellectual property law firm Sojuzpatent to file at least eight trademarks in Russia, including "Trump” and "Trump Tower." [ CNNMoney, July 31, 2016]

CNNMoney, July 31, 2016] 2003-10: Trump works on various business projects with Felix Sater—the Russian-born managing director of real estate development fund Bayrock Group LLC who later pleads guilty to stock fraud in a scheme linked to the Russian mobster. [New York Times, January 16 2017; LA Times, February 23, 2017] In 2005, Trump signed a one-year deal with Bayrock Group to explore a Trump Tower in Moscow; Sater testifies in 2008 that Trump gave Bayrock Group an exclusive deal to develop the project, which failed. [Washington Post, June 17, 2016; Forbes, October 25, 2016]

July 16, 2008: Trump sells a mansion he acquired for $41 million to County Road Property LLC for $95 million, a front for actual buyer Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. [CNNMoney, July 27, 2016; deed 1 (2005); deed 2 (2008)]

September 15, 2008: Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., says about the Trump Organization: "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 . . . ." [eTurboNews]

2013: Trump’s attempts at real estate deals are unsuccessful, but he inks a multi-million dollar agreement with billionaire Aras Agalarov to hold the 2013 Miss Universe pageant event in Moscow [Crocus Group, November 13, 2013; [Associated Press, March 4, 2017]

2016

May 26, 2016 : Donald Trump secures the Republican presidential nomination. [New York Times]

July 26, 2016 : Trump tweets:

For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2016

October 5, 2016: An anonymous online report states that a computer server related to the Trump Organization engaged in a high level of activity with servers connected to Russia’s largest private bank. A Slate investigation cites several unnamed computer scientists and their findings regarding the unusual server activity. [Slate, October 31, 2016] In an email to Mother Jones, the Trump campaign states: "The Trump Organization is not sending or receiving any communications from this email server. The Trump Organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or any Russian entity." [Mother Jones, October 31, 2016]

2017

January 11, 2017: Trump tweets:

Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

February 16, 2017 : At his first solo press conference as president, Trump states: "I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don't have any deals in Russia." [New York Times (transcript)]

February 19, 2017 : The New York Times reports that a proposal for a "peace plan" for Ukraine and Russia and for lifting sanctions against Russia was "hand-delivered" to Flynn's office the week before his resignation by Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen and convicts Felix Sater and Ukrainian politician Andrii Artemenko. [New York Times]

March 2, 2017 : Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs ranking member Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) issues a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin requesting an inquiry into Trump's businesses and asserting that his refusal to disclose his dealings and divest from the Trump Organization exposes him to risk. [The Hill]

March 8, 2017: A letter from Trump's attorney to Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) states that "[w]ith a few exceptions" Trump's last 10 years of tax returns do not reveal "any income of any type from Russian sources." [Associated Press, May 12, 2017]

March 17, 2017: Reuters reports that at least 63 people with Russian passports or addresses have purchased at least $98.4 million in property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in Florida. [Reuters]

March 20, 2017: In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Emin Agalarov—the Russia pop singer, real estate mogul, and son of billionaire oligarch Aras Agalarov—details his ongoing relationship with the Trump family and his post-election contact with Trump. [Forbes] Father Aras has reportedly served as a liaison between Trump and Putin. [Washington Post, June 17, 2016] In 2013, son Emin released a music video featuring the 2013 Miss Universe contestants and a cameo by Trump. [YouTube] That year, Trump tweeted:

I had a great weekend with you and your family. You have done a FANTASTIC job. TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next. EMIN was WOW! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2013

March 22, 2017 : The New York Times reports on the Dallas hotel project being pursued by the Trump Organization under the leadership of his sons. The Times says that records show that Alterra Worldwide, the real estate firm that would own the hotel and partner with the Trump Organization, has business ties in Russia, Kazakhstan, and other countries. [New York Times]

May 12, 2017 : The Associated Press releases a letter from Trump's attorney to Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that states that "[w]ith a few exceptions" Trump's last 10 years of tax returns do not reveal "any income of any type from Russian sources." [Associated Press]

