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So just what do we know about what Russia did or didn’t do involving the 2016 election and how the Trump campaign responded? Quite a bit actually, even though new Special Prosecutor Mueller has just started to get his feet on the ground.
I’ll tell you, when you actually lay it out all out item by item in chronological order a lot of patterns and actions/reactions become eminently clear. WIthout getting into classified or confidential data that isn’t yet public knowledge, what is public knowledge is already fairly stunning.
[This timeline has been continued with Vol#2, Vol#3 and Vol#4 due to length]
- 1985 — Australian government rejects a bid for a Trump Casino in Sydney because of his alleged ties to the mafia.
- 1986 — Trump attempts to gain a posting to Russia as part of the Reagan Administration and says he could sit down with Gorbechev to negotiate an end to the cold war “in an hour.”
- 1990 — Trump’s Taj Mahal casino, which is a favorite gambling spot for Russian mobsters living in Brooklyn, is cited 106 times in 18 months for violating money laundering rules, particular failing to report when someone wins and withdraws more then $10,000.
- 1991 — Taj Mahal files for bankrupcy protection, Trump sells his 50% share. After this and his other Casino bankruptcies most major banks no longer authorize loans to the Trump organization.
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1998 — Felix Sater a Russian born violent convict with ties to the Russian Mob — who are frequently used by Russian intelligence to do their dirty work and fund blackbag operations — gets caught up in a $40 Million stock fraud case but is only fined $35,000 in exchange for becoming an FBI informant.
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2000 —
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2001-2007 — At least 63 Russian Oligarchs lease, rent or buy various Trump propertetes in South Florida spending upwards of $98.5 Million on them, many of these deals with Russian nationals in Manhattan reportedly are arranged through Bayrock Group LLC whose offices are located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. Felix Sater becomes Bayrock’s managing director. Their first joint project together, in 2003, is building a Trump Tower in Phoenix.
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2005 —
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2006 —
- 2008 —
- 2009 —
- U.S. investor Bill Browder is expelled from Russia and his assets are used to setup a $230 Million tax rebate scam. Browder’s lawyer Sergei Magnitski discovers the scam and testifies to reveal it, he is subsequently arrested, tortured and murdered in a Russian jail, beaten to death by the guards.
- Manafort stops working for Deripaska.
- 2010 —
- 2011 —
- Trump Soho a joint venture condo project by TrumpCO and Bayrock is sued for defrauding buyers with inflated claims. The suit is settled with a payout of $3.19 Million and a potential criminal case is avoided.
- Oleg Deripaska obtains a diplomatic passport from Russia allowing him to travel to America bypassing the fact he’s banned from the US due to allegations of his connection to Russian mobsters.
- March 2011 — Trump begins his birther campaign against President Obama claiming there’s something wrong with his birth certificate. He also demands Obama’s college transcripts alleging he didn’t deserve access to Harvard, and claims that his best selling book “Dreams From My Father” was really ghostwritten by Bill Ayers.
- May 2011 —
- 2012 —
- 2013 —
- Russian mobsters renting property in Trump Tower just three floors below the penthouse suite are arrested for money laundering and running an illegal gambling ring at the end of a 2 year investigation. One of the attorney’s for the defendant Denys Katsyv of the Prevezon Group is Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the prosecutor is Preet Bharara, some of the stolen money is connected to Bill Browder’s investigation and the murder of Magnitski in Russia.
- Several months later Trump holds the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, the apparent money-laundering ring leader who remains at large is welcomed on the Red Carpet at the event. While in Moscow Trump reportedly meets with several high ranking oligarchs including board members from VEB Bank with ties to Putin at the restaurant Nobu, and with Billionaire Russian Real Estate developer Arag Agalarov and his Pop Star son Emil who partnered with Trump on the pageant.
- Video shot before the pageant shows Trump at dinner with Emin and Aras Agalarov, as well as Rob Goldstone Emin’s promoter. Michael Isakoff talks to Goldstone who reveals that Trump has plans to license a new Trump Tower in Russia with Agalarov as the local builder/owner. Don jr. is in charge of the project and Ivanka goes on location scouting trips with Emin. Ike Kaveladze who works for the Agalarov family is also present.
- Ukranian Oligarch Dmitry Firtash is indicted with five others in 2013 with paying $18.5 million in bribes to Indian officials so they could mine titanium and sell it to Boeing Corporation to build the 787 Dreamliner jet, he’s currently fighting extradition to the U.S.
- 2014 —
- Michael Flynn is fired by the Obama administration as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency for his “odd behavior.”
- Eric Trump says in an interview when discussing the funding of Trump Golf courses “Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” Eric later denies making this statement.
- Bayrock is functionally inactive, except for a few outstanding lawsuits.
- Putin releases Pussy Riot from prison for shooting a Punk Rock video in a Church.
- The Winter Olympics takes place in Sochi, Russia.
- Russia invades Crimea and begins sending Troops and equipment in the Ukraine to destabilize the Country, Obama rallies the international community to place Sanctions on Russia which crush their economy — plans for the Rosneft/Exxon deal and Trump Tower Russia are both put on hold.
- The FBI requests a FISA Warrant for Paul Manafort due to his involvement with the Ukrainian government and Putin friendly officials such as Deripaska, this warrant ultimately lapse in early 2016.
- Paul Manafort and his partner Rick Gates were named in a 2014 racketeering lawsuit involving Dmitry Firtash, who also has ties to Putin. That suit, which was later dismissed, claimed Manafort and Gates helped Firtash launder ill-gotten gains as part of an $850 million deal to build luxury housing at the site of the Drake Hotel in New York City,
- 2015 —
- Trump and his kids are named as witnesses in a $250 Million tax evasion case connected to Bayrock and Trump Soho.
- Michael Flynn goes to Russia, meets and sits with Putin for dinner and is paid $45,000 for a speech at RT’s 10th Anniversary Gala. He also receives $11,250 from Kaspersky Government Security Solutions, and $11,250 from Volga-Dnepr Airlines. He doesn’t get prior permission from the Pentagon for this trip or the payments. He also brokers a $100 Billion deal between Saudi Arabia and a state-owned Russian company, pocketing another $25,000 from it that he doesn’t disclose.
- Taj Mahal is fined $10 Million for continued money laundering by Treasury’s FinCen unit.
- Boris Nemtsov is murdered in the streets of Moscow in the shadow of the Kremlin.
- U.S. intel captures discussion by Russians about Trump running for President, when he hasn’t announced his run yet, and talking about multiple contacts they’ve been having with Trump associates and planning to funnel money into the election.
- Trump Hotels are attacked by hackers potentially exposing the credit card numbers of customers to being stolen and cloned, the chain covers up the intrusion and fails to update their software.
- Deripaska transfers $18.9 million to a private equity fund set up by Manafort to acquire a Ukrainian telecommunications company, but he sues Manafort and his partner, Rick Gates, after they “simply disappear” with the money.
- June 17, 2015 — Trump announces his run for President. He never releases his Taxes, his birth certificate or his school transcripts.
- Summer 2015 —
- Cyber hacking contractors working with the FSB (Cozy Bear) begin infiltrating and extracting copies of documents including the oppo-research on Trump and emails from the DNC servers. Their previous successful attacks include the White House and State Dept. email systems.
- They also penetrate some RNC emails accounts and attack various Republicans who oppose Trump in the primaries.
- September 2015 — FBI detects the hack and begins trying to inform the DNC, but they start by going to their Helpdesk not simply calling Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
- November 2015 — Felix Sater emails Michael Cohen saying “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected... I know how to play it and how to get this done. Buddy, our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it… I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
- Late 2015 — GCHQ and other western intel agencies from Germany, Poland, Estonia and Australia begin noticing contacts between Russia Spies and members of the Trump campaign. They attempt to notify FBI and CIA who are apparently caught “flat footed.”
- January 2016 — Michael Cohen send an email to Putin deputy Dmitry Peskov trying to get talks regarding Trump Tower Moscow restarted.
- March 2016 -—
- US Attorney Preet Bharara prosecutes Russian intelligence officer Evgeny Buryakov an employee of sanctioned Russia bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) of conspiracy to commit espionage in recruiting U.S Businessmen in Manhattan including Carter Page. Page had been cooperating in this investigation as an informant.
- FBI receives memo alleging collusion between Loretta Lynch and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to quash the Clinton email investigation — they believe this document is fake.
- Trump Hotels payment systems gets hacked again since they haven’t implemented better security measures after the first attack in 2015. Customers aren’t notified for another 3 months.
- March 14, 2016 —
- George Papadopoulos meets in Italy with a Russian professor based in London with ties to the Kremlin.
- March 16, 2016 -—
- John Podesta receives a spearfishing email, his IT people mistakenly tell him that it’s “Legitimate” and his assistant clicks on the link and gives up his password compromising his account.
