Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections (July 2016 – election day)
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Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Acc ...
. It includes events described in investigations into suspected inappropriate links between associates of
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
and Russian officials following July 2016 through Election Day November 8, 2016. Events and investigations also occurred during the presidential transition from November 9, 2016, to January 20, 2017, and continued through the
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and second halves of 2017, the
first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and second halves of 2018, the
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and second halves of 2019, and 2020 onwards; largely as parts of the Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation, the
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, multiple ongoing criminal investigations by several
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, and the investigation resulting in the
Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election ''A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election'' is the official 568-page report of the actions taken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI and Department of Just ...
. Related information is sorted by some topic threads in another timeline.


Relevant individuals and organizations


Before July 2016


July 2016 – November 8, 2016


July 2016

* Summer: ** IRA employees use the stolen identities of four Americans to open
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and bank accounts to act as conduits for funding their activities in the United States. ** The FBI applies for a
FISA warrant The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" , ) is a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and the collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign po ...
to monitor communications of four Trump campaign officials. The
FISA Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants agai ...
rejects the application, asking the FBI to narrow its scope. A warrant on Carter Page alone is granted in October 2016. ** Lawyer and Trump campaign foreign policy advisor
Joseph E. Schmitz Joseph Edward Schmitz (born August 28, 1956) is an American lawyer, former inspector general of the United States Department of Defense and a former executive with Blackwater Worldwide. After working as a watchdog at the Pentagon for three and a ...
receives a cache of emails from a client that is purported to be Clinton's deleted 30,000 emails, acquired from a
dark web The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on ''darknets'': overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communi ...
forum. Schmitz meets with officials at the FBI, the State Department, and the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) in an effort to get the emails reviewed. The State Department and ICIG decline to review the emails. Schmitz's efforts are independent of the investigation by Peter Smith's team. ** Facebook board member
Marc Andreessen Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon ...
hosts a meeting with Facebook executives and Cambridge Analytica's
Christopher Wylie Christopher Wylie (born 19 June 1989) is a Canadian data consultant who released a cache of documents to ''The Guardian'' he obtained while he worked at Cambridge Analytica, prompting the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which triggere ...
to discuss what Cambridge Analytica is doing with the Facebook data they harvested. * July: ** The IRA's translator project grows to over 80 employees. ** Carter Page makes a five-day trip to Moscow. The Steele dossier alleges that in July, Page secretly met
Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian Vertical integration, integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, Extraction of petroleum, extraction, production, refining, Petroleum t ...
chairman
Igor Sechin Igor Ivanovich Sechin (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Се́чин; born 7 September 1960) is a Russian oligarch and a government official, considered a close ally and "de facto deputy" of Vladimir Putin. Sechin has been a confidant ...
in Moscow, together with a "senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, DIVYEKIN", that Sechin offered Trump a 19% stake in Rosneft (worth about $11 billion) in exchange for lifting the
sanctions against Russia Sanctions, economic or international, that have been imposed on Russia include: * International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–) ** Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, US legislation (2017) ** International sanc ...
after his election, and that Page confirmed, on Trump's "full authority", that he intended to lift the sanctions. * July 5: ** At his London office, Steele reveals to an FBI agent from Rome some of his findings that indicate a wide-ranging Russian conspiracy to elect Trump. ** "United Muslims of America", an IRA group, orders posters with fake Clinton quotes promoting
Sharia Law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the Five Pillars of Islam, religious precepts of Islam and is based on the Islamic holy books, sacred scriptures o ...
. The posters are ordered for the "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally they are organizing. * July 5–6: Denis Klimentov emails his brother Dmitri and Director of the MFA's Information and Press Department
Maria Zakharova Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova (russian: Мария Владимировна Захарова; born 24 December 1975) is the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (Spokesw ...
about Page's visit to Moscow and his connection to the Trump campaign. He offers to contact Page on behalf of the MFA. Dmitri Klimentov then contacts Peskov about introducing Page to Russian government officials. The next day, Peskov replies, "I have read about
age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...
Specialists say that he is far from being the main one. So I better not initiate a meeting in the Kremlin." * July 6: ** "Guccifer 2.0" releases another cache of DNC documents and sends copies to '' The Hill''. ** Assange, as "WikiLeaks", asks "Guccifer 2.0" via Twitter direct messaging to provide any information related to Clinton they may have.> * July 6–10: The IRA's "Don't Shoot" Facebook group and affiliated "Don't Shoot Us" website try to organize a protest outside the St. Paul, Minnesota, police headquarters on July 10 in response to the July 6 fatal police
shooting of Philando Castile On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Castile was ...
. Some local activists become suspicious of the event because St. Paul police were not involved in the shooting: Castile was shot by a St. Anthony police officer in nearby Falcon Heights. Local activists contact Don't Shoot. After being pressed on who they are and who supports them, Don't Shoot agrees to move the protest to the St. Anthony police headquarters. The concerned local activists investigate further and urge protesters not to participate after deciding Don't Shoot is a "total troll job." Don't Shoot organizers eventually relinquish control of the event to local organizers, who subsequently decline to accept any money from Don't Shoot. * July 7: ** In a lecture at the New Economic School in Moscow, Page criticizes American foreign policy, saying that many of the mistakes spoiling relations between the US and Russia "originated in my own country." Page had received permission from the Trump campaign to make the trip. ** In an email exchange, Manafort and Kilimnik discuss whether his campaign work is helping his relationship with Deripaska. Kilimnik writes that Deripaska is paying significantly more attention to the campaign and expects him to reach out to Manafort soon. Using his official Trump campaign email address, Manafort asks Kilimnik to forward an offer to provide "private briefings" to Deripaska. * July 8: Carter Page emails Dahl and Gordon about outreach he received "from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential Administration here." * July 9: ** ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' reports that Trump is considering Flynn as his running mate, with support from Senator
Jeff Sessions Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 84th United States Attorney General from 2017 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as United State ...
. Trump eventually selects
Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 50th ...
,
Governor of Indiana The governor of Indiana is the head of government of the State of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government ...
. ** The "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally occurs in Washington, D.C. The rally is organized by the IRA group "United Muslims of America." ** Page emails Clovis and describes a private meeting with
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia A Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (russian: Заместитель председателя Правительства Российской Федерации) is a member of the Government of Russia. The post is com ...
Arkady Dvorkovich Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich (russian: Арка́дий Влади́мирович Дворко́вич; born 26 March 1972) is a Russian politician and economist, who was Deputy Prime Minister in Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet from 21 May 2012 ...
. He says Dvorkovich "expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems." * July 10: ** A
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
protest rally is held in Dallas. A "Blue Lives Matter" counterprotest is held across the street. The Blue Lives Matter protest is organized by the "Heart of Texas" Facebook group, controlled by the IRA. ** DNC staffer
Seth Rich Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. A ...
is murdered in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a block from his home. Assange makes statements about Rich in July and August implying that he is the source of the stolen DNC emails. * July 11–12: ** FBI informant
Stefan Halper Stefan A. Halper (born June 4, 1944) is an American foreign policy scholar and retired senior fellow at the University of Cambridge where he is a life fellow at Magdalene College. He served as a Executive Office of the President of the United St ...
has an initial encounter with
Carter Page Carter William Page (born June 3, 1971) is an American petroleum industry consultant and a former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaign. Page is the founder and managing partner of Global Energy C ...
at a London symposium. A former federal law enforcement official tells ''The New York Times'' the encounter was a coincidence, rather than at the FBI's direction. ** Papadopoulos and fellow campaign foreign policy advisor Walid Phares exchange emails discussing the upcoming Transatlantic Parliamentary Group on Counterterrorism (TAG) conference, of which Phares is also co-secretary general. In the email chain, Phares advises Papadopoulos that other summit attendees "are very nervous about Russia. So be aware." * July 12: ** An IRA group buys ads on Facebook for the "Down with Hillary" rally in New York City. ** The Illinois State Board of Elections discovers some of its servers have been hacked and closes the security hole used to compromise the systems. * July 13: ** A hacker or group calling themselves "Guccifer 2.0" releases over 10,000 names from the DNC in two spreadsheets and a list of objectionable quotes from
Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...
. ** Kukes donates $49,000 to the Trump Victory fund. In 2017, his 2016 political donations become a subject of the Mueller investigation. ** The Illinois State Board of Elections takes its website offline. * July 14: ** "Guccifer 2.0" sends Assange an encrypted 1 GB file containing stolen DNC emails, and Assange confirms that he received it. WikiLeaks publishes the file's contents on July 22. ** German hackers Andrew Müller-Maguhn and
Bernd Fix Bernd Fix (born 19 March 1962 in Wittingen, Lower Saxony) is a German hacker and computer security expert. Biography After final secondary-school examination from Gymnasium Hankensbüttel in 1981, Bernd Fix studied Astrophysics and Philos ...
meet with Assange for at least four hours. Müller-Maguhn is named in the Mueller report as a possible conduit for delivering hacked emails to Assange. * July 15: ** Sergei Millian reaches out to Papadopoulos on
LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
, introducing himself "as president of heNew York-based Russian American Chamber of Commerce." He claims to have "insider knowledge and direct access to the top hierarchy in Russian politics." **
Bill Browder William Felix Browder (born April 23, 1964) is an American-born British financier and political activist. He is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment advisor to the Hermitage Fund, which at one time was the large ...
files a FARA complaint with the DoJ against Akhmetshin, Glen Simpson, and others for working as unregistered lobbyists for Russia. * July 16: ** The IRA's Blacktivist group organizes a rally in Chicago to honor
Sandra Bland Sandra Annette Bland was a 28-year-old African-American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on , 2015, three days after being arrested during a traffic stop. Her death was ruled a suicide. It was followed by protest ...
on the first anniversary of her death. The rally is held in front of the
Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind t ...
's
Homan Square North Lawndale is one of the 77 community areas of the city of Chicago, Illinois, located on its West Side. The area contains the K-Town Historic District, the Foundation for Homan Square, the Homan Square interrogation facility, and the grea ...