July 11, 2017: Yahoo News reports that Trump entered into a contract with Aras Agalarov at the Miss Universe pageant in 2013 to build a Trump Tower in Moscow and that Trump assigned his son Donald Trump Jr. to oversee the project. Rob Goldstone, the publicist who arranged the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russia-linked lawyer, was the source. He said that the project was farther along than previously reported and that it even led to a trip by Ivanka Trump to Moscow to identify potential sites. [Yahoo News]

July 20, 2017: Bloomberg reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expanding the focus of his investigation to cover Trump Organization business ties to Russia, including Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a New York SoHo development with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant, and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch. Mueller’s team issued subpoenas to banks and filed requests for bank records. [Bloomberg]

August 27, 2017: The Washington Post reports that discussions about Trump Tower Moscow began in earnest in 2015 during the Trump campaign, with Felix Sater urging Trump to come to Moscow and promising that he could get Russian President Vladimir Putin to compliment Trump. The Trump Organization abandoned the project in January 2016 when it became clear they lacked the land and building permits to proceed. Trump attorney Michael Cohen was the lead negotiator for the Trump Organization in the talks. [Washington Post]

September 5, 2017: CNN reports that Trump attorney Michael Cohen contacted the Kremlin’s press office regarding the Trump Tower project three times in late 2015. In a public statement, Cohen denied any connection between the Moscow Trump Tower project and the Trump campaign. Cohen said he discussed the project with Trump three times. Felix Sater confirmed to CNN that he worked on developing the project and submitted a proposal to Cohen in late 2015. [CNN]

October 2, 2017: The Washington Post reports that Cohen had two previously undisclosed contacts with Russians in role at the Trump Organization. The first was an invitation from Felix Sater to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where Sater suggested Cohen could meet senior Russian leaders. The second was a proposal from Moscow billionaire Sergei Gordeev to build a Trump-branded residential development in Moscow. Cohen rejected both offers. [Washington Post]

October 13, 2017: Andrey Kostin, the chairman of Russia’s second largest bank, told the New York Times he never met Felix Sater despite Sater’s claim that Kostin would finance a Trump building in Moscow. [New York Times]

October 25, 2017: Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics firm that worked for Trump’s campaign, emailed Julian Assange about Hilary Clinton’s 33,000 missing emails during the campaign. Assange confirms that the approach was rejected by WikiLeaks. [The Daily Beast]

November 2, 2017: Gleb Pavlovsky, a former top advisor to Putin, tells Frontline PBS that Putin believes that he helped elect Trump. [PBS]

November 6, 2017 : New analysis of Twitter data shows that Russian-backed Twitter accounts began supporting Trump within weeks after he announced his candidacy, much earlier than previously expected. [Wall Street Journal]

November 7, 2017 : According to a GQ story on the Trump campaign during election night, Felix Sater ordered a late-night car to an invite only election party. Sater has come under scrutiny for trying to broker a relationship between Trump and Putin and writing to Trump’s lawyer, “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected.” Since then, Trump has tried to distance himself from Sater and has even claimed that he could not recognize him if they were in the same room. [GQ]

: According to a GQ story on the Trump campaign during election night, Felix Sater ordered a late-night car to an invite only election party. Sater has come under scrutiny for trying to broker a relationship between Trump and Putin and writing to Trump’s lawyer, “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected.” Since then, Trump has tried to distance himself from Sater and has even claimed that he could not recognize him if they were in the same room. [GQ] November 17, 2017: Alexander Torshin, a former senator, deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, and close confidant of Putin, attempted to arrange a meeting between Putin and then-Candidate Trump in May 2016. [New York Times]

2018

January 4, 2018 : The Trump Organization provided documents to the special counsel and Congressional investigators. [CNN]

February 10, 2018 : Sen. Ron Wyden, the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, called for the Treasury Department to disclose information related to Trump’s sale of a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million. [Washington Examiner]

March 15, 2018 : The Trump Organization received a subpoena for documents from Mueller. [The New York Times]

April 9, 2018: The special counsel is allegedly investigating a payment of $150,000 from Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian steel magnate, to the Trump Organization for a speech by Trump during the campaign. In a piece on the matter, the New York Times quoted Marcus S. Owens, a former head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations: “[The payment] is curious because it comes during a campaign and is from a foreigner and looks like an effort to buy influence. . . [It is] an unusual amount of money for such a short speech.” [The New York Times]

