Trump’s Russian Connections, A Handy Timeline
During the presidential campaign, it struck me as odd how often Donald Trump was talking about Russia, because for the last 20 years most Americans haven’t paid much attention to Russia. The country ranks 30th as a trading partner both for imports and exports and hasn’t factored much in day to day American life. Sure, the country is aggressive and still dangerous (Georgia / Ukraine!), but it rarely took up more than a few news cycles. Then, suddenly, Trump was talking Russia all the time, especially heaping praise on Putin. Weird.
Then came the election hacking scandal, the Michael Flynn scandal, and lots of dead or imprisoned Russian agents. I wanted to understand for myself what happened when and why.
Below is a timeline I pulled together with linked public sources. Once the timeline was in place, major threads became clear.
The narrative seems straightforward, at least to me.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to speculate that Trump, deeply in debt, started laundering money with Russians. He wanted to build in Moscow and held pro-Moscow views. The Russians who had been cultivating Trump for years probably didn’t think he would win the election, but they wanted to push the party and the country into a more pro-Russia footing. The Russians supported Trump and his campaign with misinformation, pro-Russian staff, and cash. Or maybe he’s just a fool. A useful idiot who has been pushing a pro-Russia agenda since the 80s. I don’t know, but check out the timeline, click through to the various news reports and decide for yourself.
If I’ve missed anything important, please let me know in the comments. Let’s keep pulling at threads.
- First put togther on Feb 5, 2017
- Jan 2019 — I’ve updated this timeline occasionally as new news has broken. Amazingly, even today, with all the scrutiny on Trump and Russia, Trump’s policy is overwhelmingly pro-Russia at the expense of US interests and Trump still openly kowtows to Putin.
1977
Trump marries Ivana Zelnickova from Czechoslovakia and according to files released by the Czech secret service, the couple was closely watched by Soviet-block agents.
1978
1978 Not related to Russia, but helpful in understanding how Trump became Trump: This is a Village Voice profile on his rise.
“Trump won’t do a deal unless there’s something extra — a kind of moral larceny — in it. He’s not satisfied with a profit. He has to take something more. Otherwise, there’s no thrill.”
1984
Dan Bogatin, a Russian with mafia ties, pays cash for five Trump Tower apartments.
1986
Spring 1986 Trump meets Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinina. Trump later angles for a Reagan administration government posting to the Soviet Union. He apparently thought he could end the cold war in an hour by talking to Gorbachev.
1987
Jan 1987 Trump is invited to Russia after being seated next to Ambassador Yuri Dubinina at a social event. Dubinina was part of group of Russian officials meeting American business leaders. This group included future UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin. Trump meets Gorbachev.
March 16, 1987 Dan Bogatin pleads guilty to taking part in a gasoline-bootlegging scheme with Russian mobsters. The US Government says that his Trump Tower condos are part of a money-laundering scheme..
July 4, 1987 Trump and his wife Ivana are flown to Russia by Intourist, the Soviet agency for international tourism (then under KGB control). He talks of building a hotel next to the Kremlin. More on the trip and Russia’s cultivation of Trump. After returning home, Trump talks about running for president.
Sep 1987 Trump pays 94K for anti-Japan and anti-NATO full page newspaper ads in several major American newspapers.
Trump appears on Larry King and is explicitly anti-NATO. “If you look at the payments that we’re making to NATO, they’re totally disproportionate with everybody else’s. And it’s ridiculous.”
1988
Dec 1988 The Soviet Mission to the UN announces a Gorbachev tour of Trump Tower. Trump meets Gorbachev at state dinner hosted by Ronald Reagan.
1990
1990 Not related to Russia, but this Vanity Fair profile is helpful in understanding Trump. It speaks of his presidential ambitions and alleges he keeps a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bed.
“Donald is a believer in the big-lie theory,” his lawyer had told me. “If you say something again and again, people will believe you.”
“One of my lawyers said that?” Trump said when I asked him about it. “I think if one of my lawyers said that, I’d like to know who it is, because I’d fire his ass. I’d like to find out who the scumbag is!”
1991
1992
1996
1996 Trump discusses building a hotel in Moscow during a second trip to Russia. He applies for Russian trademarks. He made this trip during a period of deep financial stress. According to the Moscow Times during news conference in Moscow he said, “I’ve seen cities all over the world. Some I’ve liked, some I haven’t, [but I’ve never been] as impressed with the potential of a city as I have been with Moscow.”
Dec 9, 1996 Trump meets Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington.
1997
Jan 1997 Trump meets with Russian general Aleksandr Ivanovich Lebed and discusses building skyscrapers and hotels. Trump says he is looking into buying the Moskva Hotel and the Rossiya. Another report on this strange meeting.
