Due to Daily Kos article length restrictions I have had to split this timeline into two articles. You can view Chapter 2, completing the timeline from 2017 — Present, HERE.
This is the first article, providing a timeline of Russia-gate from the beginning through 2016. Together the articles are a bit of a read, but a careful reading of the timeline is very disturbing.
2007–2012 (at least): Future Trump Campaign head Paul Manafort engages in lobbying efforts on behalf of pro-Russia parties and interests in Ukraine. These organizations later destabilized the country and are believed to be closely tied to Russian intelligence operations. These activities legally obligated to Manafort to register as a foreign agent, but he did not do so.
July 2012: President Obama appoints Michael Flynn as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
August 25, 2013: In a letter to a book reviewer Carter Page touts his expertise by describing himself as, for the last half year, an “informal advisor” to the Kremlin on energy matters. He will later deny having been any kind of advisor to Russia.
November 2013: Trump visits Moscow as part of his Miss Universe Pageant conducted there. Discussions on a Trump Tower Moscow project start.
January 2014: Alferova Yulya, an advisor to Russia’s Minister of Economic Development, tweets the following.
April 2014: Flynn announces retirement as Director of the DIA about a year earlier than expected. Reports indicate he was forced out due to an abusive management style.
Mid-2014: FBI begins investigation of Paul Manafort for potential criminal activity related to representation of Russian interests in Ukraine.
August 2014: Flynn retires from the military. He and his son establish the Flynn Intel Group, a consulting firm providing intelligence services for business and governments.
June 16, 2015: Trump formally declares his candidacy for President at a rally at Trump Tower in New York City.
August 2015: Michael Cohen, AMI (the parent company for The National Enquirer) President David Pecker, and Donald Trump meet to plan how to kill stories of women reporting sexual misconduct on Trump. Trump asked “What can you do to help my campaign?” as the meeting started. Pecker then offered that the National Enquirer would likely hear from women seeking to sell such stories and that when they were approached he would contact Cohen so they could arrange a way to silence the women until after the election.
September 2015: In a radio interview Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, suggests Trump meet with the President of Russia in New York City during his visit for the United Nations General Assembly. Cohen subsequently claims his public comments had been spontaneous and had not been discussed within the campaign. After flipping to cooperate with Mueller Cohen admits he conferred Trump about contacting the Russian government before reaching out to gauge Russia’s interest in such a meeting. Thus, Trump was directing subordinates to contact Russians on behalf of his campaign as early as Fall 2015. That particular meeting never took place.
September/October 2015: Felix Sater, (a Russian immigrant previously convicted for a stock fraud scheme on behalf of the Russian Mafia), and Michael Cohen, begin work to license a deal to build a Trump Tower Moscow.
October 12, 2015: Felix Sater emails Cohen that the Russian VTB Bank would finance a Trump Tower Moscow deal. VTB Bank is sanctioned by the United States.
October 28, 2015: Trump personally signs a letter of intent for the Trump Tower Moscow project. The third Republican debate takes place later that day.
November 3, 2015: Felix Sater sends Michael Cohen an email pledging to get “Putin’s team” to engineer Trump becoming the President of the United States:
November 2015: A representative of the Russian government reaches out to Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen offering to provide the Russian government’s help to the campaign while benefiting Trump financially. The Russian suggested the arrangement could provide “political synergy” that “could have a phenomenal impact not only in political but in a business dimension as well.” Cohen declines because he already has connections to the Russian government through his work attempting to close a deal on Trump Tower Moscow. However, this constitutes clear communication by the Russian government to the Trump Campaign that they would like to help Trump’s Campaign.
July 2015: Future convicted Russian spy Maria Butina asks Trump whether if elected President he will continue the Obama’s sanctions against Russia. Trump’s answer includes “I know Putin and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin . . . I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin . . . I don’t think we’d need the sanctions.” It’s a surreal video with Trump claiming Obama gets along with no one whereas he can get along with everyone.