building. Participants pass around petitions calling for a Civilian Police Accountability Council ordinance. ** Papadopoulos, Clovis, and Phares attend the TAG conference. Contemporaneous handwritten notes in Papadopoulos's journal show that he, Clovis, and Phares discuss potential September meetings with representatives of the "office of Putin" in London. The notes say they will attend as unofficial campaign representatives. Later Clovis tells a grand jury that he does not recall attending the TAG conference, although a photograph from the conference shows him seated next to Papadopoulos. * July 18: ** "Guccifer 2.0" dumps a new batch of documents from the DNC servers, including personal information of 20,000 Republican donors and
opposition research In politics, opposition research (also called oppo research) is the practice of collecting information on a political opponent or other adversary that can be used to discredit or otherwise weaken them. The information can include biographical, leg ...
on Trump. ** An Ecuadorian security guard is caught on video receiving a package outside the London embassy from a man wearing a mask and sunglasses. Later that day, Wikileaks tells Russian hackers that it received files and will be publishing them soon. * July 18–21:
Republican Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of U.S. presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican N ...
in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
**
Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was List of UK Independence Party leaders, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Brexit Party#Leaders, Lea ...
encounters Stone and
Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...
at a restaurant. The next day, Stone contacts Manafort and suggests a meeting between Trump and Farage. Manafort responds that he will pass on the request. ** July 18: *** Kislyak attends the convention, meeting Page and Gordon; as Trump's foreign policy advisers, they stress that he would like to improve relations with Russia. Sessions speaks with Kislyak at a
Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presiden ...
event. *** Gordon lobbies to remove arms sales to Ukraine from the Republican platform, citing concerns over conflict escalation in Donbass. In December 2017, Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported the weapons sale, says that Trump directed Gordon to weaken that position. ** July 21: *** Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination. *** Farage and
Andy Wigmore Andrew Bruce Wigmore (born 1 June 1966) is a British-Belizean political activist, former diplomat and sportsman. He is known for his work on the Leave.EU campaign during the UK's 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, being a prom ...
encounter staffers for Mississippi Governor
Phil Bryant Dewey Phillip Bryant (born December 9, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Mississippi from 2012 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 31st lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 2008 to 2012 and 4 ...
at the bar in the Hilton Hotel. A staffer invites Wigmore and Farage to Mississippi. * July 19: ** Steele files a dossier memo alleging that during his Moscow trip, Page secretly met
Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian Vertical integration, integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, Extraction of petroleum, extraction, production, refining, Petroleum t ...
chairman
Igor Sechin Igor Ivanovich Sechin (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Се́чин; born 7 September 1960) is a Russian oligarch and a government official, considered a close ally and "de facto deputy" of Vladimir Putin. Sechin has been a confidant ...
, together with a "senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, DIVYEKIN", that Sechin offered Trump a 19% stake in Rosneft (worth about $11 billion) in exchange for lifting the
sanctions against Russia Sanctions, economic or international, that have been imposed on Russia include: * International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–) ** Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, US legislation (2017) ** International sanc ...
after his election, and that Page confirmed, on Trump's "full authority", that he intended to lift the sanctions. ** The Illinois State Board of Elections informs the
Illinois Attorney General The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by statewide election. Based in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, the attorney ...
(IAG) and the
Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 181 ...
of the breach. The IAG notifies the FBI, which brings in the Department of Homeland Security to help investigate. ** Around this date, but prior to July 22, according to Cohen, Stone calls Trump in his Trump Tower office and tells him that he just got off the phone with Assange and Wikileaks will be releasing information within a few days. * July 21 – August 12: The Illinois State Board of Elections brings its website back online. The GRU attacks the system five times per second before giving up on August 12. * July 22:
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...
publishes 20,000 emails from seven key DNC officials. The emails show them disparaging
Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
and favoring
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
in the 2016 presidential primaries. * July 22–26: Papadopoulos asks Timofeev about Millian. Timofeev responds that he hasn't heard of him. * July 23: The IRA-organized "Down with Hillary" rally is held in New York City. The agency sends 30 news releases to media outlets using the first email address. * July 24: ** DNC Chairwoman
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Deborah Wasserman Schultz ( née Wasserman; born September 27, 1966) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from , first elected to Congress in 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a former chair of the Democra ...
is forced to resign because of the WikiLeaks email publication. ** Appearing on '' This Week'', Manafort denies there are any links between him, Trump, or the "campaign and Putin and his regime". * July 25–28:
Democratic Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. * July 25: ** Based on assessments from cybersecurity firms, the DNC and the Clinton campaign say that Russian intelligence operators have hacked their e-mails and forwarded them to WikiLeaks. ** Stone emails his associate
Jerome Corsi Jerome Robert Corsi (born August 31, 1946) is an American politcal scientist and author critical of the left wing. His two ''New York Times'' best-selling books, '' Unfit for Command'' (2004) and ''The Obama Nation'' (2008), attacked Democrat ...
, "Get to (Assange) Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending (WikiLeaks) emails". Corsi later passes this along to
Ted Malloch Theodore Roosevelt Malloch (born September 22, 1952) is an American author, consultant, and television producer. He was a professor at the Henley Business School of the University of Reading, England. He is chairman and chief executive officer of t ...
, a conservative author in London. ** The FBI announces that it is investigating the DNC hack. * July 26: ** Trump denies having any investments in Russia. ** The Australian government informs the U.S. government of Papadopoulos's May 6 interactions with their ambassador in London. The FBI opens its investigation of potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign five days later. ** Secretary of State
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
warns Lavrov that Russian interference in the U.S. elections is serious and poses a risk to the U.S.–Russia bilateral relationship. * July 27: ** On or about this date "the 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." ** Trump calls for Russia to give Clinton's missing emails to the FBI. His tweet is before his statements on the matter to the press. ** Trump tells Jim DeFede on '' CBS4 News'' in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, "I have nothing to do with Russia. Nothing to do. I never met Putin. I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever." This contradicts his many claims since 2013 to have met Putin and done business in Russia. Shortly afterwards, he asks Cohen about the status of the Trump Tower Moscow project. ** At a news conference, Trump says "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," regarding Clinton's missing emails. The remark triggers a backlash from media and politicians who criticize Trump's "urging a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage" against his political opponent. Trump responds that he was being "sarcastic". A 2018 indictment alleges Russian intelligence officers began a spearphishing attack on non-public Clinton campaign email accounts that night, In April–May 2018, Flynn tells Mueller's team that after this event, Trump repeatedly asks "individuals affiliated with his Campaign ic to find Clinton's emails. ** On ''
CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...
'', in response to a question from
Norah O'Donnell Norah Morahan O'Donnell (born January 23, 1974) is an American television journalist who is currently anchor of the ''CBS Evening News'' and a correspondent for ''60 Minutes''. She has worked with several mainstream media outlets throughout her ...
, Manafort denies any financial relationship between Trump and Russia. * July 28: Clinton formally accepts the Democratic nomination. * July 29: ** Kilimnik sends Manafort an email requesting to meet in person so he can brief Manafort on a meeting he had "with the guy who gave you your biggest black caviar jar several years ago", saying he has important messages to deliver from this person. In September 2017, ''The Washington Post'' reports that investigators believe Kilimnik and Manafort used the term "black caviar" in communications as a reference to expected payments from former clients. In December 2018, ''TIME'' magazine reveals that the names "Victor" and "V." mentioned in the emails between Kilimnik and Manafort refer to Deripaska aide and former Russian intelligence officer Commander Viktor A. Boyarkin. In 2018, Manafort tells Mueller's team that "the guy" was Yanukovych, who gave him a $30,000–$40,000 jar of
caviar Caviar (also known as caviare; from fa, خاویار, khâvyâr, egg-bearing) is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread. Traditionally, the ter ...
in 2010 to celebrate being elected President of Ukraine. ** Cambridge Analytica employee Emily Cornell sends an email to people working with the pro-Trump
Make America Number 1 Make America Number 1 is a right-wing super PAC (political action committee) that supported the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election. During the primary campaign, the super PAC was kn ...
super PAC, which is funded by
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
and
Rebekah Mercer Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved i ...
. Cornell notes Cambridge Analytica's work for the super PAC and suggests they capitalize on the recently released DNC emails and any Clinton emails that may be stolen as suggested by Trump on July 27. * July 30: Papadopoulos meets with Millian in New York City. * July 31: ** The FBI starts a
counter-intelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...
investigation into Russian interference, including possible coordination between Trump associates and Russia. The investigation is issued the code name "Crossfire Hurricane." ** In an interview on '' This Week'', Trump tells
George Stephanopoulos George Robert Stephanopoulos ( el, Γεώργιος Στεφανόπουλος ; born February 10, 1961) is an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. Stephanopoulos currently is a coanchor with Robin Robe ...
that people in his campaign were responsible for changing the GOP's platform stance on Ukraine, but that he was not personally involved. ** Manafort tells
Chuck Todd Charles David Todd (born April 8, 1972) is an American television journalist who is the 12th and current moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He also hosts ''Meet the Press Now'', its daily edition on NBC News Now and is the Political Directo ...
on ''
Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...
'' that the Trump campaign was not involved in changing the GOP's platform stance on Ukraine. ** Kilimnik again emails Manafort to confirm their dinner meeting in New York, saying he needs two hours "because it is a long caviar story to tell." ** Stone emails
Jerome Corsi Jerome Robert Corsi (born August 31, 1946) is an American politcal scientist and author critical of the left wing. His two ''New York Times'' best-selling books, '' Unfit for Command'' (2004) and ''The Obama Nation'' (2008), attacked Democrat ...
telling him to use
Ted Malloch Theodore Roosevelt Malloch (born September 22, 1952) is an American author, consultant, and television producer. He was a professor at the Henley Business School of the University of Reading, England. He is chairman and chief executive officer of t ...
as an intermediary with Assange. Malloch tells Corsi he doesn't have a relationship with Assange and suggests using people close to Farage instead. ** Papadopoulos emails Trump campaign official Bo Denysyk saying that he has been contacted "by some leaders of Russian-American voters here in the US about their interest in voting for Mr. Trump." He asks whether he should put Denysyk in contact with their group (the US-Russia chamber of commerce). Denysyk responds that Papadopoulos should "hold off with outreach to Russian-Americans" because "too many articles" portray the campaign, Manafort, and Trump as "pro-Russian." * July 31 – August 2: The FBI sends two agents to London who interview Downer about his interactions with Papadopoulos. * End July: CIA Director
John Brennan John Brennan may refer to: Public officials * Jack Brennan (born 1937), U.S. Marine officer and aide of Richard Nixon * John Brennan (CIA officer) (born 1955), former CIA Director * John P. Brennan (1864–1943), Democratic politician in the U. ...
, alarmed at intelligence that Russia is trying to "hack" the election, forms a working group of officials from the CIA, FBI, and NSA.