1997 During a visit to Moscow, Trump discussed building a statue of Columbus 6 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty with Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli. The statue eventually ends up in Puerto Rico.
1998
1998 Russia defaults on it’s debts. Russian money starts heading overseas.
1998 The Trump Taj Mahal broke anti-money laundering rules at least 106 times. The Taj Mahal was the preferred gambling spot for Russian mobsters.
1999
1999 Rex Tillerson meets Vladimir Putin for the first time as Exxon makes a deal with Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft.
Roger Stone chairs Trump’s presidential exploratory committee.
Trump runs for president as a Reform Party candidate.
2000
2000 Trump’s 2016 NY campaign manager Michael Caputo is hired as PR flak for Gazprom.
Feb 2000 Trump exits the Reform Party race.
2001
2001 On the Howard Stern Show, a gossip columnist banters with Trump about Russian prostitutes.
A large number apartments in Manhattan’s Trump World Tower go to wealthy Russian buyers.
Michael Cohen buys an apartment in Trump World Tower.
2002
2002 The Bayrock group is based in Trump Tower. Bayrock is founded by Tevfik Arif. Bayrock starts a series of deals with Donald Trump and his children.
2003
2003 Trump starts doing business with the Felix Sater/The Bayrock Group. He is first introduced to Tevfik Arif and felon Felix Sater by a leasing agent for Trump Tower. The Bayrock Group arranged for the Trump Organization to become involved in the Camelback, Ocean Club and Merrimac developments and to have these developments marketed under the Trump brand. Trump began a series of Bayrock deals that culminate in the Trump Soho. The Trump Soho deal eventually becomes embroiled in a RICO lawsuit. [ed. note Read the first Forbes story. Nuts.]
2004
Trump declare bankruptcy again.
2005
June 2005 Paul Manafort starts working for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire and close Putin ally, to promote Russian interests. He is paid 10M/year.
Aug 30, 2005 Trump bids for Denver’s Union Station with the Bayrock Group.
Paul Manafort begins work for Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych.
2006
Michael Cohen joins the Trump Organization.
Paul Manafort signs a deal w/ Putin crony Oleg Dirpaska. About this time he moves into Trump Tower.
Felix Sater travels to Moscow with Ivanka and Don Junior. They stay at the Hotel National Moscow across from the Kremlin.[date needed]
2007
2007 Trump and the Bayrock group actively bid for projects.
Sept 2007 Trump is photographed w/ Felix Sater at a Trump SoHo launch party. Sater changes the spelling of his name to Satter. Years later the Bayrock group is accused of being a front for an international money laundering scheme.
Oct 15 2007 Trump praises Putin on Larry King
Nov 22, 2007 Trump Vodka is introduced in Moscow. At the launch Trump meets Sergey Milliam who signs a deal to promote Trump in Russia. Trump announces 10K bottles have been ordered.
2008
2008 Trump announces a deal with Affliction Entertainment, a mixed martial arts company, to bring a wrestling-based reality show to Russia. The show never got made, but one of Trump’s partners, Aleksander Emelianenko who was convicted of sexual assault has close ties with Vladimir Putin and continued to do business with Michael Cohen for many years.
April 2008 Trump partners with Russian oligarch Pavel Fuks to develop real estate licensing deals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sochi. These deals fall through.
July 2008 Trump sold a mansion for 95M to a Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for a profit of roughly 50M. This was a curious transaction in that the house was listed as unlivable and many say Dmitry Rybolovlev never set foot in the house.
Sept 2008 Donald Trump Jr. says Trump businesses were seeing “see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.” Trump Jr. also notes frequent travel to Russia with at least 8 trips in the previous 18 months. Note this is not direct investment from Russia, but rather financing that originates in Russia or from Russian people. My assumption is that Bayrock became one of Trump’s top financiers after his credit with traditional US banks dried up.
2008 Lawsuits claim the Bayrock group is supported by Russian criminal interests. During this period the Bayrock group financed the Trump Soho and many projects around the world.
2008 Sergei Millian works as a broker to sell Trump real estate to Russians.
2009
2009 The Russians of Little Moscow help Trump stay afloat after the 2008 housing collapse.
Unrelated to Russia, but interesting. Trump tries to woo Muammar al-Qaddafi as an investor.
Kremlin-linked Russian politician Alexander Torshin starts courting the NRA.
Trump declares bankruptcy again.