December 2015: Flynn is paid $45,000 to speak at a gala dinner for Russia Today, an often virulently anti-American propaganda arm of the Russian government. Flynn is a guest of honor sitting at the same table as the Chief RT Editor and Putin. Afterwards, Flynn continues to make semi-regular appearances on RT as a guest commentator often favoring closer American cooperation with Russia. In 2015 Flynn also received over $11,000 in payment from a Russian cybersecurity company in 2015 that U.S. intelligence experts believed was involved Russian espionage.
January 15, 2016: Michael Cohen emails Dmitry Peskov, a top aide and spokesman for Putin, requesting assistance “to secure land and permits” for the Trump Tower Moscow project.
January 20, 2016: Peskov’s office responds to Cohen by phone. Cohen outlines the Moscow project and asks for assistance to move it forward. Cohen later testifies to Congress that he never heard back from Peskov. Cohen’s lie was to support false claims by Trump, and the campaign, that he abandoned the Trump Tower project by early January 2016, before the Iowa caucuses.
January 21, 2016. Felix Sater tells Cohen the President of Russia called about the Trump Tower deal.
February 1, 2016: Trump places second in the Iowa caucus.
February 2016: Michael Flynn officially becomes an adviser to the Trump Campaign.
Early March 2016: George Papadopoulos is appointed as a Foreign Policy Advisor to the Trump Campaign. He is quickly contacted (on March 14th) by a Joseph Mifsud who has high connections to the government. Mifsud introduces Papadopoulos to a Russian woman, named Olga Polonskaya, who is falsely identified as Putin’s niece. She promises to provide the Trump Campaign with thousands of Hillary Clinton emails damaging to her campaign. Papadopoulos spends much of the Summer attempting to arrange meetings between the Trump Campaign and these Russians for this purpose.
March 2016: Paul Manafort joins Trump campaign to coordinate delegates for the upcoming Republican National Convention. Per a later report in The Guardian Paul Manafort secretly met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London around the time he joined the Trump Campaign. The alleged March 2016 meeting was just a few months before Wikileaks first releases Clinton emails stolen by the Russian GRU (see July 22, 2016 entry below).
Spring 2016: Trump discusses with Michael Cohen possible travel to Russia in the summer of 2016 to close the Trump Tower Moscow deal. Cohen takes steps to clear dates for such travel.
March 24, 2016: Trump Foreign Policy Advisor George Papadopoulos meets with Joseph Mifsud and Russian agent Olga Polonskaya. Papadopoulos emails the Trump Campaign Supervisor stating the meeting was to “to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump.” While not making a commitment to meet, the Campaign Supervisor responded “great work.”
March 31, 2016: Papadopoulos attends a National Security Meeting led by Donald Trump. At the meeting Papadopoulos informs the group he has made connections to facilitate a meeting with Putin. Trump tweets a picture of the meeting that includes Papadopoulos (second chair to the left of Jeff Sessions).
April 2016: Trump Former Policy Advisor George Papadopoulos has a series of emails with Mifsud and Polonskaya. Papadopoulos requests Mifsud set up “a potential foreign policy trip to Russia.” The Mifsud responds “This is already been agreed. I am flying to Moscow on the 18th for a Valdai meeting, plus other meetings at the Duma,” the Russian legislature. Polonskaya responds, “I have already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request. … As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced.”
April 26, 2016: Trump Former Policy Advisor George Papadopoulos meets Mifsud for breakfast at a London hotel. During this meeting, the Mifsud tells Papadopolous that he had just returned from a trip to Moscow where he had met with high level Russian government officials. Mifsud tells Papadopoulos that on that trip he learned the Russians obtained “dirt” on then-candidate Clinton. Mifsud tells Papadopoulos “They [the Russians] have dirt on her”; “the Russians had emails of Clinton”; “they have thousands of emails.”