- March 21, 2016 —
- Trump lists Carter Page & George Papadopoulos as part of his foreign policy team along with 3 others.
- March 24, 2016 —
- Papadopoulos writes an email offering to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity. On this same day he meets with the Professor who introduces him to a Russian female he describes as ‘Putin’s Niece”, and the Russian Ambassador and sought to setup more meetings between those reps and members of the Trump campaign. The Professor tells him they have “thousands of emails” worth of “dirt” on Clinton.
- March 28, 2016 —
- Trump hires Paul Manafort to handle the delegate process on his campaign.
- March 31, 2016 —
- Papadopoulos while introducing himself at a national security meeting says he has connections that could help foster a meeting between “Trump and Putin”.
- April 2016 —
- April 3, 2016 — the Panama papers are released revealing $3 Billion in shading dealings linked to Vladamir Putin.
- April 11, 2016 — Putin’s “Niece” emails Papadopoulos that she “would be very please to support the initiatives between our two countries.” The professsor emails “This has been already agree, I’m flying to Moscow on the 18th for a Valdai meeting, plus other meetings at the Duma [Russian Congress]”
- April 18, 2016 — The Professor introduces Papadopoulos to an individual in Moscow with connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
- April 22, 2016 — The MFA connection emails Papadopoulos thanks him for an extensive talk, and suggests further meetings in London or Moscow, Papadopoulos responds suggesting meeting in London with the Russian Ambassador.
- April 25, 2016 -— Papadopoulos emails a Senior Policy Advisor that “The Russian government has an open invitation for Putin to meet with Mr. Trump when he’s ready.”
- April 26, 2016
- The Russian professor meet with Papadopoulos in London and says that Russia has “thousands of emails” containing “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
- April 27, 2016
- Trump gives his first major foreign policy speech at an event that had been largely arranged by Jeff Sessions Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn, Russian ambassador Kislyak is invited as a special guest, both Trump and Session briefly meet with him at a backstage reception before the speech at the Mayflower Hotel.
- Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos writes in an email to campaign manager Corey Lewandowsk he had fielded “a lot of calls over the past month” related to a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russia. “Russia has been eager to meet with Mr. Trump for some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss,” Papadopoulos says in a separate email to Paul Manafort.
- April 30, 2016 — Papadopoulos thanks the Professor via email for his “critical help. This is history in the making.”
- May 2016 —
- June 2016 —
- June 2, 2016 — Hillary gives a major speech criticizing Trump’s closeness to Russia and Putin accusing him of praising “dictators like Vladimir Putin” and having a “bizarre fascination with dictators and strongmen who have no love for America.”
- June 3, 2016 — Music Promoter Rob Goldstone emails Don Jr, and says he has information from the Russian Government about shady dealings by Hillary and DNC. Don Jr. says “I Love it” and plans to discuss it further on a phone call and eventually a meeting.
- June 7, 2016 — Trump says that he’ll give a major speech about Hillary Clinton’s corruption in a week.
- June 9, 2016 —
- Donald Jr, Kushner and Manafort secretly meet with a prominent Russia lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower after being offered “dirt” about the Clinton Campaign and the DNC being funded by Russia. The information comes through their Miss Universe Moscow partner Aras Agalarov via his son’s Emin’s promoter Rob Goldstone who had received it directly from the “Crown Prosecutor” [actually the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika] of Russia because the Russian Government “supports Trump.” They also discuss the Russian adoption program in the wake of the Magnitski Act, which is a law that blacklists Russian Human Rights violators.
- Later that day Donald tweets for the first time about Clinton’s “33,000 missing emails.”
- June 12, 2016 —
- June 13, 2016 — Trump blames the Pulse attack on Obama’s sympathy with “Radical Islam” and on immigrants even though the shooter was a native born American citizen born in New Hyde Park, NY.
- June 14, 2016 -— Wapo Reports that the DNC has been hacked by the Russian government, DNC goes public about the cyber intrusion.
- June 15, 2016 —
- Guccifer 2.0 releases the DNC’s opposition research file on Donald Trump.
- Dana Rohrabacher’s scheduled “show trial” hearing on Bill Browder in opposition to the Magnitski Act is cancelled by his committee chairman.
- Rep. Kevin McCarthy jokes behind scenes that the only people Putin pays are Rohrabacher and Trump.
- June 16, 2016 — Guccifer 2.0 uses DCLeaks to reveal the first set of hacked DNC emails, they have Cyrillic characters and Russian urls in their metadata
- June 17, 2016 — Putin says the Trump is a “bright” individual.[Actually the word he used translates more accurately into “Colorful”]
- June 19, 2016 — The Russian MFA connection asks Papadopoulos that if Trump is unable to meet in Moscow “that perhaps that he or another campaign rep could attend.”
- June 20, 2016 — Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is fired after a controversy where he physically grabbed and yanked a Brietbart reporter away from Trump as she asked a question. At first Corey and the Trump campaign denies it ever happened, but it’s on video — then he claims he would’ve “apologized if he knew she was from Breitbart” but he doesn’t. She files a criminal complaint, but it’s thrown out. He goes to work for CNN while still being paid by Trump.
- June 22, 2016 — Trump finally gives his big anti-Clinton speech over a week late, he complains about Benghazi, Free Trade, Temperment and that her “Deleted emails could make her vulnerable to blackmail by hostile states.” He doesn’t mention Russian money going into the DNC.
- June 24, 2016 —
- June 27, 2016 — Bill Clinton meets privately with AG Loretta Lynch on her plane at the Pheonix Airport while they are both there during a layover. Reportedly they discuss family, golf and travel, but calls of “obstruction” and “undue influence” — even though there is absolutely no evidence to that effect — eventually cause her to defer any decision on the Clinton email investigation to the FBI.
- July 2016 —
- July 5, 2016 — Influenced by false email intel generated by the Russians alleging that AG Lynch was “throwing the Clinton case”, and apparently the fact that she has suggested he called the Clinton situation a “matter” rather than an “investigation” — even though DOJ rules prohibit confirming an investigation before it is complete — FBI Director James Comey after announcing that the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s server is complete and no charges will be filed goes on to blast her in an extended public statement.
- July 7, 2016 —
- Comey testifies to Congress about Hillary’s server and manages to debunk just about every Right-wing conspiracy about it, she didn’t break State Dept rules because they do allow private email accounts and only 3 emails were marked with a (C) for Confidential and two of those were by mistake.
- Manafort sends an email through Kilminik offering to give his previous Putin supporting benefactor and official Russia government agent — as diplomatic passport holder — Oleg Deripaska a personal status briefing on the Trump campaign in exchange to “get whole” on his outstanding $18 Million debt.
- July 18-21, 2016 —
- The Republican National Convention takes place during which Trump National Security Advisor J.D. Gordon torpedoes a platform plank supporting the arming of Ukrainian rebels against pro-Russian forces, then lies about it.
- Kislyak attends and briefly meets Sessions again at a Heritage Foundation event, as well as Carter Page and J.D. Gordon.
- Flynn delivers a speech at the Republican convention, joining in the crowd’s “Lock her up!” chant. “If I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today”
- Mike Pence also chants “Lock Her Up” over Hillary’s emails — even though she’s been cleared already — and he himself has AOL for his email for official business as Governor and his account had been hacked.
- Flynn fills out his SF-86 form to reactivate his security clearance related to his being selected by Trump as national security advisor. Flynn fails to include that he had received $530,000 from Turkey or that he had taken another $45,000 from Russia in 2015.
- July 22, 2016 —
- One day after end of RNC Wikileaks reveals their first set of DNC emails.
- Russia Today, Sputnik News, Breitbart and other right-wing outlets begin doing incessant stories about every little negative revelation in them as well as numerous false and inflammatory rumors these are further pushed by bots and trolls on facebook and twitter until they trend.
- The FBI begin to look into the Russia hack based on information from Crowdstrike, they don’t get direct access to DNC servers presumably as that would cause them to shutdown their entire email capability in middle of an election until a replacement set of servers could be installed [I’ve sent a question to the DNC’s Deputy Communications Director on this point, he hasn’t responded yet].
- FBI is also looking into links to Trump due to Steele memos and concerns raised by CIA head Brennan.
- July 25, 2016 — Democratic Convention starts, because of the brouhaha from the Wikileaks email dump, Chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz resigns and Donna Brazille takes over, RT/Sputnik heightened and amplified rumors swirl about the DNC “rigging the Primary” for Clinton and against Sanders.
- July 26, 2016 —
- July 27, 2016 — Trump asks Russia to hack and/or release Hillary’s missing emails.
- July 28, 2016 — Sputnik news claims Wikileaks proves the primary and DNC was rigged against Sanders.