August 2016

* August: ** Trump donor
Rebekah Mercer Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved i ...
asks the CEO of
Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intelli ...
whether the company could better organize the Clinton-related emails being released by WikiLeaks. ** Butina arrives in the U.S. on a
student visa A visa (from the Latin ''charta visa'', meaning "paper that has been seen") is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory. Visas typically include limits on t ...
to attend
American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...
in Washington, D.C. ** With his lawyer, "Max" reveals data assembled to
Eric Lichtblau Eric Lichtblau (born 1965) is an American journalist, reporting for ''The New York Times'' in the Washington bureau, as well as the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Time'' magazine, ''The New Yorker'', and the CNN network's investigative news unit. He ha ...
of the ''New York Times''. ** Crossfire Hurricane investigators discuss obtaining a warrant to wiretap
Carter Page Carter William Page (born June 3, 1971) is an American petroleum industry consultant and a former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaign. Page is the founder and managing partner of Global Energy C ...
with their DoJ superiors. * Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner vacation in Croatia with a "Russian billionaire". * August 1: Papadopoulos meets with Millian a second time in New York City. * August 2: ** Manafort, Gates, and Kilimnik meet at the Grand Havana Room of
666 Fifth Avenue 660 Fifth Avenue (formerly 666 Fifth Avenue and the Tishman Building) is a 41-story office building on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The office tower was ...
in New York City. This meeting is considered the "heart" of Mueller's probe, per February 2019 reporting. Manafort gives Kilimnik polling data and a briefing on campaign strategy, and, according to Gates, discusses the "battleground" states
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
,
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, and
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. Manafort asks Kilimnik to pass the data to pro-Russian Ukrainians Serhiy Lyovochkin and
Rinat Akhmetov Rinat Leonidovych Akhmetov, ; russian: Ринат Леонидович Ахметов, ; tt-Cyrl, Ринат Леонид улы Әхмәтов, translit=Rinat Leonid uly Äkhmätov (born on 21 September 1966) is a Ukrainian billionaire and b ...
, and to
Oleg Deripaska Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (russian: Олег Владимирович Дерипаска; born 2 January 1968) is a Russian billionaire and an industrialist. Deripaska enriched himself on previously state-owned assets that were privatized in ...
. Kilimnik gives Manafort a message from Yanukovych about a peace plan for Ukraine that is an opportunity for Russian control of the region. The plan would require Trump's support and Manafort's influence in Europe. The two discuss Manafort's financial disputes with Deripaska and the
Opposition Bloc russian: Оппозиционный блок , colorcode = , logo = Opposition Bloc.png , logo_size = 240px , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Rinat Akhmetov (one wing)Dmytro Firtash & Yuriy Boyko ( ...
in Ukraine. They leave separately to avoid media reporting on Manafort's connections to Kilimnik. Later, Kilimnik passes the campaign data to the Russian government. ** Corsi writes to Stone: "Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps," referring to Assange; and "One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging." * August 2–3: ** The IRA's "Matt Skiber" persona contacts the real "Florida for Trump" Facebook account. The "T.W." persona contacts other grassroots groups. ** Millian invites Papadopoulos to attend and possibly speak at two international energy conferences, including one in Moscow in September. Papadopoulos does not attend the conferences. * August 3: ** Trump Jr.,
George Nader George Garfield Nader, Jr. (October 19, 1921 – February 4, 2002) was an American actor and writer. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 to 1974, including ''Sins of Jezebel'' (1953), ''Congo Crossing'' (1956), and ''The Female Animal'' ...
,
Erik Prince Erik Dean Prince (born June 6, 1969) is an American businessman, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, and the founder of the private military company Blackwater. He served as Blackwater's CEO until 2009 and as its chairman until its sale to a group ...
, Stephen Miller, and
Joel Zamel Joel Zamel (born 1986) is an Australian-Israeli inventor, entrepreneur, owner and operator of private intelligence and political analysis agencies which offer forecasting simulations, wargaming, influence operations, social media campaigns, private ...
meet at Trump Jr.'s office in
Trump Tower Trump Tower is a 58-story, mixed-use skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, between East 56th and 57th Streets. The building contains the headquarters for the Trump Organization, as well ...
. Nader relays an offer from the leaders of
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
and the
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
(U.A.E.) to help get Trump elected. Zamel pitches his Israeli company's services for a multimillion-dollar campaign to manipulate social media. It is not known whether the social media campaign occurred. ** A private jet carrying Deripaska's wife, daughter, mother, and father-in-law arrives at
Teterboro Airport Teterboro Airport is a general aviation relief airport in the boroughs of Teterboro, Moonachie, and Hasbrouck Heights in Bergen County, New Jersey.Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...
account in the U.S. with the memo line "to finance election campaign of 2016". The transaction triggers an internal investigation at Citibank that finds 60 transfers totaling $380,000 with similar memo lines to accounts at the bank for Russian embassies in 60 countries. The transactions are flagged as suspicious, reported to the U.S. government, and investigated by the FBI in 2017. In November 2017, ''BuzzFeed News'' reports the story after failing to get a response from the Ministry. Within hours, the Ministry denounces the ''BuzzFeed'' article on social media and implies the money was for polling stations for the Russian parliamentary election on September 18. ** Speaking at a press breakfast sponsored by the ''
Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
'', DHS Secretary
Jeh Johnson Jeh Charles Johnson ( "Jay"; born September 11, 1957) is an American lawyer and former government official. He was United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017. From 2009 to 2012, Johnson was the general counsel of the Departm ...
suggests for the first time that election infrastructure should be designated as
critical infrastructure Critical infrastructure (or critical national infrastructure (CNI) in the UK) is a term used by governments to describe assets that are essential for the functioning of a society and economy – the infrastructure. Most commonly associated wit ...
. * August 4: ** During a previously scheduled call to discuss Syria and counterterrorism issues, Brennan warns his Russian counterpart
Alexander Bortnikov Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov (russian: Алексaндр Васильевич Бoртников; born 15 November 1951) is a Russian intelligence officer who has served as the Director of the Federal Security Service, director of the Russian ...
, head of the FSB, against meddling in the presidential election. ** The IRA's Facebook account "Stop AI" accuses Clinton of
voter fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
during the
Iowa Caucuses The Iowa caucuses are biennial electoral events for members of the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S. state of Iowa. Unlike primary elections in most other U.S. states, where registered voters go to polling places to cast ballots, ...
. They buy ads promoting the post. ** IRA groups buy ads for the "Florida Goes Trump" rallies. The 8,300 people who click on the ads are sent to the Agency's "Being Patriotic" Facebook page. ** In an ''
InfoWars ''InfoWars'' is an American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and operates under Free Speech Systems LLC. Talk shows and other content for the site are created primarily in studi ...
'' interview, Stone tells Jones that Assange has proof of wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation and is ready to release it. ** Stone sends
Sam Nunberg Sam Nunberg (born June 21, 1981) is an American public affairs consultant based in Manhattan. He was a political advisor to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. In March 2018, Nunberg was subpoenaed by a grand jury for testimony and document ...
an email in which he claims that he dined with Assange the night before. ** ''The Hill'' publishes an article by Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly in which he chastises Trump for his recent comments on
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
. The article is later pointed to by Republicans as evidence that Ukraine allegedly interfered in the election. * August 5: ** Stone writes an article for ''
Breitbart News ''Breitbart News Network'' (known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentary website founded in mid-2007 b ...
'' in which he insists "Guccifer 2.0" hacked the DNC, using statements by "Guccifer 2.0" on Twitter and to ''The Hill'' as evidence for his claim. He tries to spin the DNC's Russia claim as a coverup for their supposed embarrassment over being penetrated by a single hacker. The article leads to "Guccifer 2.0" reaching out to and conversing with Stone via Twitter. ** In response to questions about Page's July 7 speech in Moscow,
Hope Hicks Hope Charlotte Hicks (born October 21, 1988) is an American public relations executive and political advisor who served in President Donald Trump’s administration from 2017 to 2018 and 2020 to 2021. She served as White House Director of Strate ...
describes him as an "informal foreign policy adviser hodoes not speak for Mr. Trump or the campaign." ** The IRA first Twitter account hires an actress to play Hillary Clinton in prison garb and someone to build a cage to hold the actress. The actress and cage are to appear at the "Florida Goes Trump" rally in
West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...
on August 20. ** The Trump campaign announces that Calk is joining Trump's economic advisory team. * August 6: Assange addresses the Green Party National Convention in Houston by videolink, to discuss the hacked DNC documents published by WikiLeaks. Green candidate Jill Stein later states she does not know why or how this address was arranged. * August 8: Stone, speaking in Florida to the Southwest Broward Republican Organization, claims he is in contact with Assange, saying, "I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe his next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation." This is Stone's first public statement about his contacts with Assange. Stone later claims the communications were through an intermediary. * August 9: ** WikiLeaks denies having communicated with Stone. Privately, Assange tells a core group of WikiLeaks supporters that he is unaware of any communications with Stone. ** ''Bloomberg'' reports that the
Spanish Civil Guard The Civil Guard ( es, Guardia Civil, link=no; ) is the oldest law enforcement agency in Spain and is one of two national police forces. As a national gendarmerie force, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the a ...
believes Torshin assisted the Taganskaya crime syndicate with money laundering through banks in Spain. * August 10: ** The FBI opens separate counterintelligence
Foreign Agents Registration Act The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)2 U.S.C. § 611 ''et seq.'' is a United States law that imposes public disclosure obligations on persons representing foreign interests.
(FARA) cases on Page, Manafort, and Papadopoulos on the grounds that they "may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security." * August 11: ** The IRA second Twitter account claims that voter fraud is being investigated in
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
. ** Brennan briefs Pelosi, a member of the Gang of Eight, on links between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election. * August 12: ** In a #
MAGA Maga or MAGA may refer to: MAGA * Make America Great Again, a political slogan famously used by Donald Trump * Museo MAGA, a modern-art museum in Gallarate, Italy * ''maga'', the logo of the Cornish Language Partnership, an organisation promot ...
Podcast, Stone says Assange has all the emails deleted by
Huma Abedin Huma Mahmood Abedin ( ur, ; born July 28, 1975) is an American political staffer who was vice chair of Hillary Clinton's Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, 2016 campaign for President of the United States. Before that, Abedin was deputy ...
and
Cheryl Mills Cheryl D. Mills (born 1965) is an American lawyer and corporate executive. She first came into public prominence while serving as deputy White House Counsel for President Bill Clinton, whom she defended during his 1999 impeachment trial. She has ...
. ** Journalist Emma Best has two simultaneous conversations by Twitter direct message with "Guccifer 2.0" and WikiLeaks. Best tries to negotiate the hosting of stolen DNC emails and documents on
archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
. WikiLeaks wants Best to act as an intermediary to funnel the material from "Guccifer 2.0" to them. The conversation ends with "Guccifer 2.0" saying he will send the material directly to WikiLeaks. ** "Guccifer 2.0" releases a cache of documents stolen from the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is the United States Democratic Party, Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. The DCCC recruits candidates, raises ...
. ** The GRU stops its five-attempts-per-second attack on the Illinois State Board of Elections servers. * August 12–18: The IRA's persona "Josh Milton" communicates with Trump Campaign officials via email to request Trump/Pence signs and the phone numbers of campaign affiliates as part of an effort to organize pro-Trump campaign rallies in Florida. * August 13: ** Twitter and
WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...
temporarily suspend Guccifer 2.0's accounts. Stone calls "Guccifer 2.0" a hero. ** Russian-American
Simon Kukes Simon Gregory Kukes (Russian: Семен Григорьевич Кукес; born 5 December 1946) is a Russian-born American chemist and retired oil industry businessman. He immigrated to the US to work in the oil industry in the late 1970s, and r ...
attends a $25,000-per-ticket Trump fundraising dinner at the home of
Woody Johnson Robert Wood Johnson IV (born April 12, 1947) is an American businessman who was United States ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2017 to 2021. He is a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I, and a billionaire heir to the Johnson & Johnson pha ...
in New York. Kukes's 2016 political donations become a subject of the Mueller investigation. ** On or before this date, Stone tells Bannon that he has a connection to Assange and implies that he has inside information about WikiLeaks. * August 14: ''The New York Times'' reports that Manafort's name has been found in the Ukrainian "black ledger". The ledger, belonging to the Ukrainian
Party of Regions The Party of Regions ( uk, Партія регіонів, Partiia rehioniv, ; russian: Партия регионов, Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of Uk ...
, shows $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments to Manafort from 2007 to 2012. Manafort's lawyer, Richard A. Hibey, says Manafort never received "any such cash payments". The ''
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
'' later verifies some of the entries against financial records. * August 15: ** Papadopoulos emails Clovis about requests he received from multiple foreign governments, "even Russia[]," for "closed door workshops/consultations abroad." He asks if there is still interest for himself, Clovis, and Phares "to go on that trip." Clovis copies Phares and tells Papadopoulos that he can't "travel before the election", writing, "I would encourage you Walid_Phares_to.html" ;"title="nd Walid Phares to">nd Walid Phares tomake the trip, if it is feasible." The trip never occurs. ** A Trump campaign county chair contacts the IRA through their phony email accounts to suggest locations for rallies. ** A candidate for Congress allegedly contacts Guccifer 2.0 to request information on the candidate's opponent. Guccifer 2.0 responds with the requested stolen information. ** Guccifer 2.0 begins posting information about Florida and Pennsylvania races stolen from the DCCC. ** DHS Secretary Johnson holds a conference call with state election officials in which he urges them "to do everything you can for your own cybersecurity leading up to the election." He tells them there is no specific or credible threat known around the election system itself. He raises the possibility of designating election infrastructure as critical infrastructure, but receives so much push back from some states concerned about federal interference in running elections that he puts the idea on hold. * August 16: ** Stone tells Jones that he is in contact with Assange, claiming he has "political dynamite" on Clinton. ** The IRA buys ads on Instagram for the "Florida Goes Trump" rallies. ** Stone sends "Guccifer 2.0" an article he wrote for ''The Hill'' on manipulating the vote count in