May 3, 2016: Trump becomes the presumptive Republican nominee after his remaining challengers withdraw from the contest.
May 4–6, 2016: Michael Cohen and Felix Sater discuss a possible trip to Russia, with Trump, to close the Trump Tower Moscow project. They debate whether it would be better for Trump to visit before or after the Republican National Convention in July. On May 5, Sater relays a message that a Russian official would like to invite Cohen to the “Davos of Russia” in June where he would be introduced to Putin and/or Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Cohen agrees to the trip and continues to update Trump on the plans through June.
May 2016: George Papadopoulos meets with an Australian ambassador in a bar and over drinks tells him the Russians have thousands of hacked emails of Hilary Clinton damaging to her campaign. The Aussie diplomat later passes the story to American officials. This is what provided the initial basis to investigate potential Trump Campaign collusion with the Russians, not the Steele Dossier.
Late May 2016: Trump clinches enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination.
May 21, 2016: Papadopoulos emails Paul Manafort, informing him “Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss.” Manafort forwards the email to future co-indictee Rick Gates (see October 30, 2017 entry). “We need someone to communicate that [Donald Trump] is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.”
May through Mid-August 2016: George Papadopoulos pursues what his Statement of Charges he will later plead guilty to describes as an “off the record” meeting between one or more Campaign representatives and “members of President Putin’s office.”
June 3, 2016: Rob Goldstone emails Donald Trump Jr., to set up a meeting with Russians who want to help the Trump Campaign by providing dirt on Hillary Clinton. The email reads:
Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.
The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin.
What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?
I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.
Trump Junior responds the same day as follows:
Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?
June 6, 2016: Rob Goldstone again emails Trump Junior to coordinate the meeting with Russians that will be held three days later. The email reads:
To: Donald Trump Jr.
Subject: Re: Russia — Clinton — private and confidential
Hi Don
Let me know when you are free to talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info — you had mentioned early this week so wanted to try to schedule a time and day Best to you and family Rob Goldstone
Trump Junior responds by arranging a phone call with Goldstone and Emin Agalarov. Less than an hour after that call Trump Junior calls a phone with a blocked phone number. It is known that his father has a blocked phone number. Subsequent emails over the next few days confirm time and attendees for the meeting.
June 7, 2016: At a campaign rally Trump promises to give a major speech the following week outlining how the Russians gave money to Clinton to get preferential treatment. The speech never happens. Many view this statement as evidence Trump had advance knowledge of the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting discussed below. As discussed below, Trump Junior asked the Russians specifically for that kind of information.
June 9, 2016: Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, and Trump’s son-in law Jared Kushner, secretly meet with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower. The person who helped set up the meeting, Rob Goldstone, told Trump Jr., in an email that the Russian government wanted to provide him damaging information on Hillary Clinton to help his father’s campaign. Kushner originally failed to include the meeting in his security clearance disclosure form but later amended it to include the existence of the meeting. It is later revealed Trump Jr., specifically requested from the Russians financial documents showing money went into Clinton Campaign coffers that dodged tax laws. Trump Jr., suggested the possibility of more favorable treatment for Russia under a Trump administration in the exchange. The existence of the meeting would remain secret for over a year (see entries below beginning July 8, 2017 for the dishonest responses of the Trump Administration news of the meeting initially broke).
Shortly after the meeting Trump Junior makes another call to a blocked phone number. It is known that his father has a blocked phone number.
Also June 9, 2016: Later in the day, after his son met with the Russian lawyer, Donald Trump tweets to Hillary Clinton: “Where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted?”
June 14, 2016: Rod Goldstone emails a client (who was in the June 9 meeting) a CNN article about Russian hacking of Democratic National Committee emails describing it as “eerily weird” considering what was discussed in the June 9 meeting with Trump Jr. (see above). Yet Trump Jr., denies there was any discussion at the meeting regarding hacked emails. The Washington Post first reports that Russians hacked Hillary Clinton’s emails. Michael Cohen finally stops working with the Russians get a Trump Tower project built in Moscow. Cohen and Trump later falsely claim the deal was killed six months earlier in January (see November 29, 2018 entry below).