2010
Sept 2010 Bayrock founder Tevfik Arif was Turkey on suspicion of running prostitute ring on $60m luxury yacht. After the arrests, Turkey deported nine Russian and Ukrainian women, including two under the legal age of consent. A reporter who looked at investigative materials claims the Arif’s organization provided escort services with girls as young as 13. The prostitution charges were later dropped and the records were changed to record that the women were above the age of 18.
2010 Trump hosts Russia Today (RT) founder at Mar Largo
2011
Aug 30, 2011 Rex Tillerson negotiates a multi-billion-dollar deal between ExxonMobil and the Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company.
2011 The FBI monitors a Russian mafia ring run out of Trump Tower. This led to the indictment of 30 people.
2012
Apr 2012 Julian Assange begins broadcasting on Russia Today (RT), the state-run broadcasting network.
Jan 2012 Bayrock announces units in the Trump Soho will be auctioned amid rumors of financial distress.
2013
Feb 2013 The Russian government seizes key buildings in Crimea. This was part of a political crisis that several months earlier and would continue through 2014 when Russian troops entered Ukraine.
April 16, 2013 Federal agents burst into an apartment at Trump Tower as part of a larger raid that rounded up 29 suspected members of two global gambling rings with operations allegedly overseen by a supposed Russian mob boss named Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. Later in Nov, Tokhtakhounov attends the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and is photographed w/ Trump. The FBI raids were part of money laundering investigation run by Russian organized crime: Helly Nahmad, an art dealer who lives in Trump Tower was also arrested.
Jun 1, 2013 Michael T. Flynn gives an address to the Main Intelligence Agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (the GRU). He later hosts GRU officers at the American embassy.
June 18, 2013 Trump wonders on twitter, “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?”
Jun 21, 2013 Rex Tillerson is awarded the Russian Order of Friendship by Vladimir Putin. Tillerson’s Russia ties are deep.
July 2013 The Trump Toronto opens with funding from Russian partners in the midst lawsuits from 38 investors. This article in American Interest takes a hard look at Trump’s financing during this period.
Sept 11, 2013 Putin trashes the idea of American Exceptionalism in a NYTimes oped. Trump calls the letter a masterpiece for Russia. He praises the letter again on CNBC.
Oct 17th, 2013 On Letterman Trump says, “I’ve done a lot of business with the Russians.”
Nov 5, 2013 Under oath Trump states he barely knows Felix Sater.
Nov 8–9, 2013 Trump partners with Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov to host the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Trump later attends the pageant. He doesn’t meet Putin, but brags, “almost all the oligarchs were in the room.” Trump ties to the pageant were cemented by the pop star son of one of the oligarchs. The Guardian wrote a detailed account of Trump’s time in Moscow.
Nov 11th Trump thanks his oligarch friend via twitter, “@AgalarovAras I had a great weekend with you and your family. You have done a FANTASTIC job. TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next. EMIN was WOW!”
2014
Feb 10, 2014 Trump praises Putin.
March 2014 At CPAC Trump brags, “You know, I was in Moscow a couple months ago, I own the Miss Universe pageant, and they treated me so great,” Trump said. “Putin even sent me a present, beautiful present, with a beautiful note.”
March 2014 The Obama administration imposes sanctions on Russia for it’s annexation of Crimea and entry into Ukraine. The Russian reaction to sanctions.
Apr 19, 2014 ExxonMobil says it will partner with Rosneft when sanctions are lifted.
May 2014 Trump told a press luncheon that he “spoke, indirectly and directly, with President Putin, who could not have been nicer.” A year earlier, he told MSNBC: “I do have a relationship and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today.”
2015
March-May 2015 The Russians launch a major spearfishing campaign. 1000’s of targets.
June 16, 2015 Donald Trump announces he’s running for president.
July 2015 Hackers breach the DNC and stay in the network for at least 11 months.
July 11, 2015 Russian-connected NRA surrogates ask Trump ask Trump about sanctions: “What will be your foreign politics, especially in the relationships with my country? Do you want to continue the policy of sanctions that are damaging both economies? Or [do you] have any other ideas?”
“I know Putin, and I’ll tell you what, we’ll get along with Putin,” he said in response. “I would get along very nicely with Putin, I mean, where we have the strength. I don’t think you’d need the sanctions. I think we would get along very, very well.”
Sept 2015 The FBI contacts the DNC telling them that they have been compromised. The message is routed through a low level help desk and the seriousness of the hack takes some time to sink in.
Michael Cohen and Felix Sater begin discussions about a real estate deal in Moscow.
Sept 2015 Ukrainian steel magnate Victor Pinchuk’s foundation becomes the single largest outside donor to Donald Trump’s private charity in 2015.
The FBI alerts the DNC about the hacking campaign.
Sept 29, 2015 Trump praises Putin on Fox News.