7. Trump Associates’ Alleged Ties to Russia

Week of July 11, 2016: According to an op-ed the next week by Josh Rogin of the Washington Post, at the Republican Party’s national security platform meeting, Trump staffers intervene to change language in Diana Denman's amendment originally calling on the U.S. to provide “lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces. In final form, the GOP platform instead proposed providing "appropriate assistance." [Washington Post, July 18, 2016]

2017

January 19, 2017 : The New York Times reports that Trump campaign aides—Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Michael Flynn—were investigated by US counterintelligence and law enforcement officials for links to Russia. [New York Times]

February 14, 2017 : The New York Times reports that Trump associates had "repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election." [New York Times]

February 18, 2017: In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation," White House chief of staff calls stories about Trump associates' contact with Russian officials and the Wall Street Journal's story that the Intelligence Community was not giving the president a full intelligence briefing "grossly inaccurate, overstated, overblown, and it’s total garbage.” [CBS (video)]

February 24, 2017 : The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration enlisted members of Congress and the Intelligence Community to refute news stories about Trump associates' ties to Russia, including Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Richard Burr. (R-N.C.) and House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R. Calif.) [Washington Post]

March 24, 2017 : Stone, Page and Manafort volunteer to testify before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the committee's Russia investigation. [CNN; NBC News]

May 18, 2017 : Reuters reports the Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians. After the election, Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak "discussed establishing a backchannel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy." [Reuters]

May 19, 2017 : The Washington Post reports that a senior White House official has been identified as a significant person of interest during a probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. [Washington Post]

November 2, 2017 : Sam Clovis, the nominee for the Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist, withdrew his nomination. Earlier in the week, Papadopoulos’ guilty plea was unsealed; in it, Papadopoulos claimed that Clovis encouraged him to have an “off the record” meeting with Russian officials. In his letter withdrawing his nomination, Clovis wrote, “[t]he political climate in Washington has made it impossible for me to receive balanced and fair consideration for this position. The relentless assault on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases with intensity each day.” [Washington Post]

November 5, 2017 : More than 13 million documents are released by the offshore law firm Appleby. They reveal that Yuri Milner, a Russian billionaire who has held significant stakes in Twitter and Facebook, invested in Cadre, a real estate technology company that Kushner and his brothers founded. [New York Times] Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that he was already in the process of selling his interest in the shipping company with ties to Putin’s inner circle. Ross was careful to note that the Paradise Papers were not the reason behind the sale. [Reuters]

November 8, 2017 : Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager, retracted previous denials that he did not know Carter Page by saying that his “memory has been refreshed.” However, he denied that Page’s Russian visit was linked to the campaign by stating, “[a]ll I was clear about was if you’re going to travel, please do not pretend to be a part of the campaign and say that you are part of the campaign, because you are not.” [Politico]

December 3, 2017: The New York Times reported that a NRA member emailed Trump campaign manager Rick Dearborn in May 2016 and offered to use the member’s Kremlin ties to connect Trump to Putin and asked for advice on how to go about it. The email said that Russia was “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” [New York Times]

2018

February 27, 2018 : During testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Hope Hicks said that sometimes she has to tell white lies for Trump but that she has never done so in regards to the Russia investigation. [New York Times]

February 28, 2018 : Hope Hicks announced that she was resigning from her position as White House Communications Director. [New York Times]

March 17, 2018: John Dowd, one of Trump’s lawyers, made the following statement about the Russia investigation after Andrew McCabe’s firing: “I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier.” Dowd clarified that he was speaking on behalf of himself not in his role as Trump’s lawyer. [The Washington Post]

Roger Stone*

1980/81: Roger Stone and Paul Manafort co-found a lobbying firm. [Washington Post, January 3, 1991] Trump hires Stone to represent his business interests. [PBS Frontline (interview with Stone), September 27, 2016]

2016

July 22, 2016 : Three days before the start of the Democratic National Convention, WikiLeaks releases almost 20,000 emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee. [Washington Post] A WikiLeaks page invites visitors to "Search the DNC email database."