voting machines A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...
. "Guccifer 2.0" responds the next day, "@RogerJStoneJr paying u back". ** The FBI opens a counterintelligence FARA case on Flynn on the grounds that he "may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security." The investigation is named Crossfire Razor. * August 17: ** Trump is warned in an FBI briefing that foreign adversaries including Russia would likely attempt to infiltrate his campaign. This is Trump's first classified briefing. Clinton receives a similar briefing in the same month. An FBI agent took notes on Trump's, Christie's, and Flynn's comments on Russia as part of the Crossfire Hurricane and Crossfire Razor investigations. ** Bannon is named Trump campaign CEO. **
Kellyanne Conway Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway ( née Fitzpatrick; born January 20, 1967) is an American political consultant and pollster, who served as Senior Counselor to the President in the administration of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020. She was previousl ...
is named Trump campaign manager. ** Simes and Kushner meet at Kushner's New York office to discuss CNI's foreign policy advice and the Clinton campaign's Russia-related attacks on Trump. Simes gives Kushner unverified information from the 1990s about Bill Clinton and Russia. In 2018, Simes tells Mueller's team that Kushner was uninterested because he considered it "old news". ** The CIA informs the FBI that Page was an "operational contact" for the agency from 2008 to 2013. ** Brennan briefs Schiff, a member of the Gang of Eight, on links between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election. * August 18: ** The FBI issues a nationwide "flash alert" warning state election officials about foreign infiltration of
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
systems in two states, later reported to be Arizona and Illinois. The alert includes technical evidence suggesting Russian responsibility, and urges states to boost their cyberdefenses. Although labeled for distribution only to "NEED TO KNOW recipients," a copy is leaked to the media. ** The IRA uses its first email address to contact a Trump campaign official in Florida. The email requests campaign support at the forthcoming "Florida Goes Trump" rallies. It is unknown whether the campaign official responded. ** The IRA pays the person they hired to build a cage for a "Florida Goes Trump" rally in West Palm Beach, Florida. * August 19: ** Ukrainian Member of Parliament
Serhiy Leshchenko Serhiy Leshchenko ( uk, Сергій Анатолійович Лещенко, 30 August, 1980) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian ex-journalist, politician and public figure, Member of Parliament (8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada). From 2002 until 2014 Leshch ...
holds a press conference in
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
in which he reveals hand-written entries in the "black ledger" showing payments to Manafort. ** Manafort resigns as Trump's campaign manager, but continues to advise Gates, Kushner, Bannon, and Trump until the election. ** A Trump supporter suggests to the IRA Twitter account "March for Trump" that it contact a Trump campaign official. The official is emailed by the agency's first email address. ** The IRA's "Matt Skiber" persona contacts another Trump campaign official on Facebook. **
Arron Banks Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 1966) is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign. Banks was previously one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and helped ...
and
Andy Wigmore Andrew Bruce Wigmore (born 1 June 1966) is a British-Belizean political activist, former diplomat and sportsman. He is known for his work on the Leave.EU campaign during the UK's 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, being a prom ...
meet with Alexander Yakovenko for lunch. They discuss their upcoming trip to Mississippi and the Trump campaign. ** Volodymyr Ariev, a member of the
Ukrainian parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...
, formally asks the
Prosecutor General of Ukraine The prosecutor general of Ukraine (also procurator general of Ukraine, uk, Генеральний прокурор України) heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General ( uk, Офіс ...
to investigate Kilimnik based on media reports of his connections to
Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of Di ...
and Russian intelligence. **
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
reports that the FBI is investigating Manafort's company's involvement in Ukrainian corruption. ** The FBI calls Cassandra Ford to discuss her Twitter account. Ford insists upon an in-person meeting because she received a lot of online harassment. * August 20: 17 "Florida Goes Trump" rallies are held across Florida. The rallies are organized by Russian trolls from the IRA. * August 21: President Obama returns from vacation, which was a soft deadline for
United States National Security Council The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Execu ...
staffers to forward cyber-related responses to Russian election meddling to interagency groups that Obama authorized and
Susan Rice Susan Elizabeth Rice (born November 17, 1964) is an American diplomat, policy advisor, and public official serving as Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Rice served as the 27th ...
and her deputy headed. * August 22: ** Florida GOP campaign advisor Aaron Nevins contacts Guccifer 2.0 and asks for material. Nevins sets up a
Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...
account and "Guccifer 2.0" transfers 2.5 gigabytes of data into it. Nevins analyzes the data, posts the results on his blog, HelloFLA.com, and sends "Guccifer 2.0" a link. "Guccifer 2.0" forwards the link to Stone. ** "Guccifer 2.0" allegedly sends DCCC material on Black Lives Matter to a reporter, and they discuss how to use it in a story. "Guccifer 2.0" also gives the reporter the password for accessing emails stolen from Clinton's staff that were posted to "Guccifer 2.0's" website but had not yet been made public. On August 31, ''
The Washington Examiner The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American conservative news outlet which consists principally of an online/digital website with a weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is ow ...
'' publishes a story based on the material the same day the material is released publicly on Guccifer 2.0's website. * August 23: ** ''
The Smoking Gun The Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources. Most o ...
'' reaches out to "Guccifer 2.0" for comment on its contacts with Stone. "Guccifer 2.0" accuses ''The Smoking Gun'' of working with the FBI. ** Millian sends a Facebook message to Papadopoulos offering to "share with you a disruptive technology that might be instrumental in your political work for the campaign." In September 2017, Papadopoulos tells the FBI he does not recall the matter. ** FBI agent Scott Halper and another agent meet with Ford to discuss her Twitter account. The meeting is conducted as a friendly chat rather than a formal interview. * August 24: Seven
VR Systems VR Systems is a provider of elections technology systems and software. VR Systems is based in Tallahassee, Florida. The company's products are used in elections in eight U.S. states. The company was founded in 1992 by Jane and David Watson. The C ...
employee email accounts receive emails from same email telling them that their email storage is full. It contains a link to a fake Google webpage asking for their email address and password. The phishing emails are automatically quarantined by automated email filters, but the emails most likely aren't reviewed by a person until the end of September when the FBI warns the company to look out for suspicious IP addresses. * August 25: ** Trump names Clovis as a campaign national co-chairman. ** Banks, Wigmore, and Farage attend a Trump fundraising dinner and participate in a Trump rally in the
Mississippi Coliseum The Mississippi Coliseum is a 6,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Jackson, Mississippi, built in 1962 and located on the Mississippi State Fairgrounds complex. The arena has 6,812 seats available for basketball, and can be expanded to 10,000 for c ...
. Wigmore and Farage meet Trump for the first time at the dinner. At the rally, Trump introduces Farage to the crowd as "Mr. Brexit." ** Interviewed by
Megyn Kelly Megyn Marie Kelly (; born November 18, 1970) is an American journalist and media personality. She currently hosts a talk show and podcast, ''The Megyn Kelly Show'', that airs live daily on SiriusXM. She was a talk show host at Fox News from 200 ...
on ''
The Kelly File ''The Kelly File'' was an American news television program hosted by journalist and former attorney Megyn Kelly on the Fox News Channel. The program was a spinoff of ''The O'Reilly Factor'', and focused on late-breaking stories in a live format ...
'', Assange says that he will not release any damaging information on Trump. He also tells her significant information will be released on Clinton before November. ** Arranged by Margaret Ratner Kunstler, a mutual friend who is Assange's attorney,
Randy Credico Randolph A. Credico (born 1954) is an American perennial political candidate, comedian, radio host, and activist, and the former director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice. Entertainment career Credico was formerly active o ...
hosts Assange on Credico's radio show. ** Brennan briefs Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...
, a member of the Gang of Eight, on links between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election. * August 26: ** After Clinton claims that Russian intelligence was behind the leaks, Assange says she is causing "hysteria" about Russia, adding, "The Trump campaign has a lot of things wrong with it, but as far as we can see being Russian agents is not one of them." ** Illinois State Board of Elections produces a report on the June–August hacking of their systems by the GRU. ** Credico texts Stone, "Julian Assange talk dabout you last night." Stone asks what Assange said, and Corsi replies that they discussed "how the Press is trying to make it look like you and he are in cahoots." * August 26–27: Frederick Intrater registers several
Internet domain names A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
that are variations on the term "
alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...
." The domain names are registered using his name and the name and contact information of his employer, private equity firm Columbus Nova. Intrater is the brother of Columbus Nova CEO Andrew Intrater and a cousin of Vekselberg. Columbus Nova is the American investment arm of Vekselberg's business empire. * August 27: ** The IRA Facebook group "SecuredBorders" organizes a "Citizens before refugees" protest rally at the
City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
Chambers in
Twin Falls, Idaho Twin Falls is the county seat and largest city of Twin Falls County, Idaho, United States. The city had a population of 51,807 as of the 2020 census. In the Magic Valley region, Twin Falls is the largest city in a radius, and is the regional ...
. Only a small number of people show up for the three-hour event, most likely because it is Saturday and the Chambers are closed. ** Through Assange's attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler, the widow of
William Kunstler William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil ...
,
Randy Credico Randolph A. Credico (born 1954) is an American perennial political candidate, comedian, radio host, and activist, and the former director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice. Entertainment career Credico was formerly active o ...
knows that WikiLeaks will release information about the Clinton campaign in the near future and texts Stone that "Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary." Credico continues to update Stone about the upcoming WikiLeaks release of numerous emails stolen from Podesta and the Clinton campaign. The emails are released beginning on October 7. * August 27–28: According to Smith's August 31 email, he holds four meetings in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
with individuals claiming to have access to Clinton's emails. According to John Szbocsan, Michael Flynn, Jr., the son of Michael T. Flynn, is involved with the meetings. * August 28: Peter W. Smith sends an encrypted email to an undisclosed list of recipients that includes Trump campaign co-chair Sam Clovis. The email says that after two days of meetings in D.C. on Clinton's private email server, he determined that the server was hacked by "State-related players" as well as private mercenaries. He writes, "Parties with varying interests, are circling to release ahead of the election." * August 29: ''The Washington Post'' is the first to report that Illinois discovered in July that its voter registration servers were hacked, and that the user ID and password of an Arizona election official in
Gila County Gila County ( ) is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,272. The county seat is Globe. Gila County comprises the Payson, Arizona Micropolitan Statistical Area. Gila County contains p ...
was stolen in June. Arizona Secretary of State
Michele Reagan Michele Reagan (born October 13, 1969) is an American Republican politician who served as the 20th Arizona Secretary of State, from 2015 to 2019. She is currently a Justice of the Peace for the Maricopa County McDowell Mountain Precinct. Early ...
shut down the state's voter registration system for a week but did not find that any state or county systems were compromised. * August 31: ** "Guccifer 2.0" leaks campaign documents stolen from
House Minority Leader Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, also known as floor leaders, are congresspeople who coordinate legislative initiatives and serve as the chief spokespersons for their parties on the House floor. These leaders are ele ...
Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
's hacked
personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
. ** An American contacts the IRA's "Being Patriotic" account about a possible September 11 event in Miami. ** The IRA buys ads for a September 11 rally in New York City. ** Smith sends an email to an undisclosed list of recipients in which he claims KLS Research met with parties who had access to Clinton's missing emails, including some with "ties and affiliations to Russia". Mueller's team is unable to determine whether such meetings occurred or find any evidence that Smith's team was in contact with Russian hackers. * Late August–Early September: ** According to December 2018 ''McClatchy DC'' reporting, Cohen's cellphone communicates with
cell towers A cell site, cell tower, or cellular base station is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed (typically on a radio mast, tower, or other raised structure) to create a cell, or adjac ...
in the vicinity of
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, and communication intercepts by an Eastern European intelligence agency overhear a Russian conversation that states Cohen is in Prague. If true, it would lend credence to the allegation in the Steele dossier that Cohen traveled to Prague to meet with Russians. The Mueller Report states that Cohen never traveled to Prague. ** August 31 or September 1: FBI informant
Stefan Halper Stefan A. Halper (born June 4, 1944) is an American foreign policy scholar and retired senior fellow at the University of Cambridge where he is a life fellow at Magdalene College. He served as a Executive Office of the President of the United St ...
meets with Trump advisor
Sam Clovis Samuel Harvey Clovis Jr. (born September 18, 1949) is a former United States Air Force officer, talk radio host, and political figure. Clovis is currently retired in Iowa. Clovis unsuccessfully ran for Iowa state treasurer in the 2014 election ...
, who stated they talked about China.