Oct 28, 2015 Trump personally signs a letter of intent for his Moscow tower project. This was the same day as the third Republican debate.
Oct 2015 A GRU-associated hacking group targets the Clinton campaign.
Late 2015 British spies see information from Democratic party emails circulating within Russia and warn their US counterparts. The hacking scandal slowly starts to unwind.
Nov 15, 2015 In an email Felix Sater says to Michael Cohen, “Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it, I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
Dec 2, 2015 Associated Press reporters ask Trump about his relationship with Sater. Trump said, “Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it. I’m not familiar with him.”
Dec 10, 2015 Michael Flynn is paid to speak at a Russia Today event and is photographed seated next to Vladimir Putin
Dec 2015 Fake news ‘troll farms’ begin ‘shitposting’ in support of Trump.
Dec 17, 2015 Putin begins praising Trump in public.
Dec 31, 2015 Russia’s national security plan defines NATO as a threat.
2016
Jan 2016 Trump video about veterans actually shows Russian veterans.
Jan 14, 2016 Michael Cohen emails Dmitry Peskov, a top aide and spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, to enlist his help “to secure land and permits,” according to documents submitted to Congress.
Jan 22, 2016 Putin’s security council meets. According to a report in The Guardian the meeting assessed Trump as “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex” and and a document detailing the meeting says the Kremlin posseses kompromat on Trump from his earlier visits. The report goes on to say, “It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trump’s] election to the post of US president.” Attendees include Putin, Sergei Lavrov (the foreign minister), and several spy agency heads.
March 1, 2016 RT and other Russian state outlets begin openly supporting Trump.
March 19, 2016 APT28 gets access to John Podesta’s gmail account.
March mid month Facebook discovers a Russian-operated page known as DCLeaks distributing stolen emails from the Clinton capaign. Facebook delayed taking action as the documents spread. Even though they eventually shut down the page, they never informed the public even after they were told by security experts that this was a national emergency. They did not discover a separate Russian disinformation campaign that started about this time until after the election in 2017. One group The Internet Research Agency published 80K posts and spent $100K on 3,300 ads promoting a pro-Trump agenda.
March 27, 2016 Trump calls NATO obsolete.
March 28, 2016 Paul Manafort is hired by Trump to head delegate wrangling. After the nomination he becomes campaign chair. Manafort has an apartment in Trump tower and has deep ties with Russian interests especially within the Ukraine.
March 30, 2016 Carter Page joins the campaign and starts promoting lifting sanctions. This profile details his deep Russia ties.
April 16, 2016 Paul Manafort takes over the Trump campaign.
April 27, 2016 Richard Burt writes a major foreign policy speech for Trump. The speech was arranged by The Center for National Interest, a Russian-aligned conservative think tank and held at the Mayflower Hotel. Burt is on the board of Alfa-Bank, the largest commercial bank in Russia, and an investment fund with a large position in Gazprom. When he wrote the speech Burt was a paid lobbyist for Russia. This was Trump’s first major foreign policy speech. Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — in a break of protocol — attends the speech. Trump, Michael Flynn, and Jeff Sessions met Kislyak in a private VIP reception at this event. Kislyak later forgets to mention these meetings when asked about connections to the Trump campaign.
April 2016 A Baltic state intelligence agency gives the CIA Director John Brennan with a tape of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign. A joint counter-intelligence taskforce was created comprised of the FBI, CIA, NSA, Treasury Department and DNI.
April 2016 Trump/Bayrock settle a fraud case against them by Trump Soho buyers.
Felix Sater visits Trump Tower and donates to the Trump campaign. Trump denies he would recognize Sater if they were in the same room.
May 6, 2016 Andrew Napolitano, a Fox news contributor, alludes to Russia releasing 20K DNC emails implying knowledge of the hack.
Spring 2016 Michael Cohen plans a trip to Russia to push the Trump Tower Moscow deal as Trump becomes the presumptive GOP nominee.
June 3, 2016 Donald Trump Jr agrees to meet Russian officials who offer damaging information on Hillary Clinton in Trump Tower.
June 8, 2016 Romanian-registered DCLeaks.com begins posting stolen DNC emails. The emails came from GRU according to US intelligence
.June 9, 2016 Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort meet with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
Trump tweets about the stolen emails.
June 10, 2016 Russian oligarch and property developer Aras Agalarov delivers an “expensive painting” to Trump for his birthday. Agalarov helped arrange the meeting with Donald Trump Jr and is accused of money laundering and embezzlement.
June 14, 2016 The Washington Post breaks the story of the DNC hack alleging Russian involvement. A complete timeline of the email hacking story.