June 19, 2016: after several email and Skype exchanges with the Russian Connection, George Papadopoulos emails Campaign Chairman Corey Lewandowski), with the subject line “New message from Russia” The emails state: “The Russian ministry of foreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump is unable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it for meetings? I am willing to make the trip off the record if it’s in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people.”
June 20, 2016: Corey Lewandowski is fired as Trump Campaign Manager and replaced by Paul Manafort, who is later convicted for being a major international finance criminal (see multiple entries below).
July 2016: It is reported that Michael Flynn is one of those being considered as Trump’s Vice-Presidential candidate. Flynn later confirms he submitted vetting documents to the campaign for the potential appointment.
July 2016: In a visit approved by the Trump Campaign, Carter Page travels to Russia to give a Putin friendly speech criticizing United States policies towards Russia. Endorsing Russia’s own propaganda points, Page condemned the United States for its “often hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption, and regime change.” The controversial Steele Dossier claims Page met with Russians who offered compromising material on Clinton for the Trump Campaign.
July 11 and 12 2016: In an effort pushed by Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign compels removal from Republican Party Platform of a provision calling for arming Ukraine against Russian aggression.
July 18, 2016: Flynn is a keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention, delivering a fiery speech and leading a chant to “lock her up” in regards to Hillary Clinton.
July 19, 2016: Donald Trump is formally made the Republican nominee for President.
July 19, 2016: Trump promotes Paul Manafort to Head Campaign Manager.
July 22, 2016: In a Florida press conference Donald Trump states: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” In fact, on that very day Wikileaks releases 20,000 Clinton emails that are devastating to her campaign. Wikileaks received these emails from Guccifer 2.0, an arm of the Russian GRU. The leaks, just three days before the Democratic National Convention, are weaponized to disrupt the party. They include evidence the DNC favored Clinton over Bernie Sanders, creating a split in the party just as it was attempting to unite. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is quickly compelled to resign and ramifications blister the party and Clinton Campaign throughout the election.
July 24, 2016: Donald Trump Jr. appears on CNN’s “State of the Union” and strongly attacks the “moral compass” of anyone suggesting the Russians sought to help the Trump campaign, calling such assertions “lie after lie.” He apparently did not remember his meeting just the month before set up for exactly that purpose. Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort appears on ABC’s This Week where George Stephanopoulos asked him “Are there any ties between Mr. Trump, you or your campaign and Putin and his regime?” Manafort responded, “No, there are not. That’s absurd. And you know, there’s no basis to it.”
July 26, 2016: Roger Stone emails Jerome Corsi with the subject line, “Get to Julian Assange.” The body of the message reads, “Get to Julian Assange at Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending Wikileaks emails . . . they deal with Foundation, allegedly.” Corsi forwards Stone’s email to a friend in London, Ted Malloch.
Trump tweets denying any investments in Russia.
This tweet is what finally tells Felix Sater the Trump Tower Moscow deal is off.
July 27, 2016: At a rally Trump declares “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” According to an indictment released July 13, 2018 (see entry for that date below), the Russian GRU increased their efforts to do exactly as Trump suggested later the very same day. The relevant part of the indictment reads:
on or about July 27, 2016, the [Russian GRU] Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton's personal office. At or around the same time, they also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton Campaign."
Late July 2016: According to later testimony from FBI Director James Comey, the FBI begins an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The investigation is prompted by reports from Australian diplomats about George Papadopolous bragging in the bar about getting dirt on Clinton from Russians. The FBI is not even aware of the Steele Dossier yet.
July 31, 2016: Roger Stone emails Jerome Corsi with the subject line, “Call me MON.” The body of the email reads in part that Ted Malloch “should see Julian Assange.”