- July 31, 2016 — Manafort denies that the Trump campaign made any changes to the RNC platform. Various Trump affiliates will repeat these denials 20 more times before finally admitting the truth; Donald personally ordered the change in a meeting with Gordon during the RNC in which Sessions attended. Kilminik brags that he engineered this change. [If this was done as a pay off to Russia to ensure their continued support in their hacking/propaganda efforts, it proves Donald’s direct involvement in a criminal conspiracy.]
- August 2016 —
- August 4, 2016 — Brennen calls his counterpart Alexander Bortnikov Director of the FSB and issues him a stern warning about the hacking and active measures.
- August 9, 2016 — Flynn Intel Group, a consulting firm founded by Flynn, signs a contract with Inovo BV, a firm run by a Turkish businessman close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for more than $500,000
- August 16, 2016 — Manafort pushes a false RT/Sputnik News story about terrorist sabotage at a NATO base in Turkey. Trump also pushes the same false story.
- August 15, 2016 — Papadopoulos is advised by the Trump Campaign Supervisor to “Make the Trip” to Moscow.
- August 17, 2016 — Trump receives his first classified briefing. Flynn is with him.
- August 19, 2016 — Manafort leaves the Trump campaign amidst allegations that he accepted a $12 Million under-the-table cash payment from his former Putin friendly client, ex-Ukraine President Yanakovych. Pollster Kellyanne Conway, who is a Mercer employee, takes over.
- August 21, 2016 -— Trump pal Roger Stone tweets “it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel.” He later claims he was talking about Podesta’s “business dealings” not his email, although Stone had also been sending DM’s to Guccifer 2.0 the public face of Russia’s cyber hacking operation.
- September 2016 —
- October 2016 —
- October 4, 2016 — Guccifer 2.0 Post documents stolen from the Clinton Foundation.
- October 5, 2016 — Buzzfeed reports that Trump financial attorneys regularly meet with him in pairs so that there would be a witness. “…It’s always been our practice to make sure two people are present, and we don’t have a problem of people lying.” and “We tried to do it with Donald always if we could because Donald says certain things and then has a lack of memory.”
- October 7, 2016 —
- Hurricane Matthew hits Florida as a Category 4.
- Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence release a Joint Statement on the Russia Hacking efforts saying it “was directed from the highest levels of the Kremlin.” FBI Director Comey had also originally signed on to this document, but refrained at the last minute due to the closeness of the election.
- The Access Hollywood Video drops with “Grab ‘em by the Pussy”. One hour later Wikileaks releases the first set of emails taken from John Podesta’s account. RT and Sputnik News continue to do daily reports as another set of emails is dumped for next 30 days.
- October 11, 2016 — Trump uses false talking points from RT to blame HIllary for Benghazi
- October 21, 2016 — Hillary Clinton states during a debate that 17 Intelligence Agencies have confirmed Russia’s attempt to influence the election. Trump denies it, says “nobody knows” and it could be “China, North Korea or a 300lbs. Fat Guy.” which is also a Sputnik News Talking point.
- October 23, 2016 —
- October 26, 2016 — James Comey writes a letter to congress about the Abedin emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop several weeks earlier — it gets leaked almost immediately, presumably by Jason Chaffetz’s office. All hell breaks lose, Clinton drops 3-5% in the polls.
- October 27, 2016 — Rudy Giuliani admits on Fox that he knew about the Comey letter from “former FBI agents” before it was sent to Congres and leaked.
- October 30, 2016 — FBI obtains a warrant to review the Abedin emails.
- November 6, 2016 — FBI finds that virtually all of the Abedin emails are duplicates that they already had in their possession from the Clinton server.
- November 7, 2016 — 19.5% of Rosneft is sold to unknown buyers. [This seem to be consistent with the Steele Memo which predicted this sale as an payoff to Trump for lifting sanctions on Russia]
- November 8, 2016 —
- November 9, 2016 — Wikileaks proclaims that Trump won because Democrats rigged system to have Clinton beat Sanders.
- November 10, 2016 —
- November 11, 2016 —
- November 12, 2016 — Lewandowski quits CNN to work for Trump again.
- November 28, 2016 — In an interview with Time magazine, Trump denies interference from Russia. “I don’t believe they interfered,” he said. “That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say ‘oh, Russia interfered.’” He also addressed the hacking: “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey”
- November 30, 2016 — The Justice Department informs Flynn that he is under investigation for his unreported lobbying on behalf of Turkey.
- November —
- December —
- December 1, 2016 —
- Flynn meets with Kislyak at Trump Tower along with Jared Kushner. Kushner suggests setting up a secure back-channel back to the Kremlin using Russian facilities that could “bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy.”. Kislyak is reportedly “taken aback”. They also suggest having an overseas meeting but Flynn is considered too high profile to attend.
- Both Flynn and Kushner don’t include these meetings on their security clearances forms and are at risk of Logan Act violations if this meetings are intended to undermine current U.S Foreign policy as both are private citizens at this point. Kushner later includes the meetings on future updates.
- NSA discovers the details of this meeting while surveilling Kislyak as he communicates with Moscow.
- At Kislyak’s suggestion, Kushner later meets with banker and FSB Academy graduate Sergei Gorkov who is head of Moscow based government owned bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), which funds special projects like the Sochi Olympics or` Trump Tower in Toronto and included Russian intelligence officer Evgeny Buryakov on it’s payroll, who was convicted in March 2016 by Preet Bharara of conspiracy in the case involving the attempted cultivation of Carter Page as an Russian asset. Gorkov is also former deputy board chairman of Russia largest state-owned bank, Sberank, whom had hired Trump’s attorney’s Marc Kasowitz to defend it.
- December 8, 2016 — Page is back in Moscow to meet with “business leaders and thought leaders”
- December 9, 2016 —
- December 12, 2016 -—
- While in Moscow, Trump’s former campaign surrogate Jack Kingston meets with Russian businessmen to discuss what they might expect from a Trump administration. “Trump can look at sanctions,” Kingston says. “They’ve been in place long enough.”
- December 13, 2016 —
- December 20, 2016 -— Jared Kushner brags to Forbes magazine about the data-mining and voter micro-targeting operation he helped setup for the Trump campaign with Cambridge-Analytica which is owned by deep pocketed Trump pal Robert Mercer, who also bankrolls Breitbart News.
- December 21, 2016 — Lewandowski doesn’t get rehired by Trump, starts a lobbying firm.
- December 29, 2016 —
- December 30, 2016 —
- January 5th —
- January 6th —
- U.S. Intel agencies publish their report on the Russia Cyber efforts to influence the election. Obama, Biden and Trump are briefed on the report, Trump claims it proves Russia didn’t “change the vote” even though the report doesn’t attempt to answer that question.
- January 10th —
- Jeff Sessions testifies during confirmation hearings that he doesn’t know “any Trump surrogates who were in contact with the Russians” ignoring the question he was asked which was “What would you do if you discover surrogates coordinating with Russians?” Apparently the correct answer is “Nothing.”
- Buzzfeed publishes the entire Steele Dossier online.
- CNN reports that Trump was specifically briefed on it during the Jan 6th briefing.
- Trump transition team does full court press to deny this briefing occurred, not only denying that anyone verbally described it to Trump but also there was a 3 page summary at the end of the full Russia report.
- Flynn meets with Susan Rice over a plan to arm the Kurds against ISIS, Flynn vetoes the plan as the Kurds are considered terrorists by one of his financial benefactors Turkey.
- Paul Manafort calls Reince Preibus to deny allegations in the dossier about him
- January 11th —
- January 12th — NBC news confirms that Comey personally briefed Trump about the Steele Dossier revealing yet another transition team lie.
- January 14th — Reports surface that U.S. Intel agents have warned our allies like Israel not to share sensitive intel with Trump transition team due to the Steele dossier and the risk he might share it with Russia and hence their ally Iran.
- January 15th —
- January 20th — Inauguration day.
- January 21st —
- January 22nd — Comey attends an event honoring Law Enforcement at the WH, tries to avoid being noticed by Trump, but fails.
- January 23rd —
- Spicer claims Flynn didn’t talk to Kislyak about sanctions, even though he did.
- Later Mike Pence goes on Meet the Press after talking personally to Flynn and claims “Flynn told me he didn’t talk to Russia about sanctions.”
- January 24th — Flynn interviewed by FBI, again he apparently says he didn’t talk to Russians about sanctions but they know better. He also claims that he didn’t get any foreign money and the $45k and $530k came from “U.S. companies” having omitted the true information on his SF-86 Security form.
- January 26th —
- January 27th —
- Trump signs a travel ban against 7 majority Muslim nations.
- FBI interviews Papadopoulos about his contacts with Russians he falsely states the professor is “unimportant” when in fact he has close ties to the Kremlin, and falsely claims that their conversations took place before he was part of the campaign. He also lies about the MFA connection and Putin’s “Niece”.