Michael Cohen tells Felix Sater he will no longer be going to Russia.
June 16, 2016 The Republic House Majority Leader : “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump…” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html
June 20, 2016 The Steele dossier begins to circulate in Washington making multiple allegations. It continues to be updated through Dec. The FBI gets a portion of the document in July.
June 21, 2016 Paul Manafort takes over the Trump campaign.
June 2016 The FBI seeks warrant from a FISA court to monitor Russian banks. The application which named Trump, is rejected. The FBI petitions again in July and is again rejected.
July 2016 Alleged meeting between Carter Page and Igor Sechin to discuss the sale of 19% of Russian oil giant Rosneft in return for a lifting of sanctions. [This is an unconfirmed Steele dossier allegation. 19.5% of Rosneft is sold to an unknown buyer in Dec.] Carter Page travels to Moscow in July and gives a speech critical of US policy. More on this trip.
July 2016 Michael Cohen alleges that Roger Stone tells Trump about an impending Wikileaks dump from Julian Assange.
July 7, 2016 Paul Manafort appears willing to brief oligarch Oleg Deripaska
July 11, 2016 Trump staffers exclude anti-Russia pro-Ukraine language from the GOP platform. Frank Mermoud, helped shepherd this. He’s connected to Russia via Cub Energy, a Black Sea oil and gas company. He’s on the board of the US Ukraine Business Council.
July 14, 2016 Russian hackers posing as Guccifer 2.0 post stolen DNC docs to wikileaks.
July 21, 2016 Trump accepts the Republican nomination.
July 22, 2016 Wikileaks releases 20K DNC emails.
July 2016 Jeff Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Kislyak.
July 25, 2016 06:31:22 AM Trump tweets “The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me”
July 27, 2016 Trump at a press conference, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary Clinton] emails that are missing.”
July 31, 2016 Once again Trump parrots key Russian talking points at odds with US interests and policy: “You know, the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were,” he said in an ABC News interview.
Aug 2016 A second spy tells the BBC that compromising videotapes of Trump exist.
Congressional leaders are briefed on a computer backchannel between the Trump camp and Russia’s Alfa bank. More than 2700 lookup messages were passed. The FBI couldn’t find an explanation.
Aug 2, 2016 Paul Manafort meets with Konstantin Kilimnik at the Grand Havana Room in New York City to discuss American policy in Ukraine. The meeting came just days after Kilimnik met in Moscow with Oleg Deripaska, a powerful oligarch and close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “In emails first reported by the Washington Post, Manafort proposed giving Deripaska “private briefings” on the Trump campaign, and told Kilimnik to pass the idea on to the oligarch.” Kilimnik proposed the Mariupol plan that envisioned a Russian takeover of southern Ukraine.
Aug 6, 2016 Paul Manafort meets with Russian army veterans with ties to Russian intellegence.
Aug 12, 2016 Putin Chief of Staff, Sergei Ivanov, is sacked for being critical of the election hacking campaign.
Aug 15, 2016 Donald Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort’s name shows up in ledgers that show 12.7 M in cash payments by pro-Russia elements in Ukraine. More on Manafort’s deep Russian ties.
In an interview, Michael Flynn says the state-run Russia Today is no different than CNN. He also discusses being seated next to Putin at a Russia Today dinner.
Time Magazine article detailing Trump’s deep business ties w/ Russia and Russians despite his denials. To be clear Trump doesn’t seem to own property in Russia despite attempt to build there, the connections are financial.
Jeff Sessions changes his tune on Russia. For years he had called Russia an enemy of the US, in comments today he urged de-escaltion.
Aug 20, 2016 Paul Manafort resigns.
Sept 2016 Fake news supporting Trump and demeaning Clinton much of it produced by Russian-backed actors are microtargeted on Facebook using data from Cambridge Analytica. The Trump campaign spent 5M/week on this targeting during the last weeks of the campaign hitting many millions of users. More on Cambridge Analytica. [Info on the amount of Facebook payments, and the type of material targeted came from two sources within Facebook] This is a 3 part series on Russia’s long history of this kind of misinformation campaign.
Sept 6, 2016 Trump advisors J.D Gordon and Carter Page meet with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyav (and possibly several other Trump campaign staffers) at a conference connected with the RNC.
Sept 8, 2016 Jeff Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Kislyak. On the same day Trump is interviewed on state supported Russia Today by Larry King.
Sept 13, 2016 Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin defends Trump and other far right candidates supported by Moscow.
Sept 23, 2016 US intelligence starts to probe Carter Page as a possible backchannel to Russian intelligence. Two days later Page calls the inquiry a “witch hunt” but his carefully worded letter to the FBI raises lots of questions and is also now provably false.