August 5, 2016 : Roger Stone writes a detailed article for Breitbart stating that "the real culprit" of the DNC hack was not the Russians but a hacker named Guccifer 2.0. [Breitbart; Twitter (Guccifer 2.0)]

August 8, 2016 : The Trump campaign and Stone sever ties, but he reportedly continues to advise and support the campaign. [NBC News, Twitter (Stone)]

August 9, 2016: At a Florida event, Stone states: "I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation, but there's no telling what the October surprise may be." [YouTube] WikiLeaks tweets a denial:

Neither @WikiLeaks nor Mr. Assange is aware of any private communications from us to you. Please clarify. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 9, 2016

August 21, 2016: Roger Stone tweets:

Trust me, it will soon the Podesta's time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) August 21, 2016

October 3, 2016: Stone tweets:

I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 3, 2016

October 7, 2016: WikiLeaks publishes the first in a series of emails belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

October 11, 2016 : Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta tells reporters there may be a connection between Trump and WikiLeaks through Trump ally Roger Stone: “I think it’s a reasonable assumption to—or at least a reasonable conclusion—that Mr. Stone had advance warning and the Trump campaign had advance warning about what Assange was going to do.” [Washington Post]

October 12, 2016: Stone tells NBC News that he had “back-channel communications” with Assange about the release of the stolen DNC emails but denies being involved in the timing of their release. [NBC News]

2017

March 9, 2017 : In an email to Business Insider, Stone says he had a private conversation with Guccifer 2.0 but that it was meaningless. [Business Insider, March 10, 2017]

March 20, 2017 : At the House Intelligence Committee’s first hearing, Rep. Adam Schiff asks FBI Director James Comey for information on Stone. Comey says he is familiar with Stone but declines to discuss any specific person. [New York Times]

March 26, 2017 : Stone called the Russian investigation a “scandal in search of evidence.” [Guardian]

July 12, 2017 : Democratic campaign contributors filed suit against Trump’s presidential campaign and Stone, alleging that they violated federal civil rights laws and DC privacy laws by conspiring with Wikileaks and Russia to release hacked emails. [National Law Journal]

August 3, 2017 : Stone launched a website to pay for his legal bills—www.whoframedrogerstone.com. [Politico]

September 7, 2017 : Stone filed a motion to dismiss in the suit against both him and Trump’s presidential campaign. [National Law Journal]

September 25, 2017 : Before his testimony in front of HPSCI, Stone threatened committee members, saying “I will systematically go through the exact words of every committee member. I will take their exact words and I will shove them down their throats," he vowed. "I will prove that they have knowingly lied.” [Newsweek]

September 26, 2017 : Stone testified before HPSCI, where he reportedly denied any collusion with Russia and stated that his only connection to Russia is his affinity for Russian vodka. [CNN] Before testifying, Stone released his prepared opening statement to the Post. [Washington Post]

October 12, 2017: The House Intelligence Committee threatened Stone with a subpoena if he didn’t reveal the name of the intermediary between him and Julian Assange. [CNN]

October 15, 2017: Grant Smith, Stone’s attorney, said Stone provided the name of the intermediary between him and Julian Assange to the House Intelligence Committee. [CNN]

October 26, 2017: Upon murmurs that Mueller had filed the first charges in the Russia investigation, Stone tweeted about the investigation and at CNN reporters throughout the night. The tweets included: “Breaking: Mueller indicts @PaulManafort’s driver for double parking,” and “If Carl Bernstein says something the overwhelming odds are that it’s false lied about Watergate lying lying now.” However, there were much more inflammatory tweets, which can be found here: [Deadline]

October 28, 2017: Due to his rant on Friday night, Stone’s Twitter account was suspended. [Business Insider]

November 6, 2017 : Soliciting additional contributions to his legal defense fund, Stone released a new YouTube video in which he calls the Congressional inquiries “witch-hunt campaigns.” He notes that his legal bills threaten to bankrupt him but, he states, “more importantly, [they] distract me from the coming fight to save Donald Trump from the attacks of a special prosecutor Robert Mueller.” [YouTube]

November 7, 2017 : In Naples, Florida, Stone spoke to the Collier for Trump Club, stating, “Mueller has an obvious conflict of interest. And this is clearly an effort to flip (Manafort). I think this is a political witch hunt." The conflict of interest? Trump interviewing Muller for FBI director but not hiring him. Stone denied any Russian interference, calling it "the Russian collusion delusion." [The Naples Daily News]

