All the bombshell developments in the Trump-Russia controversy that has led to congressional investigations

Reuters

Donald Trump

During the 2016 presidential election, the Russian government, directed by President Vladimir Putin, waged an “influence campaign” aimed at undermining Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and aiding Donald Trump, according to a report by US intelligence agencies.

The campaign included cyber attacks on US political organizations, including the Democratic National Committee, with the intent to damage the reputation of the Democratic Party, the Clinton campaign, and the democratic process.

Following reports that some of Trump’s campaign associates had contacts with Russian officials during the campaign, the FBI announced that it is investigating whether Trump campaign members colluded with the Russian government to influence the election as part of its broader investigation into Russian interference in the election. The House and Senate intelligence committees are also investigating Russian influence on the election.

And on Monday, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee is holding a hearing on Russian interference in the election. Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is expected to confirm that she warned the White House in January about former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contact with Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.

Here is a timeline of all of the major events in the relationship between Trump, his associates, and Russia.

2008: Donald Trump Jr. tells a reporter of the Trump Organization, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets” and “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

Source: eTurbo News

November 2013: Trump visits Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. Upon his return, he tweets: “Moscow is a very interesting and amazing place! U.S. MUST BE VERY SMART AND VERY STRATEGIC.”

Source: Twitter

September 2015: An FBI agent tells the Democratic National Committee that its computer network had been hacked by a cyberespionage group associated with the Russian government. The DNC contractor who takes the call isn’t sure the caller is actually an FBI agent and doesn’t take the concerns very seriously. It takes another seven months for knowledge of the hacking to reach the highest levels of the DNC.

December 10, 2015: Michael Flynn, who began advising Trump’s campaign in February 2016, is paid to speak at an event hosted by Russia Today — a state-funded news outlet — also attended by Putin.

December 17, 2015: Putin praises Trump as the “absolute leader of the presidential race.” In response, Trump says it is a “great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”

March 21, 2016: Trump tells The Washington Post that Carter Page, an American oil industry consultant living in Russia, is one of his foreign policy advisers. By September, Page had stepped down from the Trump campaign. In April 2017, the Post reports that Carter had been subject to secret surveillance by the FBI beginning in July 2016 after the government determined there was probable cause to believe Carter was acting as an agent of Russia.

Source: The Washington Post

March 28, 2016: Trump hires Paul Manafort, an experienced Republican operative who previously advised the Russian-aligned Ukrainian president, to help him wrangle delegates. He later becomes Trump’s campaign chairman. Manafort has recently come under fire amid reports that he secretly worked to advance Russian interests for years before he joined the campaign.

June 15, 2016: A hacker named Guccifer 2.0 releases documents stolen from the DNC.

July 18, 2016: The Republican National Convention releases its official platform, which adopts the Republican Party’s stance on Russia and its eastern European neighbors, but does not advocate for providing weapons to Ukraine to fight the Russians, something virtually all Republican foreign policy leaders have called for.

July 22, 2016: Wikileaks publishes 20,000 emails stolen from the DNC, which reveal that some DNC staffers were working to promote Hillary Clinton at the expense of her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders. Two days later, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns.

July 25-26, 2016: The FBI announces that it is investigating the DNC hacks and intelligence officials tell the White House that they believe with “high confidence” that the Russian government directed the cyberespionage.

July 27, 2016: In a speech during a campaign rally, Trump urged Russia to hack into Clinton’s emails. “I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

Source: Politico

August 8, 2016: Trump’s former campaign adviser and longtime friend Roger Stone says that he has communicated with Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. Just days before Wikileaks releases the first batch of a trove of emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, Stone tweets, “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary.”

Source: Twitter

August 19: Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigns days after reports surface showing he was allotted $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments by a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

October 7: Wikileaks publishes the first of several batches of emails stolen from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s email account.

November 10: Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks tells reporters, “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign,” after Russian officials claim to have had “contacts” with Trump campaign officials.

Source: The Washington Post

December 12, 2016: Trump nominates Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state. Tillerson has had a long business relationship with Russia, and Putin personally awarded him the country’s Order of Friendship in 2013.

January 6, 2017: US intelligence agencies release a report stating that Russia “ordered an influence campaign in 2016” in favor of Trump and that Russian officials were behind the hacking of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Trump responds by arguing that the hacks had “absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.”

Source: Business Insider

January 10, 2017: Buzzfeed publishes a 35-page dossier of unverified claims concerning Trump’s ties to Russia compiled by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele. Trump denounces the dossier as “fake news” and a “political witchhunt.”

Source: Buzzfeed

February 13, 2017: Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is forced to resign following reports that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US (in which he allegedly discussed US sanctions on Russia).

February 16, 2017: Trump refutes a February 14 New York Times report claiming that several of his associates had contact with Russian officials during the presidential campaign and transition, calling the story “fake news,” and adding that none of his campaign advisers had contacts with Russia during the election.

March 2, 2017: Attorney General Jeff Sessions recuses himself from overseeing investigations into the Trump campaign after reports surfaced that he met with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 campaign — meetings he did not disclose to Congress.

March 4, 2017: In a series of tweets, Trump accuses Obama of wiretapping his phones in the run-up to the 2016 election, calling the former president a “Bad (or sick) guy!” The White House has since failed to provide evidence that such wiretapping occurred.

April 6, 2017: The New York Times reports that Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, failed to report meetings with Russian officials during the presidential campaign and transition on his application for a government security clearance. Kushner’s attorney called the omissions an error.

Source: The New York Times

Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.

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