Sept 26, 2016 Trump misdirects on the Russian hacks, “She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?”
Oct 2, 2016 Trump advisor Roger Stone predicts a release of Russian hacked emails on Wikileaks before they are released. He later says he has a Wikileaks backchannel.
Oct 4, 2016 A Reddit user finds an usual pattern of activity between Trump’s email servers and Alfa Bank in Russia.
Oct 7, 2016 An Access Hollywood outtake from 2005 shows Trump making lewd comments about women. The US government says it is confident Russia hacked the DNC.
On the same day the Podesta emails are released.
Oct 15, 2016 A FISA court issues a warrant to investigate two Russian banks — Alfa and SBC. Three members of the Trump team are included in the warrant.
Nov 1, 2016 Donald Trump Jr. retweets the @Ten twitter account run by Russian Trolls.
Nov 3, 2016 The flight path of Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev’s private plane, once again matches the path of the Trump campaign plane. Normally this would be considered a coincidence, but Rybolovlev is the billionaire who purchased Trump’s Palm Beach estate at a huge markup in 2008.
Nov 4, 2016 Newsweek reports the Russians have damaging audio and video of Trump.
Nov 7, 2016 19.5% of oil gas giant Rosneft is transferred . The stake is estimated as worth roughly 11 billion of dollars. Owernship is hard to trace.
Nov 8, 2016 On the morning of the American election an official at the Russian consulate in New York is found dead. Sergei Krivov was found with blunt force trauma to the head.
Donald Trump wins in an upset election in the electoral college that few predicted. He looses the popular vote by 2.8 million votes.
Dec 1, 2016 Kushner meets Ambassador Kislyak at Trump Tower. News reports say Kushner suggests setting up a back channel.
Dec 7, 2016 On the Russian DNC hacks and the timeline.
Dec 14, 2016 Former Trump surrogate Jack Kingston shows up in Moscow telling a Russian audience they can expect sanctions to be lifted.
Dec 15, 2016 09:24:29 AM Trump tweets, “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
Mid Dec, 2016 At the request of Russian ambassador Kislyak, Jared Kushner meets with Sergey N. Gorkov, the chief of Vnesheconombank, which the United States placed on its sanctions list after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia annexed Crimea and began meddling in Ukraine. The meeting is the second in less than a month between Kushner and Kislyak.
Dec 25, 2016 General Michael Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislay exchange texts. Between the 25th and the 29th they would speak at least 5 times.
December 26, 2016 Oleg Erovinkin, a top adviser to Igor Sechin, the CEO of the Russian oil giant Rosneft is found dead in his Lexus. Sechin is a central figure in the Steele dossier and a close friend of Rex Tillerson. The dossier states that Sechin met with Carter Page in July 2016.
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislay and General Michael Flynn discuss sanctions over 5 phone calls.
Dec 29, 2016 The Obama adminstration imposes sanctions on Russia for election hacking that the FBI details as operation Grizzly Steppe.
Dec 30, 2016 Rather than retaliating against the American sanctions as had been signaled, Russia says it will do nothing and invites the children of American diplomats to the Kremlin.
Trump later tweets 02:41:33 PM “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart!”
2017
Jan 6, 2017 The DNI releases a report on Russian hacking.
Jan 10, 2017 Jeff Sessions appears to lie under oath about contact with the Russian officials during the campaign.
Jan 11, 2017 07:31:31 AM Trump tweets, “Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA — NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!”
07:13:40 AM Trump tweets, “Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is “A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.” Very unfair!”
Several days after being briefed by the heads of the NSA, FBI and CIA, Trump finally admits that Russians hacked the DNC releasing their emails. “As far as hacking, I think it was Russia, but we also get hacked by other countries and other people”
Around the same day Blackwater founder and Besty DeVos’ brother Erik Prince held secret meetings to establish a Trump-Putin back channel.
Jan 13, 2017 06:11:13 AM Trump tweets, “Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans — FAKE NEWS! Russia says nothing exists.“
Jan 17, 2017 Anthony Scaramucci, aide to President-elect Donald Trump and founder of SkyBridge Capital, discussed possible joint investments with the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund. In an interview with TASS Scaramucci criticised sanctions against Russia. Trump has suggested he could ease the sanctions on Russia if the Kremlin cooperates on his policy priorities.
Putin says the Obama administration is trying to undermine Trump and ridiculed the Steele dossier.
Jan 20, 2017 Donald J. Trump becomes president. An unusual number of Russian billionaires with Kremlin ties attend Trumps inauguration and are granted prime access. Michael Cohen meets with oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.