August 2, 2016: Corsi responds to Roger Stone by email. Corsi states: “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.… Time to let more than [ Clinton Campaign chairman (John Podesta)] to be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC. That appears to be the game hackers are now about. Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke — neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus, setting stage for Foundation debacle.”
August 4, 2016: Roger Stone emails Sam Nunberg stating he had dinner with Wikileaks head Julian Assange the night before. American intelligence has since concluded that Wikileaks was a tool for Russian intelligence to leak its hacked Clinton emails. Two weeks later Stone denies the dinner ever really happened, claiming it was said in “jest.”
August 5, 2016: Stone publishes an article in Breitbart fully endorsing the GRU/Guccifer cover story that Guccifer is just a lone hacker. In an article entitled “STOP BLAMING RUSSIA,” Stone writes: “It doesn’t seem to be the Russians that hacked the DNC, but instead a hacker who goes by the name of Guccifer 2.0 . . . Guccifer 2.0 is the real deal.” In fact, Guccifer 2.0 is the Russian GRU (see July 13, 2018 entry below). In addition, Stone tweets “Hillary lies about Russian Involvement in DNC hack -Julian Assange is a hero.”
August 8, 2016: Roger Stone tells a group of Republicans in Florida “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.”
August 12, 2016: The Russian GRU, in the persona of Guccifer 2.0, tweets to Roger Stone: “thanks that u believe in the real #Guccifer2.″
August 13, 2016: Stone tweets to Wikileaks and Guccifer that it is “Outrageous” that Twitter has suspended Guccifer’s account. Later in the day Stone tweets that Guccifer is a “HERO.” Guccifer is the Russian GRU (see July 13, 2018 entry below).
August 15, 2016: The NY Times reports potentially illegal off-book secret payments to Manafort from pro-Russia groups in Ukraine. In addition, the Campaign Supervisor (later identified as Sam Clovis) tells Papadopoulos that “I would encourage you” and another foreign policy advisor to the Campaign to “make the trip, if it is feasible.” That would be the secret trip described by Papadopoulos in June. Notwithstanding this approval, the trip is never taken.
Also August 15, 2016: Roger Stone exchanges Twitter Direct Messages with the Russian GRU proxy Guccifer. Guccifer started the DMs:
“thank for writing back . . . do u find anyt[h]ing interesting in the docs i posted?? On August 17thGuccifer added, please tell me if i can help anyhow . . . it would be a great pleasure to me.” On or about September 9, 2016, Guccifer 2.0, referred to a stolen document posted online and asked the person [Stone], what do think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign? The person [Stone] responded, [p]retty standard.”
August 17, 2016: Candidate Donald Trump receives his first classified briefing. While the contents of the meeting are not known it is reasonable to believe he may have received some notice regarding Russian hacking, Guccifer 2.0, DCLeaks, and Wikileaks, considering that was the subject of public release in early October (see October 7, 2016 entry below). Guccifer DMs Roger Stone on Twitter: “I’m pleased to say that u r great man and I think I gonna read ur books please tell me if I can help u anyhow it would be a great pleasure to me.”
August 18, 2016: Roger Stone denies he ever had dinner with Julian Assange claiming his email to Sam Nunberg bragging about it was “in jest.” Stone denies he has ever met or spoken to Assange.
August 19, 2016: Trump abruptly fires Manafort who had become his campaign manager only the month before. He hires Steve Bannon, the head of the racist alt-right Breitbart.com, to replace him to replace him. After Trump’s election Bannon would be retained in the Trump Administration as Chief Strategist.
August 21, 2016: Roger Stone tweets “Trust me, it will soon [be] the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary”
August 2016: Trump campaign drops Carter Page as a foreign policy advisor. A later FBI investigation of him includes issuance of FISA warrant which requires that a Federal judge conclude there is probable cause Page acted on behalf of another nation against the security interests of the United States.