November 30, 2017 : Roger Stone revealed that Randy Credico, a New York radio personality, was the previously unnamed intermediary between Stone and WikiLeaks. [CNN]

December 13, 2017: As part of a multi-book deal with Skyhorse Publishing, Stone is writing a book entitled The Unmaking of the President. [Vanity Fair]

2018

February 27, 2018 : The Atlantic released Twitter messages between Stone and WikiLeaks. These messages contradicted Stone’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee that he communicated with WikiLeaks through an intermediary journalist. It also contradicts WikiLeaks tweet that it had never communicated with Stone. [The Atlantic]

March 13, 2018 : According to two associates, Stone claimed to have personal contact with Julian Assange in 2016. Stone told the first associate that Assange told Stone that WikiLeaks had obtained damaging emails from senior Democrats; Stone revealed this before the hack of the DNC and John Podesta was publically known. Stone also disclosed a personal meeting with Assange to then Trump advisor Sam Nunberg. [The Washington Post]

April 2, 2018: According to the Wall Street Journal, Mueller is investigating whether Roger Stone had dinner with Julian Assange. [New York Magazine, includes a link to the Wall Street Journal article, which is behind a paywall]

​Paul Manafort*

February 29, 2016 : Manafort pitches Trump on why he should be hired by the Trump campaign in a series of letters and memos. One memo stated: “I am not looking for a paid job." A mutual friend, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., passed the memo to Trump with a cover letter that stated Manafort "would do this in an unpaid capacity.” [New York Times, April 8, 2017]

March 28, 2016 : Trump confirms he has hired Paul Manafort, a principal business partner of Roger Stone who did previous work for Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian President and pro-Kremlin politician who fled Ukraine during the street protests and found sanctuary in Russia before Putin annexed Crimea. [New York Times, March 28, 2016; New York Times, July 31, 2016]]

March 29, 2016 : The Trump campaign issues statement formally naming Manafort his campaign's convention manager.

May 19, 2016 : Trump formally names Manafort campaign chairman. [New York Times]

June 9, 2016 : At Trump Tower, Donald Jr. (and possibly Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner) meet with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties, after being promised negative information about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. [New York Times, July 9, 2017]

June 20, 2016 : Trump fires campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, reportedly after months of conflict about campaign direction with chief strategist Manafort. Lewandowski’s duties are principally assumed by Manafort. [New York Times]

July 1, 2016 : Trump campaign announces the hiring of Kellyanne Conway as senior advisor to campaign chairman Manafort. [Washington Post]

August 14, 2016 : The New York Times reports that handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments to Manafort from Yanukovych. The transactions allegedly included an $18 million deal put together by Manafort and Putin ally and oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The Times publishes one page of the "black ledger," considered a party slush fund and obtained by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau. [New York Times]

August 17, 2016 : Kellyanne Conway is named Trump's campaign manager. [CNN] Stephen Bannon, chairman of the Breitbart News website, is named the Trump campaign’s chief executive. Manafort retains his title as campaign chairman but is reportedly "widely seen as being sidelined." [New York Times]

August 19, 2016: Trump campaign issues statement announcing Manafort's resignation. [New York Times]

2017

February 14, 2017 : Manafort dismisses as "absurd" the assertion of four unnamed U.S. officials that Trump campaign members and other associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year leading up to the U.S. election. Manafort says, "I have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today.” He further observes, “It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer.'" [New York Times]

February 16, 2017 : At his first solo press conference as president, Trump addresses media reports that Manafort communicated with Russian intelligence officials before the election: "He denied it. Now, people knew that he was a consultant over in that part of the world for a while, but not for Russia. I think he represented Ukraine or people having to do with Ukraine.” [New York Times (transcript)]

March 20, 2017 : Press Secretary Sean Spicer states that Manafort “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” in the Trump campaign. [Politico (video)]

March 21, 2017 : Ukrainian lawmaker and journalist Serhiy Leshchenko releases a purported invoice printed on letterhead of Manafort's consulting company, dated October 14, 2009, listing payment of $750,000 to a Belize-based company for 501 computers. The date reportedly matches a $750,000 entry containing Manafort's name listed in a previously released "black ledger." At a news conference, Leshchenko alleges Manafort laundered payments from the party of ousted ex-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych using offshore Belize and Kyrgyzstan accounts. [Washington Post]