- McGahn calls Yates, she returns to the WH where he asks “why does it matter if Flynn lied to Pence?”
- Trump invites Comey to dinner at the White House, allegedly asks Comey if he wants to “keep his job” and to pledge him his “Loyalty”, Comey offers his “Honesty” and takes copious notes.
- Kremlin arrests FSB officials Sergei Mikhailov, his deputy Dmitry Dokuchaev, and Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of cybercrime investigations at Kaspersky Labs (who had paid Flynn $11,500 in 2015) for treason and illegal hacking apparently for sharing intel information with the CIA.
- January 29th —
- January 30th — Sally Yates orders the DOJ not to defend Trump’s Muslim ban executive order in court as she doubts it is legal or constitutional.
- January 31st —
- February 2nd —
- February 3rd —
- February 6th —
- Rep. Maxine Waters states “Trump is moving towards Impeachment.”
- Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Felix Sater negotiate a deal to end sanctions against Russia by stopping the violence in Crimea with a Ukranian named Andrii V. Artemenko. They supposedly deliver a copy of this plan to Michael Flynn’s desk, but there is no evidence he ever reviewed it or passed it on to anyone.
- When this is revealed Artemenko is looked at for possible Treason charges by Ukraine. [Exactly who came up with this idea and tasked them with this? Does anyone believe they went rogue?]
- Februray 7th -— Sens. Cardin and Graham — alerted by Fried and Malinowski at State of Trump efforts to scrap sanctions -— author bipartisan legislation to require the approval of Congress for all changes to sanctions.
- February 8th — Washington posts asks Flynn if he discussed sanctions with Russia, he says “No” twice.
- February 9th —
- Flynn’s spokesman issues a correction to Wapo that he “doesn’t remember” if he did or didn’t discuss sanctions.
- Trump talks to Putin by phone and criticizes Obama’s Start II Nuclear deal with Russia. Flynn is there for the call.
- Judge Robart’s national block of the Muslim Ban is upheld by the 9th Circuit
- February 10th — Trump is asked about Flynn talking to Russians about sanctions and says “This is the first time I’ve heard that.” Note: He had already been personally told about this by White House Counsel McGahn immediately after he was told by Yates on Jan 26th.
- February 12th — Reports emerge that the Intel agencies are considering holding back highly sensitive intel from Trump to prevent leaks to Russia.
- February 13th — Flynn is fired immediate after Wapo report proving that he lied, allegedly he’s let go because he lied to Vice President Pence and caused him to be embarrassed about what he said on Meet the Press. WH secret push to cut sanctions goes on hold.
- February 14th —
- Comey & Sessions meet Trump in the Oval for a counter-terrorism briefing. Trump clears the room and gets Comey alone to complain about leaks asking him to prosecute some reporters over it and ask if he can just “Let Flynn go” Comey interprets the request to only be about Flynn not the Russia investigation, Comey notes this and discusses it with FBI leadership.
- The NYTimes reports that Trump aids (including Flynn, Manafort and Page) had repeated contacts with Russian Intelligence according to the NSA and that the FBI had requested they “collect as much information as possible about the Russian operatives on the phone calls” and go through their archives for more information.
- February 15th —
- Intel Agencies with access to foreign intercepts say “Trump Will Die in Jail.”
- Comey laters asks Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump again as it’s inappropriate. Comey’s memory of the event is hazy, but he states later Sessions doesn’t really respond. [During later testimony Session claims he repeated back basic DOJ protocols to Comey, which doesn’t answer his concern over why Sessions failed to follow protocol the previous day.]
- February 16th —
- February 17th —
- February 21st — Artemenko talks to a Ukrainian News outlet and reveals that he’s known Michael Cohen for some time since Cohen has an ethanol business in the country, which is also where his wife was born, and that his meeting with Cohen and Sater on Feb 6 wasn’t their first. According to Artemenko, he discussed the “peace-plan” with Cohen and Sater “at the time of the primaries, when no one believed that Trump would even be nominated.”
- February 25th — FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe — who began his carrier with the New York Field Office while Trump surrogate Giuliani was Mayor — goes to the White House and in direct violation of DOJ protocols buttonholes Reince Prebus to tell him the NYT article on contacts “Is Bullshit.” [Later reporting seems to hint that the FBI’s objection to the report is the claim that certain contacts were confirmed as part of “Russian Intelligence”, not that the contacts didn’t happen because those were confirmed by James Clapper.]
- February 26th —
- Preibus calls McCabe back and asks him to inform the Press about this as an “anonymous source”, he refuses.
- Preibus call his pals Devin Nunez Chairman of the House intelligence committee and Richard Burr Chairman of the Senate Intel Committee who are each former Trump surrogates who are heading up investigations of “Russia” — they do it for him.
- Former Bush Ethics Atty Richard Painter files complaint with Government Ethics Office that James Comey violated the Hatch Act by publicly disclosing unsubstantiated information about Abedine’s emails prior to the election.
- February 28th — Trump who had essentially called Hillary a “murderer” over Benghazi blames the Generals and Obama for death of Navy Seal in Yemen during raid he himself authorized.
- March 1 —
- it’s discovered that Sessions met with Kislyak twice, in July at the RNC which he attended as a Trump surrogate along with Carter Page and JD. Gordon and in September in his Senate Offices. Nobody notices that he also met him in April.
- Sen. Franken asks for Sessions to come back to the Senate to explain, he declines and sends a letter which claims he didn’t understand the question he was asked and didn’t think he was “acting as a surrogate” when he met Kislyak.
- March 2 — 100 Democrats demand that Jeff Sessions resign as Attorney General. He doesn’t.
- March 4 —
- March 5th —
- March 6th — Trump issues a revised Muslim travel ban, which no longer blocks immigrants and refugees from Iraq.
- March 7th —
- House Intel committee invites Sally Yates and James Comey to testify about Michael Flynn and Russia.
- Michael Hayden denies Trump’s Wiretapped by Obama claims.
- Sen. Franken says Session committed perjury.
- The Guardian reports that SLC Group and Cambridge Analytics methods of generating micro-targeted alt-news webiverse using data provided by AggregateIQ were used to meddle in the Brexit Vote to encourage “voter disengagement” and “to persuade Democrat voters to stay at home”:
- March 8th —
- March 10 —
- Sean Spicer confirms that they were informed about Flynn’s ties to Turkey downplaying it as “not a question of it raising a red flag.”
- Pence — who was head of the Trump Transition Team who were informed about this by Rep. Cummings and Flynn’s lawyers specifically — is also asked about Flynn receiving payments from Turkey and answers “This is the first I’ve heard of it…” (Uh, then how does Spicey know about it?)
- March 11th —
- March 15th — Federal Judge in Hawaii blocks revised travel ban.
- March 17th —
- Spicer blames GCHQ for Obama wiretaps.
- GCHQ denies it and demands an apology. Doesn’t get one, until later.
- Even with Flynn fired for lying about discussing sanctions sometime during the later part of the month members of the NSC email the State dept asking if sanctions on Russian Oil could be lifted which would have allowed the Exxon/Rosneft deal to go forward, State informs them this would be bad of U.S. oil companies and also bad to drop the sanctions without getting anything in return.
- March 20th —
- March 21st —
- March 22nd —
- March 24th — Forbes reports that Eric Trump admits to continuing to share quarterly financial reports on his father’s business with Trump in the White House in a direct violation of ethics rules and potentially the emoluments clause.
- March 28th — Yates testimony is cancelled.
- March 30th —
- Micheal Flynn asks for immunity in order to testify to congress. Congress declines.
- Former FBI agent Clint Watts testifies to Senate Intel that we need to “Follow the Money” and that there are “A lot of dead Russians” in this scandal.
- Trump calls Comey to asked why he’d testified to congress about Russia, to complain about the “Cloud over his head” in relation to the Russia investigation and how Comey can “lift that cloud” by getting out the word that he isn’t personally under investigation. Comey calls Acting Deputy AG Dana Boente — who is running the investigation — to follow up on that.
- Trump also questions the loyalty of Deputy FBI Director McCabe since his wife had run for office and received money from a Terry McAuillif fundraiser where Hillary Clinton had appeared.
- March 31st —
- April 4h —
- April 5th —
- April 6th — Nunez recuses himself from House Russia investigation. House Ethic Committee begins an investigation into Nunez’s handling of classified documents.
- April 7th — Nunez is recorded at a fundraiser claiming that Democrats don’t really want a Russia investigation. “Why do they want an independent commission? Because they want to continue the narrative that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are best friends, and that’s the reason that he won, because Hillary Clinton could have never lost on her own; it had to be someone else’s fault.”