August 29, 2016: In a radio interview Roger Stone predicts that we will “see from WikiLeaks and other leakers the nexus between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation.” He claims Assange has a “smoking gun” that will lead to “handcuff time” for Clinton.
September 2016: Flynn’s consulting company is hired by a company owned by the Chair of the Turkish-American Business Council, which is an arm of the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, to do lobbying work. Flynn’s company is paid over $500,000. This makes Flynn a foreign agent but he does not register as one as required by law.
September 8, 2016: Future Attorney General Jeff Sessions meets with Russian Ambassador (and suspected spy) Kislyak. He later claims to have not had any meetings with Russians.
September 9, 2016: In a radio interview Roger Stone says he expects “Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks people to drop a payload of new documents on Hillary on a weekly basis fairly soon. And that, of course, will answer the question of exactly what was erased on that email server.”
September 13, 2016: Guccifer 2.0 releases a cache of DNC documents.
September 14, 2016: An email is sent to Trump, his son and others in the campaign purporting to provide a link to a website and decryption key to access Russian hacked Clinton emails.
September 20, 2016: As later reported by The Atlantic, WikiLeaks contacts Donald Trump Jr., by Twitter Direct Message warning of an anti-Trump PAC and offering information on who it is behind it.
September 21, 2016: Trump Jr., responds to the WikiLeaks contact thanking them and saying he will ask around about it. This starts 10 months of back and forth between WikiLeaks and Trump Jr.
October 2, 2016: Trump Campaign Advisor Roger Stone tweets “Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #WikiLeaks.” The message is widely seen as reflecting Stone’s advance knowledge of the October 7 release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks.
October 3, 2016: WikiLeaks again contacts Trump Jr., asking him to push a story about Clinton saying she wished WikiLeaks could get drone struck. Trump Jr. responds saying “Already did that earlier today. It’s amazing what she can get away with.” Trump Jr., further asks “What’s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?” Roger Stone tweets “I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp.”
October 5, 2016: Roger Stone tweets that a “payload” is coming from WikiLeaks.
October 7, 2016: The director of national intelligence and the head of the Homeland Security release a joint statement warning of Russian efforts to meddle in the election and that WikiLeaks is part of that effort, describing WikiLeaks as essentially an agent of the Russian government. DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 are also mentioned as Russian agents.
Also October 7, 2016: Within hours after the release of the “Access Hollywood Tape” (the notorious “grab them by the pussy” tape where Trump brags of getting away with sexually assaulting women), WikiLeaks distracts from that Trump damaging scandal by releasing thousands of emails hacked by the Russian GRU from John Podesta. Jerome Corsi later recounts that Roger Stone contacted him earlier in the day with advance knowledge of the Access Hollywood Tape, asking Corsi to contact Wikileaks to counter the story with another email leak. According to Corsi, Stone said, “You know this Billy (Bush) is going to be dropped and Assange better get going. Why don’t you get to your buddy Assange and tell him to start.” Corsi claims he could not do what Stone asked because he had no contacts to Assange. However, it is clear that Stone was seeking assistance to make happen exactly what did happen.
October 10, 2016: At a rally Donald Trump proclaims “I love WikiLeaks.”
October 11, 2016: Donald Trump’s son, Trump Jr., delivers a paid speech in Paris to a group supporting Russian interests.
October 12, 2016: WikiLeaks messages Donald Trump Jr., stating: “Hey Donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications. Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us,” Linking wlsearch.tk, claiming it would provide a trove of stolen documents. “There’s many great stories the press are missing and we’re sure some of your follows will find it, Btw we just released Podesta Emails Part 4.” Trump Jr., promptly tweeted to the world “Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!” In an interview with NBC, Roger Stone, while denying collusion with Wikileaks, says, “I have back-channel communications with WikiLeaks.”