March 22, 2017 : The Associated Press reports that Manafort “secretly worked” for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire with close ties to Putin and quotes excerpt from a 2005 memo from Manafort to Deripaska on boosting Putin's agenda and undermining anti-Russian opposition in the U.S. and elsewhere. The memo states, "We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success" and that it "will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government." [Associated Press] White House press secretary Sean Spicer states that Trump had not been aware of Manafort's work on behalf of Deripaska and that suggesting the contrary "is a bit insane." [Associated Press (video)]

March 23, 2017 : Manafort confirms that he worked for Deripaska but denies the Associated Press’s allegation that the work sought to further the political interests of Putin’s government. [CNN]

April 2017 : The Justice Department requests Manafort's bank records from Citizen Financial Group. [Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2017]

May 14, 2017 : Citing an unnamed source, Bloomberg News reports that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) is in the early stages of an investigation into Manafort's real estate deals. [Bloomberg]

May 16, 2017 : NBC News confirms that another subpoena has been issued relating to a $3.5 million loan Manafort took out immediately after resigning from the Trump campaign. [NBC]

September 18, 2017 : The Times reported that the FBI raided Manafort’s house in July and after the raid, prosecutors told Manafort that they planned to indict him. [New York Times]

September 19, 2017 : CNN reported that the FBI obtained FISA warrants to wiretap Manafort twice, once in 2014 and once in 2016. [CNN]

September 20, 2017 : The Post reported that Manafort offered to give a Russian billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin briefings about the presidential campaign. [Washington Post]

September 21, 2017: The Journal reports that the surveillance of Manafort did not listen to his communications in real-time. The surveillance may have involved reading electronically stored copies of his correspondence or physical surveillance. It clarifies that the surveillance began after Manafort left the Trump campaign in September 2016. [Wall Street Journal]

September 26, 2017 : Roger Stone said that Manafort expects to be indicted. [New York Times]

September 26, 2017 : Senator Richard Blumenthal said he was “99 percent sure” that Flynn and Manafort will be criminally charged. [Politico]

September 27, 2017 : Senators decided to subpoena Manafort to testify before SSCI in a public session. [CNN] CNN reports that the IRS is sharing information with Special Counsel Robert Mueller about Manafort’s financial activities. The report indicates that the IRS and Mueller’s team had disputed about the proper scope of Mueller’s inquiry, with the IRS going so far as to refuse to participate in the July raid on Manafort’s home. The financial investigation into Manafort goes back 11 years in connection with tax crimes and financial activities. [CNN]

October 2, 2017: The Atlantic reports that in the emails Manafort sent to intermediaries with Oleg Deripaska Manafort attempted to use his leadership role in the Trump campaign to cultivate a better relationship with Deripaska. Manafort was deeply in debt at the time. [The Atlantic]

October 25, 2017: The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York is investigating Manafort for money laundering. The Manhattan U.S. attorney is coordinating with the Mueller probe and has reached out to the separate investigation being conducted by the New York attorney general. [The Wall Street Journal]

October 29, 2017: Buzzfeed News reports that the FBI investigation into Manafort has a keen focus on 13 separate wire transfers that Manafort made involving offshore companies between 2012 and 2013. The transfers went through offshore accounts in countries often linked to money laundering, such as Cyprus and directed funds to the U.S. [BuzzFeed News]

October 30, 2017: Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicts Manafort and business partner Rick W. Gates III on twelve counts related to money laundering, failing to disclose bank transfers and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Lawfare posted Mueller’s filing at the D.C. federal district court. The Wall Street Journal reports that Manafort surrendered to the FBI. [New York Times] [Wall Street Journal] The indictment reads



In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income. MANAFORT, without reporting the income to his tax preparer or the United States, spent millions of dollars on luxury goods and services for himself and his extended family through payments wired from offshore nominee accounts to United States vendors. MANAFORT also used these offshore accounts to purchase multi-million dollar properties in the United States. MANAFORT then borrowed millions of dollars in loans using these properties as collateral, thereby obtaining cash in the United States without reporting and paying taxes on the income. In order to increase the amount of money he could access in the United States, MANAFO