Jan 22, 2017 Trump singles out James Comey at a White House reception for a handshake.
Jan 23, 2017 At his first press conference Sean Spicer is asked about Michael Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador. Spicer denies Flynn talked about sanctions.
Jan 26, 2017 Acting attorney general Sally Yates tells the White House national security adviser Mike Flynn had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador during the transition and is vulnerable to Russian blackmail. Flynn denied discussing sanctions to Mike Pence who repeated his denials on air.
Jan 27, 2017 Russian papers talk of a major FSB purge in relation to the election hacks and the Steele dossier.
Trump asks James Comey for his loyalty at a private dinner.
Michael Cohen meets with Felix Sater and a pro-Russian Ukrainian businessman who pitch a pro-Russia plan that involves dropping sanctions.
Jan. 30, 2017 Trump fires acting attorney general Sally Yates over her refusal to enforce his travel ban.
Feb 2017 In an interview one of Paul Manafort’s Russian contacts, Konstantin Kilimnik, talks about Manafort, spying, and polling.
Feb 1, 2017 The Trump team schedules and then cancels a meeting with Alexander Torshin who is under investigation in Spain as a Russian mafia boss in the Taganskaya organization.
Feb 2, 2017 The Treasury department eases Obama’s Russian sanctions making it easier for American companies to get techology products into Russia. The meeting was cancelled after it was flagged by an NSC stafter.
Feb 3, 2017 Report that the Kremlin is in the midst of a major FSB purge of officials who might have leaked information related to hacking the American elections. This includes Sergei Mikhailov, deputy chief of the FSB’s Center for Information Security and his counterpart Dmitry Dokuchayev as well as Ruslan Stoyanov, head of Kaspersky Lab. This purge seems to be widespread with several high level officers arrested.
Feb 5, 2017 Trump creates a moral equivalence between the US and Russia during a pre-superbowl interview with Bill O’Reilly. Here’s a Chicago Tribune story on this. For reference, this is how Putin deals with opponents: Russia killing political opponents. Journalists killed by the Russian state. An activist falls mysteriously ill.
Feb 7. 2017 According to the New York Times, a back-channel plan for lifting US sanctions on Russia was delivered to Michael Flynn by Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, Felix H. Sater, a shadowy Bayrock-connectd businessman, and Andrii V. Artemenko, a Ukrainian polititian tied to Paul Manafort. The plan hopes to oust the Ukrainian president Petro O. Poroshenko with intelligence from top Putin aides. [ed. note: Lifting Russian sanctions has been the apparent motive of many people who surround Trump.]
Feb 9, 2017 The Washington Post reports NSA head Michael Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before taking office.
Feb 11, 2017 Business Insider publishes a list of Russia-related campaign events alleged in the Steele dossier to events that have now been verified.
Feb 13, 2017 Michael Flynn resigns as National Security Advisor.
Feb 15, 2017 Both the New York Times and CNN report several major players on the Trump team had repeated and constant contact with senior Russian intelligence officials during the campaign. The White House asks the FBI to dispute reports of conversations between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin.
07:08:12 AM Trump tweets, “This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.”
Feb 18, 2017 The New Yorker published a in-depth profile on former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. It concludes: “This story is bigger than Mike Flynn,” the senior military intelligence official said. “Who told Mike to go do this? I think somebody said, ‘Mike, you’ve got some contacts. Let them know it’s gonna be all right.’ Mike’s a soldier. He did not go rogue.”
Feb 20, 2017 Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin, one of the men who first introduced Trump to Russia, dies unexpectedly of a heart attack.
Feb 24, 2017 Republican congressman Darrell Issa suggests a special prosecutor should investigate Trump’s Russia connections.
The New Yorker files a long story detailing the history of covert election-relation Russian influence attempts and goes into Putin’s motivations for favoring Trump.
Mar 1, 2017 The New York Times reports the Obama administration widely disseminated intelligence regarding close connections between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence fearing that the incoming Trump administration would hide and destroy the intelligence.
Trump tries to stop Jeff Sessions from recusing himself in the Russia investigation.
Mar 2, 2017 After over 20 denials of contact with Russian officials Carter Page admits to contact with Russian officials and backtracks on his connections to the Trump campaign.
Mar 3, 2017 Trump claims President Obama tapped his phones during the election. Assuming the phones were tapped, this would have been directed by the FBI under a FISA warrant that had probable cause.
Mar 7, 2017 Michael Flynn retroactively registers with the State Department as an agent of a foreign government for pre-election work he did for Turkey.
Mar 10, 2017 Closed door Oval Office meeting with Russians.