October 14, 2016: Trump Jr., tweets out the link WikiLeaks provided him two days earlier:
Also on October 14th Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence is directly asked if the Trump Campaign is “in cahoots” with WikiLeaks. Pence replies “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
October 2016: JD Gordon, the Trump campaign’s National Security Director until just two months before, attends a Styx concert and celebrates his birthday with soon to be convicted Russian spy Maria Butina.
November 8, 2016: Donald Trump is elected President. Clinton decisively wins the popular vote, by almost 3 million total votes and by 2.1%, but Trump decisively wins the electoral college 304 votes to 227.
November 10, 2016: In a post-election meeting President Obama warns President-elect Trump against hiring Michael Flynn.
November 11, 2016: Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks flatly and broadly denies any foreign contacts at all during the Trump campaign. She sweepingly states “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” This broad denial has been disproven many times over.
November 18, 2016: Ignoring Obama’s warning, Trump offers and Flynn accepts to serve as National Security Advisor and the Director of National Intelligence in the new administration.
November 28, 2016: President elect Trump tells Time Magazine that he does not believe the Russians meddled in the election at all. He states: “I don’t believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say ‘oh, Russia interfered.’” He belittles U.S. intelligence conclusions regarding DNC hacking: “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.”
December 1, 2016: Jared Kushner meets with Russian Ambassador/spy Kislyak to ask about setting up a secure communications line between the Trump camp and the Russian Embassy in Washington. The meeting is not initially disclosed on Kushner’s Security Clearance application forms.
December 13, 2016: Jared Kushner meets with the Chairman of a Russian owned bank that is under sanction by the United States Government. The meeting is arranged by Russian Ambassador/spy Kislyak. The meeting is also not initially disclosed on Kushner’s Security Clearance application forms.
December 18, 2016: Kellyanne Conway appears on “Face the Nation” and flatly denies any contacts by the Trump campaign with any Russians seeking to meddle in the campaign, going so far as to declare any such claims “undermine our democracy.” [Edited to eliminate interruptions but not substantive content].
JOHN DICKERSON: Did anyone involved in the Trump campaign have any contact with Russians trying to meddle with the election?
KELLYANNE CONWAY: Absolutely not. And I discussed that with the president-elect just last night. Those conversations never happened. I hear people saying it like it’s a fact on television. That is just not only inaccurate and false, but it’s dangerous. And — and it does undermine our democracy.
December 28 2016: As rumors of sanctions swirled, Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak contacts Flynn and they discuss Russian sanctions under a Trump administration. Flynn later denies the conversation even happened. Then he denied it discussed sanctions. Both were lies, the call was recorded because Kislyak, being a Russian spy, was under United States surveillance.
December 29 2016: In response to Russian hacking of the DNC, and other meddling in the U.S. election, Obama imposes sanctions on Russia that included expelling 35 Russian diplomats. A Russian reprisal is expected. Senior Trump Transition Advisor K.T. McFarland responds quickly coordinating transition team efforts to undermine the sanctions with the Russians. She seeks to ease tensions with the Russians who (in an email) she said “has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him [Trump].” The email, forwarded to other key transition team members, urged contacting the Russians to deescalate Russian response to the sanctions to prevent a tit-for-tat exchange that would prevent President Trump from improving Russian relations. That day Flynn has at least five more calls with Sergey Kislyak aimed at muting the expected Russian retaliation.The calls were recorded because Kislyak, being a Russian spy, was under United States surveillance. These calls arguably violated the Logan Act.
December 30, 2016: Putin announces (surprisingly at the time) that there will be no Russian retaliation for the U.S. sanctions.
December 31, 2016: Trump casts doubt on the Russia hacking story accepted by U.S. intelligence stating “it could be somebody else.” Over the next week Trump continues to cast aspersions at U.S. intelligence conclusions regarding the Russia hacking at one point stating in a Tweet that it might have been done by a 14 year old.
End of Chapter 1. Link to Chapter 2 of the timeline of 2017 — Present: www.dailykos.com/…