From 2015 to today.
Part of the reason that the ongoing investigations into possible links between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian actors appear endlessly complex is that new details are reported gradually, over the course of months. That trickle of revelations has the natural effect of clouding the timeline, making it difficult to figure out who knew what and when.
In an effort to simplify, we’ ve created the following timeline, which places information about interactions between the Trump team and Russia in the proper chronological order. We’ ve included the dates on which each piece of information was reported to give a sense of when the revelations were made. (Those dates are indicated in parentheses after each piece of information.) Significant figures in the investigations are indicated in bold.
Dec. 10,2015 Lt. Gen Michael Flynn is part of a panel discussion in Moscow for the 10th anniversary of government-backed Russia Today, for which he receives payment (The Washington Post, Aug. 15,2016) . Officials notice an increase in communication between Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, following the Russia Today event (CNN, May 19,2017) .
Late 2015 British intelligence agencies detect suspicious interactions between Russia and Trump aides that they pass on to American intelligence agencies (The Guardian, April 13,2017) .
March 19,2016 Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is sent an email that encourages him to change his email password, likely precipitating the hack of his account (CBS News, Oct. 28,2016) .
March 21 During an interview with The Post, Trump lists Carter Page as part of his foreign policy team. Page had been recommended by a son-in-law of President Richard Nixon, New York Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox (WP, March 21,2016) .
March 28 Political veteran Paul Manafort is hired to help the Trump campaign manage the delegate process for the Republican National Convention. He is recommended by Trump confidante Roger Stone (New York Times, March 28,2016) . Before joining the campaign, Manafort lobbied on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. That deal followed a memo from Manafort in which he offered a plan that could “greatly benefit the Putin Government.” His relationship with Deripaska ended in 2009 (Associated Press, March 22,2017) . Manafort also worked on behalf of the Russia-friendly Party of Regions in Ukraine, helping guide the party’s leader, Viktor Yanukovych, to the country’s presidency. Yanukovych would later be ousted. (WP, Aug. 19,2016)
June At a closed-door meeting of foreign policy experts and the prime minister of India, Page praises Putin effusively (WP, Aug. 5,2016) .
June 15 A hacker calling himself “Guccifer 2.0” releases the Democratic National Committee’s research file on Donald Trump (Gawker, June 15,2016) . News reports already link the stolen data to Russian hackers (WP, June 14,2016) .
July At some point this month, the FBI begins investigating possible links between the Russian government and Trump’s campaign (Wired, March 20,2017) .
July 7 Page travels to Moscow to give a lecture (NYT, April 19,2017) . The Trump campaign approved the trip (March 7,2017) . This trip was likely the catalyst for the FBI’s request for a secret surveillance warrant to track Page ‘s communications (May 25,2017) .
Jul. 18 At an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation as part of the Republican National Convention, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Kislyak have a brief conversation (March 2,2017) .
Flynn delivers a speech at the Republican convention, joining in the crowd’s “lock her up!” chant. “If I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth of what she did, ” Flynn said, “I would be in jail today” (Jul. 18,2016) .
July 22 Wikileaks releases emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee (Jul. 22,2017) .
Jul. 27 During his last press conference of the campaign, Trump asks Russia to release emails hacked from Clinton’s private server. He later says that he was joking (Jul. 27,2016) .
Aug. 9 Flynn Intel Group, a consulting firm founded by Flynn, signs a contract with Inovo BV, a firm run by a Turkish businessman close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for over $500,000 (Nov. 11,2016) .
Aug. 15 The New York Times reports on secret ledgers from the Party of Regions showing off-the-books payments to Manafort ‘s consulting firm (Aug. 15,2016) . Those payments were allegedly hidden by passing them through third parties, according to Ukrainian leaders (March 21,2017) .
Aug. 19 Manafort is fired from the campaign. (Aug. 19,2016) He’ d reportedly lost the confidence of Trump’s family, including son-in-law Jared Kushner . (Aug. 19,2016)
Aug. 21 Stone tweets, “Trust me, it will soon [be] Podesta’s time in the barrel” (Aug. 21,2016)
Aug. 23 Stone communicates with Guccifer 2.0 privately over Twitter (March 8,2017)
September At some point in September, congressional leaders are briefed about the CIA’s belief that Russia was intervening in the election to benefit Donald Trump (Dec. 9,2016)
Sept. 8 Sessions and Kislyak meet in his Senate office (March 2,2017)
Oct. 7 The director of national intelligence and the head of the Department of Homeland Security release an unusual joint statement in which they warn of Russian efforts to meddle in the election and suggest Russia’s hand in the Wikileaks document releases. (Oct. 7,2016) .
Oct. 8 Shortly after the publication of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump discusses sexually assaulting women, Wikileaks releases the first emails from Podesta’s email account. The leaks continue for weeks. (Oct. 8,2016)
Oct. 19 “During the final presidential debate, Trump says that Putin has no respect for his opponent, Hillary Clinton. She responds, “that’s because he’ d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”
“No puppet, ” Trump replies. “”You’ re the puppet.”
He then argues that Clinton doesn’ t know who’s behind the hacking, if it’s “Russia, China, or anybody else.” (Oct. 19,2016)
Nov. 8 An opinion piece supporting the Turkish government runs in The Hill under Flynn ‘s byline. (Nov. 8,2016)
Trump is elected president.
Nov. 18 Trump offers Flynn the job of national security adviser. (Nov. 18,2016) Trump also offers Sessions the job of attorney general. These are two of the first appointments Trump makes. (Nov. 18,2016)
Nov. 28 In an interview with Time magazine, Trump denies interference from Russia. “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 said.
He also addressed the hacking: “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.” (Nov. 28,2016)
Nov. 30 The Justice Department informs Flynn that he is under investigation for his unreported lobbying on behalf of Turkey. (May 17,2017)
Dec. 1 (or 2) Flynn and Kushner meet with Kislyak at Trump Tower. (March 2,2017) Kushner proposes setting up a back-channel of communication between the administration and Putin, perhaps going so far as to use secure communications systems at the Russian embassy. (May 26,2017) The FBI believes the conversation may have included a suggestion by the Russians that easing sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump, according to Reuters. (May 27,2017) Sources close to Kushner indicate the only focus of the back-channel would be Syria. (May 30,2017)
Dec. 8 Page is back in Moscow to meet with “business leaders and thought leaders.” (Dec. 8,2016)
Dec. 15 (est.) At Kislyak’s urging, Kushner meets with Sergey Gorkov, chairman of Vnesheconombank and confidante of Putin. The bank, known as VEB, is under sanction from the U. S. government. (March 27,2017)
Dec. 25 Flynn texts Kislyak to wish him a merry Christmas. (Jan. 13,2017)
Dec. 29 The Obama administration orders new sanctions against Russian organizations and individuals in response to Russian interference in the election. (Dec. 29,2016)
Flynn calls Kislyak a reported five times. (Jan. 23,2017) Among the topics of discussion: The government’s sanctions of Russia. (Feb. 9,2017)
Dec. 30 Trump praises Putin’s decision not to respond in kind to the U. S. sanctions. (Dec. 30,2016)
Jan. 4,2017 Flynn informs Don McGahn, chief attorney for the transition effort, that he’s under investigation by the FBI. (May 17,2017)
Jan. 6 American intelligence agencies release a report outlining why it believes Russia was behind the campaign hacking.