Mar 11, 2017 Trump fires Preet Bharara, US Attorney of SDNY, who led the breakup of a Russian crime ring operating out of Trump Tower.
Mar 30, 2017 The Washington Post profiles alleged Trump associate Sergei Millian who for years has claimed to represent Trump and is alleged to be a source in the Steele dossier.
May 8, 2017 Trump tweets that stories about Russian collusion are a “total hoax.
May 9, 2017 Trump fires James Comey, the director of the FBI.
May 10, 2017 Trump meets with Ambassador Kislyak and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office. He discloses classified information.
May 11, 2017 Trump tells Lester Holt the Russia investigation was the reason he fired James Comey.
July 7, 2017 Trump meets Putin. During this meeting he and Putin talked privately of over an hour. Trump has kept the contents of the conversation a secret and destroyed his translator’s notes. They meet at least twice. There is no official American record of the conversation.
July 8, 2017 After a meeting with Putin, Trump drafts a statement about his son’s meetings with Russian agents saying the meeting was about adoptions.
Aug 1, 2017 The White House reverses previous denials about Trump’s involvement in his son’s statement about meeting Russian agents.
Oct 1, 2017 The Trump Administration misses the deadline to impose new legally mandated sanctions against Russia.
Oct 25, 2017 Michael Cohen testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee. In Jan 2019, Buzzfeed reported Cohen was directed by Trump to lie about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Robert Mueller’s office issued a press release saying the Buzzfeed report was inaccurate.
Nov 11, 2017 Trump called Mr. Putin and congratulated him on his election victory, overriding aides who told him not to congratulate the despot.
Dec 14, 2017 Trump called Putin to thank him and discuss North Korea after a news conference in which Putin showed a video of missiles attacking the US.
2018
Mar 20, 2018 Trump meets Putin in Da Nang, Vietnam.
April 16, 2018 Trump stops plan for new Russian sanctions.
June 7, 2018 Trump says the G7 “should let Russia come back in”.
July 16, 2018 Two hour private meeting in Helsinki between Putin and Trump in Helsinki. Again there is no official American record of what was said. Trump did not criticize Putin and questioned American intelligence agencies.
Midyear Trump floats the idea of US withdrawal from NATO to the dismay of aids and allies. NATO destabilization is a major Russian policy goal.
Nov 30, 2018 Informal conversation with Vladimir Putin at the G-20 in Buenos Aries after their official meeting was canceled. Again, not recorded.
Dec 19, 2018 The Trump administration announced it’s intent to lift sanctions against the empire of Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. The sanctions are lifting helping Deripaska, one of Putin’s closest confidants (and former Paul Manafort employer).
Dec 20, 2018 Trump abruptly announces the US will withdraw from Syria, a major Russian policy goal. The announcement prompts the resignation of his Secretary of Defense.
2019
Janury 2019 Sanctions are lifted on companies controlled by Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. Congressmen raise concerns about ties between Deripaska and Treasury Steve Mnuchin.
January 29, 2019 Roger Stone pleads not guilty to seven criminal counts connected to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Stone is suspected of helping coordinate the release of emails collected from the Clinton campaign by Russian intelligence through Wikileaks.
December 2019 Rudy Giuliani travels to Kyiv. The FBI warns the White House and Trump that Giuliani is being used to funnel Russian disinformation. He met with Andriy Derkach, an active Russian agent. Trump “shrugged off” these allegations.
2020
October 2020 In the weeks leading up to the election Trump sensing he will lose and behind in the polls starts claiming fraud.
November 4, 2020 President Trump loses the popular vote by 7 million votes. Even before voting is finished Trump starts claiming fraud.
November 25, 2020 President Trump pardons Michael Flynn.
December 23, 2020 President Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Jared Kushner’s father.
2021
January 5, 2020 Roger Stone is spotted around Washington DC flanked by members of the far right group The Oath Keepers.
January 6, 2020 Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump speak at an incendiary rally near the white house. Afterwards the mob led by several right wing groups including the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys attacked the Capitol in a riot lasting several hours.
Donald Trump does not request assistance or call off the mob rioting in his name for several hours.
January 20, 2021 Donald Trump leaves the White House for Mar-a-Lago. He brings with him several hundred top secret classified documents.
May 2021 A 33-year-old woman named Inna Yashchyshynt, a Russian speaking immigrant, posing a member of the Rothschild family repeatedly gains access to Mar-a-Lago. She is reportedly under investigation by the FBI and the Canadian major crimes unit.
Aug 12, 2022 Federal Agents retrieve a cache of top secret documents hidden in Mar-a-Lago after Trump repeatedly refuses to return them to the National archives. Story here. Over 700 documents had been kept taken.
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