September 2016

* September: ** The Egyptian Embassy in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, reaches out to Papadopoulos expressing
Egyptian President The president of Egypt is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the Egyp ...
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
's interest in meeting Trump. With Bannon's approval, Papadopoulos arranges a meeting between Trump and el-Sisi at the
Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, a ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. While the meeting does not appear to relate to campaign contacts with Russia, it highlights that Papadopoulos was more than a "coffee boy", as Trump campaign officials later claim. ** The CIA gives a secret briefing to congressional leaders on Russian interference in the election.
Senate Majority Leader The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holding t ...
Mitch McConnell Addison Mitchell McConnell III (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and retired attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky and the Senate minority leader since 2021. Currently in his seventh term, McConne ...
voices doubts about the intelligence. ** Mifsud hires Mangiante to work for the London Centre of International Law Practice, on Pittella's recommendation. Papadopoulos, a former employee of the Centre, contacts her via
LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
. They begin dating in March 2017. ** Stone emails Credico to ask Assange for Clinton emails from August 10–30, 2011. ** The FBI makes a second attempt to recruit Deripaska as an informant on Manafort, the Kremlin, and Russian organized crime in exchange for a U.S. visa. * September 1: Putin denies Russian government involvement in the DNC hacking. He says the important thing isn't who stole the material, but that it was released to the public. * September 2: **
Lisa Page The following is a list of controversies involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Throughout its history, the FBI has been the subject of a number of controversial cases, both at home and abroad. Files on U.S. citizens The FBI has m ...
writes in a text message to
Peter Strzok Peter Paul Strzok II (, like ''struck''; born March 7, 1970) is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. He was the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division and led the investigation into R ...
that a meeting at the FBI was set up "because Obama wanted 'to know everything we are doing'." She was referring to the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, not the Clinton emails investigation, which had been concluded months earlier. ** Peter W. Smith and John Szobocsan incorporate "KLS Research", an LLC registered in
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
, as a vehicle to manage funds raised to pay for the search for Clinton's emails and "to avoid campaign reporting." KLS is structured as an "independent expenditure group," which is forbidden by law from coordinating with the Trump campaign. Over $30,000 flows through the company during the campaign. * September 3: The IRA Facebook group "United Muslims of America" organizes a "Safe Space for Muslim Neighborhood" rally outside the White House, attracting at least 57 people. * September 3–5: Wealthy Republican donor Peter W. Smith gathers a team to try to acquire the 30,000 deleted Clinton emails from hackers. He believes Clinton's private email server was hacked and copies of the emails were stolen. Among the people recruited are former
GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
information-security specialist Matt Tait,
alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...
activist
Charles C. Johnson Charles Carlisle Johnson (born October 22, 1988) is an American alt-right political activist who was a public figure in the years 2013 to 2019. A self-described "investigative journalist", Johnson is often described as an internet troll and h ...
, former
Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
CTO and alt-right activist Pax Dickinson, "dark web expert" Royal O'Brien, and Jonathan Safron. Tait quickly abandons the team after learning the true purpose of the endeavor. Hackers contacted in the search include "
Guccifer 2.0 "Guccifer 2.0" is a persona which claimed to be the hacker(s) who gained unauthorized access to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer network and then leaked its documents to the media, the website WikiLeaks, and a conference event. S ...
" and Andrew Auernheimer (a.k.a. "weev"). The team finds five groups of hackers claiming to have the emails. Two of the groups are Russian. Flynn is in email contact with the team. Smith commits suicide on May 14, 2017, about ten days after telling the story to ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' but before the story is published in June. * September 5: At the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit, Obama confronts Putin about Russian cyber attacks, telling him to stop. Putin explains Russia's stance on the issue. * September 6: ** Smith emails
David Bossie David Norman Bossie (born November 1, 1965) is an American political activism, political activist. Since 2000, he has been president and chairman of conservative advocacy group Citizens United (organization), Citizens United and in 2016, Bossie w ...
, recently made Trump's deputy campaign manager, to arrange a phone call to discuss Smith's search for Clinton's emails. ** Brennan briefs individually the remaining Gang of Eight members – McConnell, Burr, Feinstein, Nunes, and Ryan – on links between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election. * September 8: ** Smith transfers $9,500 from KLS Research to his personal account, then withdraws $4,900 of it in cash and writes checks for the remaining amount. In August 2018, ''BuzzFeed News'' reports that the FBI suspects the money was used to pay hackers. ** Sessions meets with Kislyak a third time in his Senate office with two members of his Senate staff, Sandra Luff and Pete Landrum. They discuss Russian military actions and the presence of NATO forces in former
Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
countries bordering Russia. Kislyak invites Sessions to have further discussions with him over a meal at his residence. In 2018, Luff and Landrum tell Mueller's team that they don't recall Sessions dining with Kislyak before the election. ** Comey, Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco, and Secretary Johnson brief the Gang of Eight and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees on Russian interference activities. They request a bipartisan Congressional statement to help convince state and local election officials to avail themselves of DHS security assistance. Several members of Congress resist making a statement, and McConnel implies the intelligence on Russia is being manipulated in a partisan way. * September 9: ** Papadopoulos contacts deputy communications director Bryan Lanza about a request from ''
Interfax Interfax (russian: Интерфакс) is a Russian news agency. The agency is owned by Interfax News Agency joint-stock company and is headquartered in Moscow. History As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic informatio ...
'' for an interview with Ksenia Baygarova. Lanza approves the interview. ** The IRA sends money to its American groups to fund the September 11 rally in Miami, and to pay the actress who portrayed Clinton at the West Palm Beach, Florida, rally. ** Smith circulates a document claiming his Clinton email search initiative is being performed in coordination with the Trump campaign "to the extent permitted as an independent expenditure organization." The document lists Flynn, Clovis, Bannon, and Conway as involved campaign members, and Corsi under "Independent Groups/Organizations/Individuals". Later, Mueller's team is unable to confirm the active participation of Bannon and Conway. ** The IRA registers PlayWithHillary.com and Hilltendo.com, and subsequently releases a
Flash game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on co ...
called "Hilltendo" that features Clinton deleting classified emails, catching bags of money, and throwing the constitution as far as possible. The game is announced on
Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
by the user "Rubinjer". It contains code that allows the IRA to identify who plays the game. ** "Guccifer 2.0" asks Stone to review a stolen DCCC document posted online. Stone responds, "pretty standard." * Mid-September: Papadopoulos approaches British government officials asking for a meeting with senior ministers. He is given a meeting with a mid-level
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...
official in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. Papadopoulos mentions he has senior contacts in the Russian government. British officials conclude he is not a major player and discontinue contact. * September 11: ** A pro-Trump rally organized by the IRA is held in Miami. The rally includes a flatbed truck with a person dressed as Clinton in a prison jumpsuit inside a cage, all paid for by the IRA. ** After Clinton falls ill during a
9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
memorial service in New York City, IRA trolls tweet hundreds of messages with the hashtags #HillarySickAtGroundZero, #ClintonCollapse, #ZombieHillary, and #SickHillary targeting left-wing and right-wing accounts. ** GOP consultant
Doug Wead Roy Douglas Wead (17 May 1946 – 10 December 2021) was a conservative commentator and writer. He wrote 27 books.
informs translator Olga Kovalova that Russian national Roman Vasilenko can meet with Trump when he visits the U.S. * September 12: Smith tells Tait in a phone call that he received a sample of Clinton's emails from a credible source through a "dark web specialist." * September 13–14: GOP consultant
Jesse Benton Jesse Reeves Benton (born October 4, 1977) is an American political operative, convicted felon, writer, and entrepreneur. Benton is closely associated with the Paul family, having served as a campaign manager for both Ron Paul and Rand Paul. He ...
tells the RNC that he wants to arrange a photo of a "friend" with Trump at an upcoming September 22 event in Philadelphia, and proceeds to make the arrangements. * September 15: ** DCLeaks sends a Twitter direct message to WikiLeaks asking how to discuss submission-related issues because WikiLeaks is not responding to messages on their secure chat and DCLeaks has something of interest to share. ** "Guccifer 2.0" sends a Twitter direct message to DCLeaks informing them that WikiLeaks is trying to contact them to set up communications using encrypted emails. ** Papadopoulos meets with Stefan Halper's research assistant Azra Turk for drinks in London. She asks him questions about whether the Trump campaign was working with Russia. Papadopoulos becomes suspicious about the line of questioning and comes to believe Turk is an intelligence agent, possibly from Turkey. In May 2019, ''The New York Times'' reports that Turk was an undercover FBI agent supervising Halper's inquiries into possible connections between the Trump Campaign and Russia. ** Barbara Ledeen signs a non-disclosure agreement with KLS Research. She also emails Flynn that her project to find Clinton's emails "is mostly funded." ** Benton emails Wead his banking information and promises an invoice "whenever appropriate." * September 16: ** Ledeen emails Smith about a cache of purported Clinton emails she says she found on the
dark web The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on ''darknets'': overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communi ...
. She asks for help raising money to pay for a technical advisor to authenticate the emails. Erik Prince provides the money. In April 2018 Prince tells Mueller's team that the technical advisor determined that the emails were forgeries. ** DHS Secretary Johnson issues a public statement about cybersecurity and election systems that acknowledges "cyber intrusions involving political institutions and personal communications" and "some efforts at cyber intrusions of voter registration data maintained in state election systems." ** Wead tells Benton to send an invoice for "consulting work" to Vasilenko. * September 18–19: Stone asks Credico to ask Assange for State Department or Clinton emails from August 10–30, 2011. Credico passes the request to Kunstler, who tells Mueller's investigators in 2018 that she did not pass it on to Assange. * September 19: ** Crossfire Hurricane investigators obtain
Steele dossier The Steele dossier, also known as the Trump–Russia dossier, is a controversial political opposition research report written from June to December 2016, containing allegations of misconduct, conspiracy, and cooperation between Donald Trump ...
. ** Vasilenko wires $49,000 to Benton. Afterward, Wead tells Benton to provide an invoice for Vasilenko's records. Benton provides an invoice for $100,000. * September 20: ** Flynn meets with Rohrabacher. On November 10, 2017, the Mueller investigation is reported to have asked questions about this meeting. ** GRU hackers compromise a DNC account on a cloud-computing service and begin copying 300 GB of data off of the servers. ** While browsing a political
chatroom The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from r ...
, Jason Fishbein comes across the password to a non-public website (PutinTrump.org) focusing on Trump's ties to Russia that is nearing launch. He sends the password and website to WikiLeaks in a Twitter direct message. WikiLeaks tweets about the website and password. ** Wead informs Benton that Vasilenko has arrived in the U.S. * September 20–26: BlackMattersUS, an IRA website, recruits activists to participate in protests over the police
shooting of Keith Lamont Scott Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot on , 2016, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Brentley Vinson, an African-American city police officer. It sparked both peaceful and violent protests led by Black Lives Matter ...
in
Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
. The IRA pays for expenses such as microphones and speakers. * September 21: ** ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' delivers potential evidence of communications with Trump's domain with Alfa-Bank and other entities to BGR Group, a Washington lobbying firm that worked for Alfa-Bank, from a story Lichtblau was pursuing following findings "Max" and his lawyer decided to hand over to him. ** WikiLeaks sends a Twitter direct message to Trump Jr. about the password to PutinTrump.org. Several hours later, Trump Jr. emails senior campaign staff about the WikiLeaks direct message and website, including Conway, Bannon, Kushner,
David Bossie David Norman Bossie (born November 1, 1965) is an American political activism, political activist. Since 2000, he has been president and chairman of conservative advocacy group Citizens United (organization), Citizens United and in 2016, Bossie w ...
, and
Brad Parscale Brad Parscale (born January 3, 1976) is an American digital consultant and political advisor who served as the senior adviser for data and digital operations for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. He previously served as the digital medi ...
. After the public launch of PutinTrump.org, Trump Jr. sends a Twitter direct message to WikiLeaks, "Off the record, l don't know who that is but I'll ask around. Thanks." This is believed to be the first direct communication between Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks. * September 22: ** Senator
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
and Representative
Adam Schiff Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who has served as a U.S. representative since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he has represented since 2013. Schiff's district (numbered as the 2 ...
issue a statement warning that Russia is trying to undermine the election. Their warning is based on what they learned from intelligence briefings as members of the Gang of Eight. It is the first and only public statement prior to the December 29 Joint Analysis Report attributing cyber activity to Russian actors and election influence efforts to Russian intelligence services. ** The IRA buys ads on Facebook for "Miners for Trump" rallies in Pennsylvania. ** DCLeaks sends an encrypted file to WikiLeaks and, separately, a tweet with a string of characters. The Mueller Report suspects that this was a transfer of stolen documents, but does not rule out that Andrew "Andy" Müller-Maguhn or another intermediary may have hand-delivered the documents. In 2018, Müller-Maguhn, a known hacker and frequent visitor to Assange, denies transporting material to him. ** Wead photographs Vasilenko with Trump at the Philadelphia fundraising event. * Late September/October: Benton pays $25,000 to a joint fundraising committee for the Trump campaign and the RNC. * September 23: ** ''Yahoo News'' reports that U.S. intelligence officials are investigating whether Page has set up private communications between the Trump campaign and senior Russian officials, including talks on possibly lifting sanctions if Trump is elected. The report leads to an email discussion between
J. Miller ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...
, Bannon, and Stephen Miller about removing Page from the campaign. ** The "
A record This list of DNS record types is an overview of resource records (RRs) permissible in zone files of the Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resour ...
" of the Trump Organization's mail1.trump-email.com domain is deleted. ** On or around this date, Cendyn Hospitality Marketing, the Trump Organization's email marketing firm, transfers ownership of the trump-email.com domain name to the Trump Organization after the Organization receives press inquiries about the domain name and Alfa-Bank. * September 24: Page is formally removed from the Trump campaign. Publicly, the campaign denies all knowledge of Page. * September 25: ** Hicks emails Conway and Bannon instructing them to answer inquiries about Page with " was an informal advisor in March. Since then he has had no role or official contact with the campaign. We have no knowledge of activities past or present and he now officially has been removed from all lists etc." ** When asked by
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
about allegations linking Page to Russia, Conway denies that Page is part of the Trump campaign. ** Page sends Comey a letter asking that the FBI drop the reported investigation into his activities in Russia. He denies meeting with sanctioned Russian officials. ** FBI informant
Stefan Halper Stefan A. Halper (born June 4, 1944) is an American foreign policy scholar and retired senior fellow at the University of Cambridge where he is a life fellow at Magdalene College. He served as a Executive Office of the President of the United St ...
asks Trump advisor
George Papadopoulos George Demetrios Papadopoulos (; born August 19, 1987) is an author and former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to a felony charge of mak ...
if he is aware of any efforts by Russians to interfere with the 2016 election; Papadopoulos twice denies it. * September 26: Page tells
Josh Rogin Josh Rogin is an American journalist who serves as a foreign policy columnist for the Global Opinions section of ''The Washington Post'' and as a political analyst for CNN. He is the author of the book ''Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Ba ...
in an interview for ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' that he is taking a leave of absence from the Trump campaign. He denies meeting with sanctioned individuals in Moscow. * September 27: Ten minutes after Alfa-Bank servers made a last failed attempt to contact to Trump Organization's mail1.trump-email.com domain (which had its "A record" deleted September 23), one of the Alfa-Bank servers looks up the new domain name trump1.contact-client.com, which was routed to the same Trump server. The new domain does not appear to have been previously active and the
PTR record This list of DNS record types is an overview of resource records (RRs) permissible in zone files of the Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resou ...
did not include the new, alternate name. According to "Max"'s data, the Alfa-Bank server only looked up the new domain once. Spectrum Health never succeeded in relocating the Trump server through the new route. * September 28: ** Russian-American
Simon Kukes Simon Gregory Kukes (Russian: Семен Григорьевич Кукес; born 5 December 1946) is a Russian-born American chemist and retired oil industry businessman. He immigrated to the US to work in the oil industry in the late 1970s, and r ...
donates $99,000 to the
Trump Victory Committee The Trump Victory Committee was a joint fundraising committee for Donald J. Trump for President (the Donald Trump presidential campaign organization), the Republican National Committee (RNC), and 11 state Republican committees. Overview The ...
, which distributes donations between Trump, the RNC, and state Republican parties. His 2016 political donations become a subject of the Mueller investigation. ** The House and Senate leaders send a letter to the
National Association of State Election Directors The National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) is a U.S. association that was formed in 1989 when a group of state election directors and administrators met in Reno, Nevada. The driving issue at that time that spurred the group to org ...
highlighting the "challenge of malefactors that are seeking to use cyberattacks to disrupt the administration of our elections" and urging the states to use DHS services but without any mention of Russia. The letter makes clear that DHS assistance would be free of federal interference in state and local officials running the elections. * September 29: ** Comey testifies before the
House Judiciary Committee The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...
, confirming that federal investigators have detected suspicious activities in
voter registration In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The ru ...
databases, as stated in the August 18 alert. ** Butina meets Gordon at a party at the Swiss ambassador's residence. Gordon was the Director of National Security for the Trump campaign from February to August. That night, Paul Erickson emails Butina and Gordon offering to "add an electronic bridge" to their meeting at the party. In his email to Butina, Erickson writes that Gordon is "playing a crucial role in the Trump transition effort and would be an excellent addition to any of the U.S./Russia friendship dinners to occasionally hold." He writes that all the "right" people listen to Gordon on international security. Erickson's email to Gordon describes Butina as a "special friend" of the NRA and the special assistant to the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia. * September 30: ** Ksenia Baygarova interviews Papadopoulos for ''
Interfax Interfax (russian: Интерфакс) is a Russian news agency. The agency is owned by Interfax News Agency joint-stock company and is headquartered in Moscow. History As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic informatio ...
'' on Trump's foreign policy positions in relation to Russia. The interview was approved by Trump campaign deputy communications director Bryan Lanza. Baygarova later tells ''The Washington Post'' that she had been tasked to interview a representative from each campaign. She says Papadopoulos was the only person from the Trump campaign to respond. She describes him as not very experienced. Adverse publicity generated by the interview leads to Papadopoulos being fired from the campaign in October. ** The FBI hosts a conference call with Florida elections officials and VR Systems, among others, in which they warn that Russian hackers are targeting election infrastructure. The FBI shares a list of suspicious IP addresses to watch out for. * Late September: Lichtblau and his lawyer meet a roomful of officials at
FBI HQ The J. Edgar Hoover Building is a low-rise Office#Office buildings, office building located at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigati ...
, and are told the officials are looking into potential Russian interference in the election. FBI officials ask Lichtblau to delay publishing his story.