- April 11th —
- Trump calls Comey for an update on efforts to “get the word out” on his not being under investigation personally. He says he contacted Boente but hadn’t heard anything back yet, and that WH Counsel should make the request which would be procedure. Trump says he’s been “loyal” and mentions we had “that thing” which baffles Comey. This is his last conversation with Trump.
- April 12th —
- April 13th — GCHQ and others say they have incidental SIGINT of Trump team members “Coordinating” with Russian Intelligence agents.
- April 19th —
- April 21st — Exxon/Mobil’s sanctions waiver is denied.
- April 25th —
- Rep. Chaffetz and Cummings holds a joint press conference where they accuse Flynn of breaking the law by accepting foreign payments without Pentagon permission.
- Trump calls Flynn and tells him to “Stay Strong.”
- April 27th —
- April 28th — Chaffetz quits congress. Then decides to stay while he still has Obamacare to get surgery for his pre-existing foot condition. The Guardian reports that Montana GOP candidate Gianforte has financial ties to sanctioned Russian companies including Rosneft.
- May 1st —
- May 2nd —
- May 3rd —
- Sean Spicers states Trump “has full confidence” in FBI Director James Comey.
- May 5th —
- May 7th —
- Kushner’s sister uses Trump’s image in a seminar in Beijing that hawks American Visas to Chinese investors. Reporters are ushered out of the room “This is not the story we want.”
- Kushner companies apologize.
- Macron Wins French Presidential election.
- May 8th —
- Sally Yates testifies before the Senate Intel committee that she was “Very Seriously Concerned” about Flynn when she went to White House to warn them about his communications with Kislyak.
- James Clapper also testifies and clarifies his prior statement that he was never informed by the FBI about their investigation into Trump/Russia connections.
- Trump has Stephen Miller draft a multi-page letter detailing a long list of complaints about Comey including the Russia problem and his failure to say Trump isn’t under investigation to justify his being fired, WH Counsel says the letter is “problematic” and it get spiked. Pence, Kushner, Priebus and Hope Hicks are present for this meeting.
- Trump meets with Rosenstein and asks his recommendation on Comey, Rosenstein drafts his own document criticizing Comey for his handling of the Clinton investigation, Sessions signs off on it.
- May 9th —
- Comey is fired by Trump, the administration claims it’s because of a recommendation by Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein based on Comey’s treatment of the Clinton email investigation which is still being analyzed by the DOJ inspector General. They don’t give Comey a heads up on the phone, they send a Trump’s personal bodyguard to his offices with a letter while Comey was at the Los Angeles field offices greeting new recruits and finds out by reading the chyron on the TV screens behind him.
- Kushner reportedly supports the firing saying it would be a “political win”. Peibus and Bannon are against it saying it will cause a “political firestorm.”
- Spicer hides in the Bushes to avoid WH Press corp asking about Comey firing while Huckabee-Sanders pushes hard that this was all Rosenstein because of Comey’s “atrocities” against Clinton.
- VP Pence echoes the “Rosenstein did it” line even though he was at the Miller letter meeting and knows better.
- Everyone ignores that Sessions also signed off on this and he was supposed to be “recused” from it. Nobody believes Trump fired Comey because he was mean to Hillary. Nobody notices this is just one day after Yates testimony about Flynn.
- Reports come out that a Grand Jury has subpeoned financial information connected to Michael Flynn.
- May 10th —
- May 11th —
- Trump calls Roger Stone to tell him “Good Job.”
- White House spokesperson Huckabee-Sanders openly admits that Comey was fired to “bring the Russia matter to a conclusion”, later that day Trump admits on CBS News to Lester Holt that he was going to fire Comey regardless of Rosenstein’s recommendation and he was thinking about the “made up Russia story” when he did it. He also admits that he let Kislyak & Lavrov into the oval office because “Putin asked him to.”
- Senate Intel committee subpoenas Flynn financial documents.
- Acting FBI Director McCabe testifies that morale inside the agency was high under Director Comey, but he can not confirm details of any private conversations between Trump and Comey, or that Comey requested “more resources” for the Russia investigation.
- NYTimes reports, based on comments shared with his friends, about Comey being asked to a private dinner with Trump and asked to “pledge his loyalty.”
- May 12th —
- May 13th — Trump frustrated with Spicer & Huckabee-Sanders hints he might cut them both out of the loop between him and press.
- May 15th —
- Comey wakes up early that morning and realizes he may have some corroboration for his conversations with Trump, he contacts a friend at Columbia Law School and has him share some of his memos with the press.
- Trump’s leak of classified data to Russia is revealed.
- Flynn’s replacement as National Security Advisor Gen. McMaster claims there’s nothing wrong with the leak because no “sources or methods” were revealed.
- Israel who happens to be one of the sources is pissed their asset may be now at risk.
- The money laundering case which had previous been handled by Preet Bharara is abruptly settled fueling rumors that it’s former targets may have now become FBI informants.
- Lewandowski resigns from his lobbying firm because he sucks at it, he never officially registers as a lobbyist.
- Senate contacts FinCEN for docs on Trump and his associate’s financial transactions.
- May 16th —
- The Comey Memos are revealed in the NYTimes documenting how Trump attempted to impact the Flynn investigation hinting at potential obstruction of justice.
- Chaffetz’s tweets “I have my subpeona pen ready” to get the memos. McCarthy and Ryan both say they’re fine with a subpoena.
- Breitbart and RW Media respond to the “code word” classified leak by claiming it’s merely a “smear campaign by the Deep State” against Trump, recycling the Seth Rich conspiracy and claiming “Obama and Biden blurted out classified info too” even though they didn’t.
- WH interviews former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a candidate to once again take back his old job.
- Oleg Deripaski sues the AP for their reporting on his links to Paul Manafort denying he paid him to work to “advance Putin’s interests” in 2005.
- May 17th —
- May 18th —
- May 19th — Jared Kushner named as “person of interest” in Trump investigation.
- May 20th — Trump makes his first trip overseas and his first stop is Saudi Arabia, where he works to secure a $110 Billion arms deal, dances with swords and an orb.
- May 22nd —
- May 23rd —
- May 24th —
- May 25th —
- May 26th —
- May 27, 2017 —
- May 28 -—
- May 29 -—
- May 30th —
- Sen. Al Franken “We should look at revoking Kushner’s security clearance”
- Katrina Pierson [on Fox] calls for WH shake up to punish leakers.
- Kellyanne Conway [on Fox]: “Kushner was right to setup back channel with Russia.” She refuses to comment about his meeting Gorkov, and blows off the departure of WH Communications Director Mike Dubke that morning.
- Cohen becomes target of Congressional probe, and turns down their request for documents and testimony for being “poorly worded.”
- House Intel sends request for documents to former Trump campaign and WH communications office member Brian Ephsteyn.
- Senate committee votes unanimously to grant Chairman Burr subpoena powers.
- CNN reports US Intel had recorded Russian government officials discussing having “derogatory financial information” on Trump and his associates during the campaign, and that they could use it to “influence” him.
- Trump hints to confidants he intends to leave the Paris Climate Accords.
- Hannity while still “on vacation” from FOX starts again with the Seth Rich bullpuckey and then begins targeting Rachel Maddow advertisers with a group called “Stop the Scalpings” and “Operation Fight With Fire!” Cuz, of course he does.
- Cummings sends letter to Rogers and Coats for “all documents, communications, memoranda, notes, and recordings” they may have from their conversations with Trump regarding the Russia investigation.
- House Intel issues subpoena to Michael Cohen.
- Putin echoes Trump and Nunez saying the Russia investigation is “Fiction” driven by a “desire of those who lost the U.S. elections to improve their standing by accusing Russia of interfering.” Yeah, well, it’s certainly kicking butt on RottenTomatoes.com.
- Flynn agrees to provide some documents to the Senate Intel panel after having previously refused a subpoena and requesting immunity before testifying.
- Spicer argues the Trump WH is frustrated by “Fake News” like his not wearing his translation earpiece, even tho that reporter corrected his mistake.
- AP reports that while in Europe Trump handed out the personal unsecured cell phone number to world leaders for them to call him.
- Ex-GOP Senator Tom Cotton says 75% of Scientists this “Climate Change is a Hoax”.
- May 31st —
- Breitbart & Washington Examiner posts a Carter Page letter which suggests he is a “whistleblower” in a supposed Obama/Hillary plot to falsely link Trump to Russia eager to inform congress of his “discoveries” and claims he’s is being “rejected/ignored”, while in reality plans for his testimony are ongoing.
- Trump Tweets in support of bogus Page-blower nonsense.
- House Intel panel subpoenas Michael Flynn.
- House Intel Chairman Devin Nunez, despite his “recusal”, issues his own independent subpoenas on “unmasking” without consulting with Democrats on the committee.
- Kushner’s uncle is second member of his klan found hawking the association with Jared and Trump to Chinese investors.
- CNN drops Kathy Griffin over her tasteless severed Trump head prank. Griffin apologizes 8 hours later, those expecting an apology for Trump’s birtherism, verbal assault on the Khan family, questioning John McCain’s service, accusing Ted Cruz’s father of being the accomplice of an assassin and “Grab ‘em by the Pussy”… are still waiting.
- Don Trump Jr. falsely criticizes Griffin and “the left” by saying Conservatives “Weren’t rude to Obama.” [Yeah, like they never burned and hung him in effigy, dressed him as a fictional mass murdering clown, as a marxist witch doctor or said he didn’t earn his slot into Harvard, was a secret illegal immigrant born in another country who falsified his birth certificate and wasn’t smart enough to actually write his own books. Unlike Donald Sr. or Jared Kushner, of course.]
- Reports surface confirming that Trump will drop out of Paris accords.
- Elon Musk threatens to ditch Trump’s business panel if he drops out of the accords.
- CNN reports that Comey intends to confirm the “loyalty oath”, that he was pressured to drop the Flynn investigation and other allegations against Trump in open testimony before congress.
- Olbermann: “There is no excuse for not arresting Kushner”
- Head of DOJ Fraud Unit joins Mueller Investigation.
- Press asks Spicer why Trump wasn’t offended when Ted Nugent threatened President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s life, and then later invited him to dinner at the White House. Spicey doesn’t bite.
- Spicey punts all questions on Russia and Flynn to “outside counsel” and says there are a couple people who do understand what “Covfefe” means.
- Google translate proves “Covfefe” doesn’t mean “I Will Stand Up” in arabic.
- Hillary Clinton tweets “People in covfefe houses shouldn’t throw covfefe.”
- CNN finally notices that Kislyak had a 3rd meeting with Session at Trump’s national security speech, they also notice that from the stage, with Kislyak in the audience he promised Russia a “great Deal.”
- Trump signals that he’s going to give Russia back the 2 spy compounds that Obama took from them in retaliation for election meddling, in exchange for access to some land in St. Petersburg for a new consulate.
- Olbermann, based on analysis by national security analyst Juliette Kayyem begins to talk about the possibility that Flynn has flipped and is cooperating with Mueller, largely because so little is coming about about Flynn and so much about Kushner.
- ABC news reports that Carter Page may have flipped and began cooperating with House intel inquiry.
- Hillary Clinton while at an event in CA explains that the link of collusion between Trump and Russia may run through the voter micro-targeting project set up by Kushner using resources provided by Robert Mercer’s Cambridge Analytics.
- Melania question Kathy Griffin’s mental health over bloody mask prank, nobody does the same for her staying in a marriage with a repeatedly admitted sexual predator.
- Several law professors point out the Trump/Russia collusion would be illegal as violations Campaign Finance Laws, Fraud, Public Corruption and coercion of federal elections.
- CNN reporters attempt to confront Gorkov, he backs off with no comment.
- Ryan Lizza in the New Yorker reports about Trump’s “Good Job” call to Roger Stone.
- Saudi lobbying firm MSLGroup files paperwork showing they have spent $270,000 for “Lodging ($190k), Catering ($78k) and Parking ($1.9k)” at Trump’s DC Hotel in the last 6 months.
- June 1st —
- June 2nd —
- June 3rd -—
- June 4th -—
- EPA head Pruitt — following the lead of Spicer — refuses to answer question of whether Trump still thinks global warming is a “hoax”.
- Duetsche Bank refuses to respond to inquiry from Democrats on House Finance Committee.
- Trump criticizes London Mayor Sadiq Khan for saying there’s “No reason for concern” in the wake of truck attack, when he was really talking about not being concerned about increased police presence.
- June 5th —
- June 6th -—
- Trump War Room fizzles without a war, or a room, or people willing to be in the room.
- Kremlin denies involvement in hacking of voter registration data.
- Sen. Mark Warner says that Russia’s attack on voter registration systems was “much broader” than what was included in the Intercept report.
- Reports are that Mueller’s prosecution team includes those who had worked on cases involving Watergate, Criminal Fraud, Enron, the Genevese Crime Family and National Security issues.
- Michael Moore launches secure TrumpiLeaks site for Whistle Blowers.
- Former DOJ officials says Trump’s explosive reaction to the recusal of Sessions shows a strong indication of a potential cover-up. “It shouldn’t really matter who’s leading the investigation unless you want the person in charge to somehow steer it in a way that benefits you.”
- WH staffers indicate that in the latest episode of “how not to act as your own lawyer” Trump intends to live tweet his rebuttals during Comey’s Senate Intel testimony.
- Michael Isikoff reports that 4 Top law firms rejected offers to represent Trump defense in the Russia probe. “The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen.”
- Joe Scarborough shuts down an interview with EPA head Scott Pruitt because he won’t answer the question “Does Trump still think climate change is a hoax?” He also muses that Trump’s mental health is getting worse, after he made claims that his tax bill was “progressing through congress” when there actually is no such bill in congress.
- Trump backs Saudi led plan to isolate Qatar, even though they are a major U.S. ally and have a strategic base which is critical to our battle against ISIS and al Qaeda in the region. Pentagon maintains their support of Qatar.
- Hours later CNN reports that the story of Qatar supporting terrorism leading to a breakdown in diplomatic ties between them and Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen that Trump took credit for was fake and had been planted by Russian hackers
- Don Jr. suggests London needed to take a pre-crime approach to anti-Terrorism, because Civil Liberties and probable cause are obviously for chumps.
- Trump defiantly tweets that he’ll never stop tweeting. All of his opposition cheers.
- Forbes reports that Trump funneled money intended for Eric Trump’s Charity for Kid’s Cancer back into Trump businesses and other charities.
- ABC’s Jonathon Karl reports that the rift between Trump & Sessions over his recusal — prompting his anti-DOJ tweets — has grown so severe than Session has considered resigning.
- Eric Trump says on Hannity that critics against Donald Sr. “There’s such hatred, they aren’t even people. Morals are just gone.
- June 7th —
- June 8th —
- Comey testifies to Senate Intel and confirms his written prepared statement.
- RNC releases talking points on Comey claiming there is no evidence of collusion with Russia, even though former CIA director John Brennan said the investigation was “well founded” after his agency detected numerous contacts between Trump associates and Russia. It then goes on with a baseless smear of Obama for interferring the Clinton email investigation and asks why he wasn’t investigated for obstruction.
- Chris Wallace on Fox say Comey’s testimony is “very damaging” to Trump.
- Donald Jr. lashes out at Comey calling his testimony “BS” on twitter. He ultimately fires off over 80 tweets.
- Nicole Wallace responds to Jr. “A guy who kills baby elephants for kicks can’t bash Comey’s character”
- Republicans questioning Comey suggest that Trump merely “hoping” something is not a crime. Yeah, sure, “Nice job you got there James, I hope nothing happens to it!”
- Trump’s outside attorney Kasowitz claims he never asked for a pledge of loyalty, that Comey has finally confirmed that he wasn’t under investigation, claims Trump didn’t try to stop the Russia investigation and denies he asked for Flynn to “be let go”.
- He notes that both Coats and Rogers denied they were “improperly influenced”, although he ignores that they wouldn’t answer most pointed questions regarding Trump and admitted they had no legal authority not to answer, which prompts the possibility they were coached not to answer so that Comey would look bad for being the one to reveal “privileged” info.
- He claims “forces” are working against Trump and Comey has admitted leaking “privileged, classified communications” in response to a tweet that appeared the next day and that appropriate law enforcement should investigate Comey for leaking.
- The written version of Kasowitz’s statements are riddled with typos, including misspelling “President” and “Coats.” [I feel that pain.]
- Brian Stelter on CNN claims the timing of Kasowitz claims about the NYTimes report including info from Comey memos before Trump’s tweet that Comey says prompted him to leak isn’t correct.
- Jonathan Turley argues that Comey leaking the memos may have been illegal under the assumption the information was confidential or classified.
- On CNN John Dean says that the Comey memos did not contain classified or privileged communications under previous caselaw spawned by US v Nixon. Michael Zeldin, former special assistant to Mueller later confirms this as does law professor Steve Vladick since the memos didn’t include any information about national security.
- On CNN former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook denies having any communications with the DOJ which might have influenced Lynch to call the email issue a “matter” rather than an investigation.
- Six former U.S. Attorneys say Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice.
- DOJ disputes two items in Comey’s testimony, they provide an email from Sessions chief of staff to Comey about his recusal, and they claim Session did issue a response on the issue of being left alone with Trump.
- Sen. King shuts down Jonathan Turley’s “the memos were government property” face to face on CNN. “These were Comey’s notes of his own recollection, not classified information.”
