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 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the transition, and the first and second halves of 2017, but precedes the second half of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
2017
January–June 2018
January January: Federal agents photograph Maria Butina dining with Oleg Zhiganov, the director of the Russian Cultural Center. Zhiganov is expelled from the U.S. in March for being a suspected Russian spy. In a July hearing, prosecutors offer Butina's association with Zhiganov as one reason she should be considered a flight risk and denied bail. Manafort tells Gates that Trump's personal counsel told him that they should "sit tight" and they are "going to take care of us." Gates presses him on whether pardons were mentioned, and he responds that the word wasn't used. In October, Manafort tells Mueller's team that he didn't tell Gates he talked to Trump's personal counsel or suggest they would be taken care of. January 2: In a New York Times op-ed, Fusion GPS founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch request that congressional Republicans "release full transcripts of our firm's testimony" and add that "the Steele dossier was not the trigger for the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling." Their sources said the dossier was taken seriously because it corroborated reports from other sources, "including one inside the Trump camp." January 3: Manafort files a lawsuit challenging Mueller's broad authority and alleging the DoJ violated the law in appointing Mueller. A department spokesperson replies that "the lawsuit is frivolous but the defendant is entitled to file whatever he wants." CNN reports that Trump's legal team held talks with Mueller's team a few days before Christmas. Rosenstein and Wray meet with Ryan about the House Russia investigation. Excerpts from Fire and Fury, a forthcoming book by Michael Wolff, are published, in which Bannon describes Trump Jr's meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic". Wolff's book also describes Bannon's confidence that Trump Sr. knew of the meeting at the time. Trump subsequently tweets that Bannon had "very little to do with our historic victory" and that he has "lost his mind".Multiple sources:
Trump lawyers send Bannon a letter demanding that he refrain from making disparaging comments against Trump and his family. January 4: The New York Times reports that two days after Comey's congressional testimony, an aide to Sessions approached a Capitol Hill staff member to ask for any derogatory information about Comey. Sessions purportedly wanted one negative article about Comey per day in the news media. Mueller has handwritten notes from Priebus that show that Trump talked to Priebus about how he had called Comey to urge him to say publicly that Trump was not under investigation. CNN reports that The Trump Organization has provided Mueller and Congressional investigators with documents on a wide range of events, including conversations and meetings about Trump's real estate business. A federal judge denies Fusion GPS's bid to prevent the House Intelligence Committee from obtaining the firm's bank records. January 5: Grassley and Graham make the first criminal referral of the congressional investigations, recommending that the DoJ investigate Steele for potentially making false statements to the FBI "regarding his distribution of information contained in the dossier".Multiple sources:
The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Patten. Afterward, the committee makes a criminal referral for Patten making false statements, which he eventually pleads guilty to. January 6: CNN reports that Spicer, Priebus and McGahn all tried to pressure Sessions not to recuse himself from the FBI's Russia investigation, which ultimately led to Rosenstein appointing Mueller as special counsel. Mueller's team interviews Emin Agalarov's associate Roman Beniaminov. January 7: Senate Judiciary Committee members Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) write to Grassley, demanding the publication of the Fusion GPS testimony of August 22, 2017.Multiple sources:
s:Senate Judiciary Committee Interview of Glenn Simpson January 8: Mueller's team gives Trump's personal counsel a detailed list of topics for a possible interview with Trump. Facebook informs the Senate Intelligence Committee that an internal investigation found that, starting in 2016, the GRU's Fancy Bear created fake personas used to disseminate information from DCLeaks.