October 2016

* October: The
FBI Counterintelligence Division The Counterintelligence Division (CD) is a division of the National Security Branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The division protects the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage. It accomplishes its miss ...
tasks a contractor with identifying Russian influence activity on Twitter. * Early October: A team of FBI agents travel to Europe to speak with Steele about his dossier. On or about the same date, Steele gives the FBI a dossier of allegations compiled by Cody Shearer, which corresponded "with what he had separately heard from his own independent sources." It includes the unverified allegation that Trump was sexually compromised by the Russian secret service at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow in 2013. * October 1: ** Credico texts Stone that there will be "big news on Wednesday," and "Hillary's campaign will die this week." ** Stone tweets that something damaging to Clinton will happen soon. ** DHS Secretary Johnson issues a public statement advising states to seek DHS assistance with election security, and notes that 21 states have requested help. * October 2: ** "Miners for Trump" rallies are held across Pennsylvania. The IRA uses the same techniques to organize the rallies as they used for the "Florida Goes Trump" rallies, including hiring a person to wear a Clinton mask and a prison uniform. ** Stone tells Jones on ''InfoWars'', "I'm assured the motherlode is coming Wednesday...I have reason to believe that it is devastating." ** After a scheduled WikiLeaks press conference is postponed, Credico tells Stone the delay is a "
head fake In sports, a head fake is a type of feint in which someone moves the head to fake an intended change in direction and thereby deceive opponents. The term originated in sports, but it has become applied metaphorically in other senses. In financial m ...
." * October 3: ** Stone asks Credico if Assange "back doff." Credico responds that he "think its on for tomorrow," and adds that "Hillary and her people" are trying to stop Assange. ** Stone tweets that Assange will release something soon. ** WikiLeaks sends a Twitter direct message to Trump Jr. asking him to help "push" a WikiLeaks tweet from earlier in the day ("Hillary Clinton on Assange 'Can't we just drone this guy? ) that includes a link to truepundit.com. Trump Jr. responds, "Already did that earlier today. It's amazing what she can get away with. What's behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?" ** Stone emails Prince that " e payload is still coming." * October 4: ** Assange announces the pending release of a million documents about the U.S. presidential election. He denies any specific intent to harm Clinton. ** Bannon asks Stone if Assange cut a deal with the Clintons. Stone replies that Assange is afraid, but will make weekly releases. * October 5: ** (Wednesday) Stone tweets that a payload from Assange is coming. ** Trump Jr. retweets a WikiLeaks tweet announcing an "860Mb ic archive of various Clinton campaign documents from "Guccifer 2.0". * October 6: ** Stone tweets, "Julian Assange will deliver a devastating expose on Hillary at a time of his choosing. I stand by my prediction." ** The IRA posts nearly 18,000 Twitter messages at a rate of approximately 12 per minute. * October 7: ** Before the DHS and IDNI joint statement release, Rice summons Kislyak to her office and delivers a verbal warning for Russia not to interfere in the election. She gives Kislyak a more detailed written warning for Putin that includes potential consequences that would "powerfully impact" Russia's economy. ** At 12:40 PM EDT, The
DHS The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...
and the
ODNI The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Commu ...
issue a joint statement accusing the Russian government of breaking into the computer systems of several political organizations and releasing the obtained material via
DCLeaks DCLeaks (also known as DC Leaks) was a website that was established in June 2016. It was responsible for publishing leaks of emails belonging to multiple prominent figures in the United States government and military. Cybersecurity research firms d ...
, WikiLeaks, and "Guccifer 2.0", with the intent "to interfere with the U.S. election process." ** Corsi holds a conference call with members of
WorldNetDaily ''WND'' (formerly ''WorldNetDaily'') is an American far-right fake news website. It is known for promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories, including the false claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. T ...
in which he warns them of the imminent release of the Access Hollywood tape and tells them "to reach Assange immediately". In November 2018 he tells Mueller's team that he thought Malloch was on the call and assumed Malloch had successfully contacted Assange because of the subsequent Podesta emails release later in the day. Travel records show Malloch was on a trans-Atlantic flight at the time. The Mueller Report says Corsi's sometimes conflicting statements about the call's contents have not been corroborated. ** At 4:03 PM EDT, ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' publishes a raw video tape from the television show ''
Access Hollywood ''Access Hollywood'', formerly known as ''Access'' from 2017 to 2019, is an American weekday television entertainment news program that premiered on September 9, 1996. It covers events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. It was created ...
'' of Trump bragging about grabbing women by their genitals. While the tape is not relevant to the Russian interference in the election, the distraction of its release lessens the public impact of the joint intelligence report released hours earlier and may have triggered WikiLeaks'
Podesta emails In March 2016, the personal Gmail account of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff and chair of Hillary Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, was compromised in a data breach accomplished via a spear-phishing attack, and some ...
release 30 minutes later. ** Around 4:30 PM EDT, WikiLeaks begins publishing thousands of Podesta emails, revealing excerpts from Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street. Trump Jr. retweets WikiLeaks' and others' announcements about the release. * October 8: Kushner's company receives $370 million in new loans, including $285 million from
Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...
, to refinance his portion of the former New York Times building. The size and timing of the Deutsche Bank loan draws scrutiny from the
House Financial Services Committee The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees t ...
, the
Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
, and, later, the Mueller investigation. The concern is that the transaction may be related to Russian money laundering through Deutsche Bank. * October 8–14: The U.S. government expresses to Ecuadorian officials its concerns that Assange is using their London embassy to help Russian's interfere in the U.S. election. * October 9: Banks, Wigmore, and Farage attend the second presidential debate in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
. * October 10: ** Smith emails supporters and Flynn Jr. updates on purported Clinton emails sent to WikiLeaks for validation. ** DHS Secretary Johnson releases a public statement raising awareness of election systems security. It notes that a DHS vulnerability scan takes three weeks and there are only 29 days left before the election. The statement indicates that 33 state and 11 local or county election agencies have requested assistance from DHS. * October 11: ** Trump Jr. travels to Paris to give a paid speech at the Ritz Hotel. The dinner event is sponsored by the Center of Political and Foreign Affairs, a group founded by Fabien Baussart and his business partner. Baussart is openly linked to Russian government officials.
Randa Kassis Randa Kassis ( ar, رندة قسيس) is a Franco-Syrian politician and a leading secular figure of the Syrian opposition. She is the President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition and the founder of the Movement of the Pluralistic S ...
, one of the hosts, travels to Moscow after the election and reports the details of the event to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. ** Podesta says he thinks the Trump campaign had advance notice of WikiLeaks' release of his emails. * October 12: WikiLeaks writes to Trump Jr., "Hey Donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications" and "Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us wlsearch.tk." Fifteen minutes later, Donald Trump tweets, "Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!" * October 13: WikiLeaks again denies communicating with Stone. Later that day, Stone and WikiLeaks communicate by private Twitter message. * October 14: ** Trump Jr. tweets about wlsearch.tk as requested by WikiLeaks on October 12. ** Pence denies that the Trump campaign is working with WikiLeaks, stating that "nothing could be further from the truth". ** The FBI and DHS send a second "flash report" and a Joint Analysis Report warning about election systems being targeted. The reports contain a list of suspicious IP addresses but do not mention that they are associated with a state actor, so many state IT directors do not understand the urgency of the reports and do not pass them on to their election officials. ** Around this date, Kislyak informs Rice of Putin's response to the warning she gave him on October 7. In a 2017 interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee, she characterizes the response as "denial and obfuscation" and says that Putin specifically mentioned that Russia remains a nuclear power. * October 15: ** The
Democratic Coalition Against Trump The Democratic Coalition, formerly known as the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, is an American Super PAC founded in 2016 by Nathan Lerner, Scott Dworkin, and Jon Cooper for the purpose of opposing Donald Trump, with a fundraising goal of $20 ...
files a complaint with the FBI against Stone for colluding with Russia. They ask the FBI to look into connections between Stone, the Trump campaign, and the hacking of Podesta's emails. ** The
National Security Division National Security Division, or Bahagian Keselamatan Negara (BKN), is a senior grouping within the Malaysian government which meets infrequently. According to a United States Embassy telegram leaked by WikiLeaks in 2011, BKN is regarded as Malaysia' ...
of the Justice Department acquires a FISA warrant to monitor the communications of two Russian banks as part of an investigation into whether they illegally transferred money to the Trump campaign. ** The Ecuadorian Embassy cuts Assange's Internet access and telephone service. ** Smith sends another update on Clinton's emails and WikiLeaks to Flynn, Flynn Jr., Ledeen, and Clovis. * October 16: The IRA's Instagram account "Woke Blacks" makes a post aimed at suppressing black voter turnout. * October 18: ** Butina and Gordon attend a
Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...
concert together. ** Ecuador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs releases a public statement announcing that it "exercised its right" to "temporarily restrict access to some of ikiLeaks'private communications network within its Embassy in the United Kingdom" and that the government of Ecuador "does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate". * October 19: ** The FBI and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) apply for a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Carter Page. In its approval, the FISA Court finds there is
probable cause In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which police authorities have reason to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a suspected criminal or the issuing of a search warrant. There is no universally accepted definition or f ...
to believe Page is a Russian agent. ** During the third presidential debate, Clinton blames Russia for the DNC email leaks and accuses Trump of being a "puppet" of Putin. Trump denies ever having met Putin and any connection to him. Banks, Wigmore, and Farage are in attendance. ** A ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' probe finds evidence a Trump venture has links to an alleged
money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
network. ** Stone denies having advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' release of Podesta's emails. ** The IRA runs its most popular ad on Facebook. The ad is for the IRA's Back the Badge Facebook group and shows a badge with the words "Back the Badge" in front of police lights under the caption "Community of people who support our brave Police Officers." ** Hours after a heated argument between Assange and Ecuadorian Ambassador Carlos Abad Ortiz the night before, two Wikileaks personnel remove computer equipment and "about 100 hard drives" from the embassy. * October 21: **WikiLeaks sends Trump Jr. private tweets suggesting that the campaign give them Trump's tax returns to publish so that they seem less of a "'pro-Trump' 'pro-Russia'" source. ** DoJ and FBI request and obtain new FISA wiretap on
Carter Page Carter William Page (born June 3, 1971) is an American petroleum industry consultant and a former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaign. Page is the founder and managing partner of Global Energy C ...
. ** Manafort emails Kushner a strategy memorandum proposing the Trump campaign portray Clinton "as the failed and corrupt champion of the establishment." He suggests using Wikileaks as a source of Clinton quotes that could be used against her. * October 22: A large rally is held in
Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
, protesting the police
shooting of Keith Lamont Scott Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot on , 2016, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Brentley Vinson, an African-American city police officer. It sparked both peaceful and violent protests led by Black Lives Matter ...
. The IRA website BlackMattersUS recruits unwitting local activists to organize the rally. BlackMattersUS provides an activist with a bank card to pay for rally expenses. * October 24: ** Trump announces at a Florida campaign rally, "I have nothing to do with Russia, folks. I'll give you a written statement." ** After Smith sends another email update about WikiLeaks, Charles Johnson responds that Bannon expects Smith to hand over all 30,000 Clinton emails or face legal action. In 2020, the Senate Intelligence Committee finds that there is no evidence Smith received any non-public documents from WikiLeaks. ** A consultant asks Benton about his contribution for the September 22 event. Benton replies that he "bought the tickets and gifted them" to Wead and Vasilenko, and that he (Benton) is the source of the funds. Benton and Wead are indicted in September 2021 for making a straw donation on behalf of Vasilenko. * October 27: At the
Valdai Discussion Club The Valdai Discussion Club is a Moscow-based think tank and discussion forum. It was established in 2004 and is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place. In 2014, the managem ...
yearly forum, Putin denounces American "hysteria" over accusations of Russian interference, saying "Does anyone seriously think that Russia can influence the choice of the American people?" * October 28: ** The FBI reopens its Hillary Clinton email investigation after a monthlong delay during which it focused on investigating the Trump campaign's connections to Russia, according to the report of the Justice Department's inspector general. A key influence on the decision was a probably fake Russian intelligence document discussing a purported email from Attorney General
Loretta E. Lynch Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the Un ...
to Clinton campaign staffer
Amanda Renteria Amanda Andrea Renteria (born November 15, 1974) is an American former body woman and CEO of the nonprofit organization Code for America. She previously worked as a political aide in the roles of National Political Director for Hillary Clinton d ...
in which she promises to go easy on Clinton. Nine days after announcing he was reopening the probe, Comey said the FBI found nothing to change its July decision against bringing charges. ** Peter W. Smith sends an email to an undisclosed list of recipients in which he writes that there is a "tug-of-war going on within WikiLeaks over its planned releases in the next few days" and that WikiLeaks "has maintained that it will save its best revelations for last, under the theory this allows little time for response prior to the U.S. election November 8." An attachment to the email says that WikiLeaks will release "All 33k deleted Emails" by November 1. Further unredacted text restored by the Department of Justice and released on June 19, 2020, in response to a court order. * October 29: Trump loans $10 million to his campaign It is his largest single contribution to his campaign, and the campaign never reimburses him for the loan. Starting in 2017, Mueller's team and, later, federal prosecutors investigate whether the funds came from a state-owned Egyptian bank, finally dropping the case in Summer 2020 without reaching a conclusion. * October 30: ** Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...
sends FBI Director
James Comey James Brien Comey Jr. (; born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his dismissal in May 2017. Comey was a registered Republican for most of his adul ...
a letter asking him to reveal Trump's ties to the Russian Federation. ** Cohen and Giorgi Rtskhiladze exchange text messages in which they discuss suppressing tapes of Trump's 2013 trip to Moscow rumored to be in the possession of Aras Agalarov's company, . In May 2018, Rtskhiladze tells Mueller's team that he was told the tapes were fake but did not relay that information to Cohen. * October 31: ** Through the "red phone", Obama tells Putin to stop interfering or face consequences. ** ''
Mother Jones Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
'' magazine's
David Corn David Corn (born February 20, 1959) is an American political journalist and author. He is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for ''Mother Jones'' and is best known as a cable television commentator. Corn worked at ''The Nation'' from 1987 to 2007 ...
reports that a veteran spy, later publicly identified as Steele, gave the FBI information alleging a Russian operation to cultivate Trump, later known as the "Steele dossier". ** ''Slate'' publishes an article by
Franklin Foer Franklin Foer (; born July 20, 1974) is a staff writer at ''The Atlantic'' and former editor of ''The New Republic'', commenting on contemporary issues from a liberal perspective. Personal life Foer was born in 1974 to a Jewish family. He is th ...
alleging that a Trump server was in suspicious contact with
Alfa-Bank ALFA-BANK JSC (Alfa-Bank), is the largest of the private banks in Russia. It was founded in 1990 by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who is still the controlling owner today. Headquartered in Moscow, it operates in seven countries, providin ...
in Russia.
Snopes ''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a Fact checking, fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been see ...
examined the story and rated it "Unproven". Several cyber security experts saw nothing nefarious, while the FBI was still investigating the matter: "One U.S. official said investigators find the server relationship 'odd' and are not ignoring it. But the official said there is still more work for the FBI to do. Investigators have not yet determined whether a connection would be significant." **''The New York Times'' publishes an article by Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers with a headline that seems to exonerate the Trump campaign, but withholds some information. ** The GRU targets over 120 Florida election officials' email accounts with spearphishing attacks. They receive emails purportedly from
VR Systems VR Systems is a provider of elections technology systems and software. VR Systems is based in Tallahassee, Florida. The company's products are used in elections in eight U.S. states. The company was founded in 1992 by Jane and David Watson. The C ...
, the state's voter registration and election results service provider, asking them to open a purported
Word document Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...
containing a
trojan Trojan or Trojans may refer to: * Of or from the ancient city of Troy * Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans Arts and entertainment Music * ''Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 1890 ...
. At least some of the emails from address VR Systems doesn't use, contain British spellings. Many of the emails are flagged by spam filters. Elections officials in Washington County and another county open the attachments and infect their systems. Later, the FBI believes one county government's network was compromised in a way that would have given
security hacker A security hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, challenge ...
s the ability to alter voter registration data, but this is disputed by state election officials.


November 2016

* November–December:
Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general and conspiracy theorist who was the 24th U.S. National Security Advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration. He resigned in light of ...
serves as an advisor to
SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...
, the parent company of
Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intelli ...
. was broken shortly after the election. * November: ** Mangiante quits the London Centre of International Law Practice after complaining to Mifsud about not being paid her salary. ** Paul Manafort and Rick Gates falsely assert in writing to the Justice Department that their work for the Ukrainian government did not require registering as foreign agents in the United States. In September 2018, Manafort pleads guilty to lying to the Justice Department about the extent of his work for Ukraine. * November 1: ** Florida elections officials receive an email from VR's
chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...
warning them about the malicious emails sent the day before. The company notifies the FBI of the spearphishing attack, but does not tell customers or the FBI about the attempted August attack. ** Twitter accounts belonging to the GRU persona " Anonymous Poland" post a forged letter on
Bradley Foundation The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, commonly known as the Bradley Foundation, is an American charitable foundation (charity), foundation based in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that primarily supports Conservatism in the United States, cons ...
stationary showing that the conservative foundation purportedly donated $150 million to the Clinton campaign, which would be illegal if true. * November 2: The IRA second Twitter account alleges "#VoterFraud by counting tens of thousands of ineligible mail in Hillary votes being reported in Broward County, Florida." Trump Jr. retweets it. * November 3: The IRA Instagram account "Blacktivist" suggests people vote for Stein instead of Clinton. * November 4: ** ''Mother Jones'' reports that an October security sweep of the DNC offices in Washington, D.C., discovered a signal that may have belonged to a device outside the office that could intercept cell phone calls. The DNC says details of the security sweep were passed on to the FBI and "another agency with three letters," but no device was ever found. ** Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Victoria Nuland Victoria Jane Nuland (born July 1, 1961) is an American diplomat currently serving as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Nuland, a former member of the foreign service, served as the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eura ...
rejects a formal request from the Russian Embassy to observe U.S. elections because Russia refused an invitation to participate in the official
OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...
observer mission. * November 5: ** Konstantin Sidorkov again emails Trump Jr. and Trump campaign social media director
Dan Scavino Daniel Scavino Jr. is an American political adviser who served in the Trump administration as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications from 2019 to 2021 and Director of Social Media from 2017 to 2021. Scavino previously was the gener ...
. He again offers to promote Trump to VK's 100 million users. His previous email was sent on January 19, 2016. ** Anti-Clinton "Texit" rallies are held across Texas. The IRA's "Heart of Texas" Facebook group organizes the rallies around the theme of Texas seceding from the United States if Clinton is elected. The group contacts the Texas Nationalist Movement, a
secessionist Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics lea ...
organization, to help with organizing efforts, but they decline to help. Small rallies are held in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and other cities. No one attends the Lubbock rally. ** Manafort emails Kushner a warning that if Clinton loses, her campaign will respond to the loss by claiming voter fraud, cyber-fraud, and Russian hacking of voting machines contributed to Trump's victory. * November 8: ** Trump is elected President of the United States. ** Hours after the polls close, the
hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...
#Calexit is retweeted by thousands of IRA accounts. **
Rospatent The Federal Service for Intellectual Property, commonly known as Rospatent (russian: Федеральная служба по интеллектуальной собственности (Роспатент), Federalnaya sluzhba po intellektualn ...
, the Russian government agency responsible for intellectual property, grants 10-year extensions on four of Trump's
trademarks A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
.


Post-election transition


Investigations' continuing timelines

*
Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2017) This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the ...
*
Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (July–December 2017) This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between Trump associates and Russian officials, links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappr ...
*
Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2018) This is a timeline of major events in first half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 U ...
*
Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (July–December 2018) This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to the Russian interference in the ...
*
Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2019) This is a timeline of events in the first half of 2019 related to investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 Un ...
*
Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (July–December 2019) This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2019 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to the Russian interference in the 2 ...
*
Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (2020–2022) This is a timeline of events from 2020 to 2022 related to investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United Sta ...


Related continuing interference

*
Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections The United States Intelligence Community concluded in early 2018 that the Russian government was continuing the interfence it started during the 2016 elections and was attempting to influence the 2018 United States mid-term elections by gene ...
*
Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections was a matter of concern at the highest level of national security within the United States government, in addition to the computer and social media industries. In 2020, the RAND Corporati ...


See also

* Timelines related to Donald Trump and Russian interference in United States elections


References


Further reading

* * * Bittman, Ladislav (1983). ''
The KGB and Soviet Disinformation ''The KGB and Soviet Disinformation: An Insider's View'' is a 1983 non-fiction book by Lawrence Martin-Bittman (then known as Ladislav Bittman), a former intelligence officer specializing in disinformation for the Czech Intelligence Service and ...
''. Foreword by
Roy Godson Roy Godson (born 1942) is an academic and scholar within the fields of international politics and national security, and a professor emeritus at Georgetown University. Education Godson graduated with a PhD from Columbia University, with a focus o ...
. * * Robert Costa, Carol D. Leonnig, and Josh Dawse
Inside the secretive nerve center of the Mueller investigation
''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. December 2, 2017. * * * Entous, Adam; Nakashima, Ellen; Jaffe, Greg (December 26, 2017)
"Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options."
''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
.'' * Foer, Franklin (March 2018)
"The Plot Against America"
''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''. * Frank, Thomas (January 12, 2018).
Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers
". ''
BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, it ...
.'' * Hamburger, Tom; Helderman, Rosalind S. (February 6, 2018).
Hero or hired gun? How a British former spy became a flash point in the Russia investigation
" ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
.'' * ** * * * * * Luce, Edward (November 3, 2017) The Big Read
Trump under siege from Mueller as he travels to Asia.
''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
''. * * * Osnos, Evan; Remnick, David; Yaffa, Joshua
"Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War,"
(March 6, 2017), ''The'' ''New Yorker.'' * Pacepa, Ion Mihai; Rychlak, Ronald J. (2013). '' Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism'' * * * Shane, Scott; Mazzetti, Mark (September 20, 2018)
"The Plot to Subvert an Election"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' * Shultz, Richard H.; Godson, Roy (1984). '' Dezinformatsia: Active Measures in Soviet Strategy'' * * Thompson, Nicholas; Vogelstein, Fred (February 12, 2018).
Inside the two years that shook Facebook–and the World
" ''
Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
.'' * Toobin, Jeffrey (December 11, 2017)
"Michael Flynn's Guilty Plea Sends Donald Trump's Lawyers Scrambling"
''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. * Unger, Craig (July 13, 2017)
"Trump's Russian Laundromat"
''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
''. * * *


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections * 2016 Contemporary history timelines Donald Trump-related lists Political timelines of the 2010s by year