- Trump doesn’t tweet, apparently because his aides devised a plan to keep his schedule too packed for him to respond “Aides were bracing for some kind of Twitter eruption on Thursday night or early Friday” but the strategy implemented by Kasowitz seems to have worked.
- June 9th —
- June 10th —
- June 11th —
- June 12th —
- June 13th —
- Right-Wing media freaks when they discover a Shakespeare in the park version of Julius Ceasar which has been updated with a Trump-like leader who is assassinated, even though there had been a similar version in 2012 with an Obama-like leader and no one cared.
- Rep. Sean Duffy rails that Mueller is a friend of Comey’s and is on a witch hunt to get Trump. “Why should we let this charade go on?”
- Speaker Paul Ryan says Trump should let Mueller complete his job so he can “clear him.”
- Rosenstein testifies to the Senate during an appropriations hearing that there is “no reason and no good cause” to fire SP Mueller and that “If he were asked to fire him without cause, he wouldn’t do it.”
- Golden State Warriors refuse to visit the White House after NBA Championship win.
- Gingrich urges Trump to fire Mueller over Kathy Griffin’s bloody head stunt and Julius Ceasar in the park — which makes no damn sense.
- Bloomberg reports that in 2016 Russia conducted a cyber attack that breached voting systems in 39 states, including an attempt to change and modify voter lists in Illinois.
- Oliver Stone tells Steven Colbert that Putin has been “insulted and abused.”
- GOP operative Rick Wilson has Epic Tweet Storm against ‘Trump fellators, fanboys, grunting MAGA mouthbreathers’
- Newsweek reports that Sessions will deny meeting Kislyak at the Mayflower under oath, which is funny because Politico’s Michael Crowley was there in the same room with them at the time although he doesn’t state that they spoke directly. The Atlantic also reports that Session was acting in his capacity as a Trump surrogate at this time, not as a U.S. Senator.
- Kasowitz, Trump’s personal lawyer, brags he got Preet Bharara fired, which is weird for four reasons 1) his saying this should be a violation of attorney client privilege and 2) Preet was fired weeks before he was chosen as outside counsel so um, why were they talking then and 3) since his reason was “this guys gonna get you” — isn’t that obstruction for Trump to fire him to protect himself and 4) what the fracks he got to hide that Kasowitz seems to know about? [Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that one of Kasowitz former clients is Russia’s largest state-owned bank, Sberbank, which has links to former FSB Academy graduate Sergei Gorkov who now runs VEB bank which had a former russian spy using a job there as a cover who was prosecuted by Preet Bharara for espionage and trying to recruit NY businessmen, including Carter Page.]
- Judiciary head Grassley responds to Feinstein on looking into Obstruction of Justice by Trump, they plan to sit down and discuss it.
- Sessions testifies before Senate Intel with a masterful Mr. Magoo act of strategic and convenient “non-recall”.
- He again claims he answered Sen Franken’s confirmation question about anyone meeting Russians in the context of being a surrogate, even though that wasn’t the question. [Franken later blasts him — “Stop lying to the public”]
- He claimed he did go the Mayflower Hotel but he doesn’t recall meeting or talking to Kislyak who was also there. He didn’t include it when he revealed the other two contacts because he simply didn’t remember “meeting” Kislyak, although he may have “encountered” him.
- He voluntarily began his recusal on his first day largely because he of his involvement in the Trump campaign, so he never asked or was ever briefed on anything related to Russia long before making it official. In fact he stated he wasn’t even sure that it even happened saying “If Russia had hacked us...”.
- He says his supporting the firing of Comey was based entirely on his opinion of the handling of the Clinton email investigation — which completely contradicts what Trump told Lester Holt — and therefore it didn’t violate his recusal over the Russia investigation which was “only one among thousands.” The problem with that is that his recusal wasn’t over Russia, it was over anything related to the Trump campaign and frankly how Comey treated Clinton certainly had an impact on the campaign.
- He confirms that he did leave Comey alone with Trump, but he figured “He could handle himself”, and he was probably the last to leave the room but only — I guess — because he’s a slowpoke, not because he was concerned.
- He did respond when Comey confronted him the next day — although Comey’s recollection was very vague and unsure here — after Comey complained about being abandoned and asked for it not to happen again Sessions said he repeated DOJ policy back to him, which is not really responsive to his point or question at all.
- The most contentious part of his testimony was when Sen Wyden said he was stonewalling by not answering questions about his conversations with Trump, Sessions also got angry when he was asked to explain what was “problematic” about his relationship to Russia as Comey had mentioned.
- He also blew his stack when Sen. Heinrich said he was obstructing the congressional investigation by claiming some “DOJ inappropriateness” rule which allowed him not to answer questions when under oath the same way Coats and Rogers had done, although Burr chimed in the Rogers was fully forthcoming during closed session. [Reagan’s DOJ did have such a rule, but Reagan himself waved his executive privilege during Iran-Contra so everything about it could get out]
- John McCain tries to shutdown Kamala Harris questioning after Sessions says “she makes me nervous” then she blisters him on twitter for his non-answers.
- To his credit McCain catches Sessions in a big fat lie about why he met with Kislyak in his Senate Offices at all because they never even discussed the issues of Security that Sessions said the meeting was about.
- Dick Durbin calls for Sessions to step down if he can’t answer direct questions.
- Trumpster Jason Miller calls Harris “Hysterical” — Kirsten Powers cuts him into tiny bacon strips and grills them for his obvious bias and sexism.
- Trump started thinking he wanted to fire Mueller after hearing he’s a friend of Comey on Breitbart. [It took them this long to notice, I knew that in the early 2000’s?]
- Former Federal Prosecutor Julie O’Sullivan states that if Trump isn’t the subject of a criminal investigation — he soon will be.
- Huckabee-Sanders “Trump has the right to fire Mueller, but doesn’t intend to”. Actually he doesn’t have the power to do it, only Rosenstein — or his replacement if it comes to that — does.
- June 14th —
- Trump’s turns 71 years old.
- 186 Democrats offer Trump a birthday suit law suit for his violation of the Emoluments clause.
- An anti-Trump Bernie Sanders supporter fires shots at Republicans practicing for a celebrity baseball game, 4 are wounded included strong 2nd Amendment supporter and GOP House Whip Steve Scalise who is listed in critical condition, the shooter is killed. Trump responds quickly, and some immediately begin to call it “Terrorism”.
- Wapo notes this is the 154th mass shooting so far this year.
- Trump makes public announcement about the shooting, background checks for persons suffering mental/emotional issues are not mentioned.
- Don Jr. retweets an article that blames modern day Julius Ceasar enactment for Baseball practice shooting.
- Republicans who opposed gun background checks, suddenly concerned about Baseball practice shooter’s background and anti-Trump rants on social media.
- Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi call for America to “Come Together” something that didn’t happen after the shooting of Gabby Giffords after her office was vandalized following Sarah Palin putting a gun sight over her district, after Sandy Hook which Trump-pal Alex Jones says was a “false flag”, the Holocaust Museum Shooter who was planning to target David Axelrod, the Knoxville Unitarian Church Shooter which was an “attack on Liberals” inspired by a book from a frequent O’Reilly guest, Dylann Roof’s murder spree in Charleston in reaction to the trial of George Zimmerman, the attempted attack on the Oakland ACLU and Tides Foundation inspired by the rhetoric of Glenn Beck, the Las Vegas Cop Killers who were from the Bundy Compound, the attack on Planned Parenthood inspired by phony video by right-wing anti-abortion activists, the Alt-Reich Nation killer who knifed ROTC Cadet Lt. Richard Collins to death, the Sikh Temple Shooter who mistakenly thought they were Muslim, the Terrorist in Portland who killed two bystanders with a knife after harassing a pair of Muslim girls or the over 1,000 Hate crimes that sparked up immediately after Trump’s election. So I’m not holding my breath that things are suddenly gonna get all unity-like because Scalise was shot in the hip.
- Bernie Sanders responds and condemns shooting. “Violence of any kind is unacceptable.” Yeah, no kidding.
- Newt Gingrich blames the shooting on vulgar Democrats.
- Right wing radio host says Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown should be hanging from a rope, to which their righty Pastor guests says “Amen.”
- SP Mueller gives a classified briefing to Senate Intel Chairs Burr and Warner on his investigation.
- Wapo reports that Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice by beginning to interview high level intelligence officials, this investigation apparently began soon after Comey was fired but before Mueller was selected as Special Prosecutor. Trump as stated by Comey wasn’t being personally investigated, but after firing him his worst fear has come true.
- NYTimes confirms Wapo report and adds that Trump associates are also being investigated for illegal money laundering.
- WSJ reports Trump literally does not believe Russia hacked the DNC and Podesta, and tried to push NSA director Rogers to publicly deny any “collusion” reports just before Comey’s testimony — because he’s a gol darn idjit.
- Scalise apparently suffered organ damage and needs more surgeries.
- Trump along with Melania takes time off his birthday to visit the hospital, stories differ on whether or not they spend time in Scalise’s room.
- Senate votes 97-2 on a bill to tighten sanctions on Russia. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Business Insider. “People in the White House, we hear, are making calls in the House to try to stop it, slow it, weaken it, dilute it.”
- Pastor who suggested Obama might be the Anti-Christ now decrees the political Demonization of Republicans.
- Senate Judiciary committee opens investigation into Trump’s firing of Comey.
- Two Dozen Democrats send a later to WH Counsel McGahn about the digital security holes in Trump organization properties discovered by ProPublica.
- NBC and the Daily Beast report that the shooter had a history of violence against women, but was still able to access a gun.
- Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) told Fox News that “the media is complicit” in acts of violence like the mass shooting targeting members of Congress “if they keep inciting, as opposed to informing.”
- Trump tells a supporter on an island threatened by sea level rise, not to worry about sea level rise.
- Daily Beast reports that some WH aides think Trump “shot himself in the foot” by firing Comey, triggering the selection of a special prosecutor. [Yep.]
- RNC releases fresh talking points claiming there is no basis for an obstruction investigation, the only real crime is “the leaking” and asks why no one is investigating Loretta Lynch for obstructing the Clinton case [Because calling it a “matter” vs an “investigation” didn’t actually change anything, it was just PR and frankly more consistent with DOJ guidelines — so she didn’t that’s why.] Kasowitz also makes a similar lock-step complaint about leaks and denying obstruction.
- June 15th —
- Putin offers Comey political asylum if he gets “persecuted” by Trump, although considering Trump is the one under criminal investigation, he’s the one that might ultimately need asylum.
- Guardian reports that Richard Burt a lobbyist for Russian oil pipeline firm Gazprom says that he sat in two dinner meetings during 2016 with Jeff Sessions which conflicts with his testimony. (WHOOPSIE!)
- Dallas News reports that Russian hackers attempted, but failed, to break into their voter registration files during the Presidential Election.
- Gingrich starts tweet conspiracy theory that Mueller is intent on “crippling if not destroying” Trump’s presidency. Scarborough goes “How Dare He, that’s grotesque?”, Pelosi responds “So what? Who cares what he says?”
- WSJ reports a memo was written by recently departed Deputy NSA Director Rick Ledgett documenting interactions between Rogers and Trump where he expressed doubt in the Russia investigation and pushed Rogers to get Comey to express there was “no collusion” and to “remove the cloud” [hm, what a familiar phrase?] over his administration. Mueller is reportedly scheduled to interview Coats, Rogers and Ledgett in his obstruction investigation.
- Sen Feinsteins says Judiciary committee want’s they own crack at Comey and Sessions and will subpoena them if needed.
- Australian Prime Minister Turnbull mocks Trump’s speaking style and jokes he has a “Russian Guy” that will help him fix online polls.
- Trump tweets echoing the RNC talking points that the Russia collusion investigation is a phony “Witch Hunt”, later he says they found “zero evidence” so they created an obstruction investigation because of his apparently failure to realize that you don’t have to prove the charge of the underlying investigation in order to be charged for obstructing that investigation. He continues in a tweet storm all day long railing about Obama and Clinton obstruction which basically didn’t happen.
- Not surprisingly Breitbart reports on Trumps tweets without perspective or context
- Sputnik News trashes the Wapo report about the obstruction investigation calling it anonymously sourced “Fake News”.
- Trump supporters begin call for Mueller to be fired.
- Huckabee-Sanders says she can’t talk about Trump’s tweets because she’s not Trump.
- Repub Senator John Thune argues that Mueller’s investigations are not “Witch Hunts.”
- Senate votes 98-2 to pass additional sanctions on Russia with only Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders voting “No.” Putin denounces Senate sanctions bill.
- Wapo reports Meuller investigation is looking into Kushner financial links to Russia.
- Colorado Republican State House leaders attempts to fundraise off the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise.
- Long time birther Steve “Cantaloupe Calves” King blames Obama — shocker— for divisive politics that led to Alexandria shooting.
- Rep. Mark Sanford says Trump is “partially to blame for the Demons being unleashed” creating the current divisive political climate.
- Rep. Lou Barletta says Republicans should “definitely” cut down on their town hall availability after Baseball practice shooting.
- Mattis signs $12 Billion deal to sell F-15s to Qatar, whom Trump blamed for sponsoring Terror. Sputnik News takes note repeating the terrorism charges against Qatar which originated with a falsified memo planted by Russian intel.
- Pence hires outside lawyer Richard Cullen for Russia investigations.
- Congress Plays Baseball, CNN interviews Ryan, Pelosi, Schumer and McConnell who all continue the call to moderate the rhetoric and a greater focus on bi-partisanship.
- June 16th —
- 2nd Anniversary of Escalator Ride/Mexicans are Rapists Day.
- Trump turns on Rosenstein “I’m being investigated for firing FBI Director, by the guy who told me to fire FBI Director. Witch Hunt” — yeah, whom you were going to fire “regardless” of what he recommended. Besides it’s not the firing, it’s all the BS from before that, then firing in retaliation when Comey didn’t do your bidding. [Man, he really doesn’t get the “You have a right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used against you” thing.]
- Trump supporters plead incompetence : “He’s not trying to intimidate investigators, he just lacks message discipline.” Uh huh, sure man, go with that.
- Trump Transition team warned not to destroy information related to Flynn, Manafort, Stone, Page, any foreign travel and Russia.
- ‘He’s not in charge’: US ally’s defense minister says Mattis and Tillerson ignore Trump — and make their own policy
- Rosenstein issues memo warning Americans not to take stories with anonymous sources to heart. Reports surface that he may recuse himself if Mueller begins to investigate Comey’s firing, indicating that his work currently doesn’t include that “matter.”
- Mueller’s potential list of witnesses against Trump continues to grow.
- Psychiatrists uses Army Field Manual to show how Trump is unfit to lead.
- Wedding planner who ran Eric Trump’s now under investigation Charity tapped for Housing Dept.
- Kellyanne Conway whines “If I was shot and killed tomorrow, half of twitter would applaud.” — Prolly not wrong, but it’s not like they wouldn’t have good reason for the shadenfraude Mrs. #Alt-Facts. She also blames the “hateful rhetoric” of Democrats for the baseball practice shooting, even though the shooter after briefly supporting Bernie Sanders — who is technically an Independent — ultimately supported the Green Party’s Jill Stein in the election and hated Hillary as much as Trump supporters do. Arguably, people like this guy helped Trump win as much as Ralph Nader supporters helped elect Bush in 2000.
- Ted Nugget finally realizes Liberals have guns too : “We have got to be civil.” Whatta Thinker he is, ain’t he?
- Trump hires second attorney John Dowd, because apparently somebody needs to proofread Kasowitz’s memos [like I need] and get him some decaf. Down had previously lost a case to Press Bharara and then took out his frustration on a camera man.
- WH Aide fumes that Trump won’t shut the frack up : “Has anyone ever read him his Miranda Rights?”
- Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen, Lawyers up for Russia probe.
- House Intel wants to talk to Trump’s Digital Director Brad Parscale about micro-targeting voters/Twitter bots and Facebook cybers trolls pulling on one of the most tangled threads in this Russia mess.
- Ethics office releases Trump’s 2017 Financial disclosure. It reveals he owes at least $315 Million [which could be as high as $500 Million] to 10 entities including Deutsche Bank which has been lobbying the Government over Dodd-Frank reform, $110 Million to Ladder Capital and another $25 Million to UBS. Other reports are that Trump’s DC Hotel and places he frequently visits such as Mar-A-Lago have become much more profitable since his election.
Due to length this Timeline has been continued as Vol 2 Here.
As is shown Trump’s financial and business links to Russia and the Russian mob go back over a decade and potentially even further. Being so close to the mob they’re living just three floors downstairs easily gets you in the sights of Russian Intelligence. Manafort, Page, Flynn, Stone, Sater, Gordon and even Kushner are all at great risk. Pence seems to have been complicit and Trump himself has built up quite an obstruction case.
What is quite noticeable is the direct pattern of Trump reacting almost immediately to anything that annoys him, almost reflexively. After Yates comes to the WH about Flynn he immediately calls Comey to dinner and tries to get him to comply and drop the Flynn investigation. After Comey’s testimony he tries to get the DNI & NSA Director to contradict him, then after Yates testifies about Flynn, he immediately fires Comey.
How far Mueller will go with this remains to be seen, but I seriously doubt that they all will escape unscathed.
There’s another Timeline at BillMoyers.com and one by the Washington Post.
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