January 9: Feinstein unilaterally releases the transcript of the Fusion GPS testimony given to the Senate Judiciary Committee on August 22, 2017. The Daily Beast reports that a senior National Security Council official proposed withdrawing some U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe as an overture to Putin during the Trump administration's early days. Trump's personal attorney Cohen sues BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS for defamation over allegations about him in a dossier the news organization published that was commissioned in 2016 by Trump's political opponents. FBI agents subpoena Bannon to appear before a grand jury. Mueller's team interviews Jonathan Hawker, a public relations consultant at FTI Consulting, for the first of two times through June 9. Hawker worked with Davis Manafort International LLC on a public relations campaign for Yanukovych. Mueller's team interviews Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq who attended dinners arranged by CNI that included Sessions and Kislyak. January 10: The Washington Post reports that Mueller has added a veteran cyber prosecutor, Ryan K. Dickey, to his team, filling what has long been a gap in expertise and potentially signaling a recent focus on computer crimes. Dickey was previously assigned to the DoJ Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee releases a report, "Putin's Asymmetric Assault on Democracy in Russia and Europe: Implications for U.S. National Security." In a refiling of a 2008 suit filed in the Cayman Islands, Deripaska sues Manafort and Gates in New York state court for over $25 million in damages. Deripaska alleges that Mueller's indictments of Manafort and Gates provide new information in the case. Senator John McCain's former staffer David J. Kramer testifies behind closed doors for a second time before the House Intelligence Committee. His lawyer, Larry Robbins, spends 30 minutes accusing Nunes' staff of "conduct unbecoming of how attorneys treat one another," causing alarm among members of both parties. Kramer received the subpoena for the hearing on December 27, 2017, four days after his lawyer accused the committee of leaking information to Cohen's lawyer. January 11: Mueller's team interviews Flynn for the sixth of 11 times. January 12: Mueller's team interviews Kushner's assistant Avi Berkowitz for the first time. January 16: Bannon testifies to the House Intelligence Committee, and remains tight-lipped, citing executive privilege. He indicates he will not invoke privilege when he testifies before Mueller's grand jury. The next day, Axios reports that Bannon informed the Committee that he had had a discussion with Priebus, Spicer, and Corallo about the June 2016 Veselnitskaya meeting. January 17: Lewandowski and Dearborn testify before the House Intelligence Committee's investigators. BuzzFeed News reports that Mueller's team and Senate Intelligence Committee investigators are looking into hundreds of financial transactions flagged as suspicious between the Russian government and people in the United States. Mueller's team interviews Jeff Sessions. January 18: McClatchy reports that the FBI is investigating whether the Central Bank of Russia's deputy governor, Alexander Torshin, funneled money to the Trump campaign through the NRA. The House Intelligence Committee releases the transcript of the Glenn Simpson testimony given on November 14, 2017. Schiff says the testimony contains "serious allegations that the Trump Organization may have engaged in money laundering with Russian nationals". Trump Organization's chief counsel Alan Garten calls the allegations "unsubstantiated" and "reckless", and says that Simpson was mainly referring to properties to which Trump licensed his name. Democratic committee member Jim Himes says that Simpson "did not provide evidence and I think that's an important point. He made allegations." The Trump inaugural committee declines to comment when USA Today asks about its finances and whether it followed through on its September 2017 pledge to donate $3 million to the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and Samaritan's Purse. Mueller's team interviews Priebus for the second of three times.
January 19: German periodical Manager Magazin reports that Deutsche Bank has presented to Germany's financial authority, BaFin, evidence of "suspicious money transfers" by Kushner; this information is due to be handed to Mueller. Deutsche Bank denies the report on January 22 and announces that it is taking legal action. House Republicans call for the release of a classified memo authored by Nunes alleging FISA abuses during the 2016 election. Nunes has repeatedly refused to share his concerns with the FBI, even after repeated requests by the bureau. The memo was primarily written by committee staffer Kash Patel who, unlike Nunes, read the underlying intelligence the memo is based upon. Mueller's team interviews Flynn for the seventh of 11 times. Mueller's team interviews Nader for the first of three times. The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Yared Tamene. January 20: Twitter announces that it will notify 677,775 US citizens that they followed or retweeted accounts linked to Russian propaganda during the election. Twitter also announces the discovery of a further 1,062 propagandist accounts linked to the Kremlin's Internet Research Agency, bringing the total to 3,814, as well as the discovery of a further 13,512 automated bot accounts based in Russia, bringing the total to 50,258. Twitter estimates that the bot accounts produced 2.12 million tweets, collectively receiving 454.7 million impressions in the first week after each posting. Twitter's analysis indicates that Russian bots retweeted Trump's account 470,000 times in the run-up to election day, and Clinton's account 48,000 times.Multiple sources:
January 22: Russian media outlet Meduza, published exclusively by Buzzfeed News in English, details the inside battle for control of Kaspersky Lab, and the kidnapping of Eugene Kaspersky's son which led to a battle that was won by the side allied with Russian security services (FSB). It is reported that Sessions, at Trump's urging, has been pressuring FBI Director Wray to fire Deputy Director McCabe, but that Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed. Papadopoulos's fiancée, Simona Mangiante, tells The Washington Post that he "knows far more" than has been reported by news outlets so far. CNN reports that Mueller's team and Papadopoulos's lawyers have delayed an upcoming check-in for his case, indicating that the investigation will stay active until at least springtime. Mueller's team interviews Nader for the second of three times. The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews former acting DNC chair Donna Brazile. January 23: