This is a timeline of events in the first half of 2019 related to investigations into links between Trump associates and Russian officials relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016 (election day), the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and followed by the second half of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections.
2018
January–June 2019 January January 2: The foreign company fighting a grand jury subpoena filed under seal its reply to Mueller's brief to the Supreme Court. Alston & Bird is an involved law firm. In October 2020, CNN reveals that the company is a state-owned Egyptian bank that may have been the source of funds for Trump's $10 million loan to his campaign on October 29, 2016. January 3: The 116th United States Congress convenes with the House under Democratic control. Congressman Brad Sherman refiles articles of impeachment against Trump. The article charges Trump with obstructing justice by firing James Comey. Jerome Corsi asks U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon to take his December 10, 2018, lawsuit against Mueller. Corsi claims the FBI and Mueller's team used "illegal, unconstitutional surveillance" in a "politically-motivated" criminal investigation against him. Judge Leon accuses Corsi's lawyer of "judge shopping" and grants a Justice Department motion to randomly assign the case to another judge. January 4: District Judge Beryl A. Howell extends the term of Mueller's grand jury in Washington, D.C., for an unknown amount of time. The grand jury's term was due to expire on January 5. January 7: D.C. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich strongly rebukes the attorneys for Concord Management and Consulting for repeatedly making personal attacks on Mueller's team. The rebuke was triggered by a January 4 filing that questions the trustworthiness of Mueller's office. Friedrich called Concord's recent filings "unprofessional, inappropriate, and ineffective," and said their "relentless personal attacks" would not affect her decision.
January 8: The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) indicts Natalia Veselnitskaya, known for her participation in the meeting in the Trump Tower with top campaign officials on June 9, 2016, for obstruction of justice in an unrelated case. The prosecution alleges that while defending Russian investment company Prevezon Holdings in a New York court, she helped Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika fabricate evidence supporting Prevezon's defense. Paul Manafort's attorneys file response to Mueller's accusations of malfeasance to the DC judge. Portions of the filing that were meant to be redacted are still readable because of incorrectly applied formatting in the document. The redacted portions reveal that prosecutors accused Manafort of lying because he denied and then admitted when prompted that he met with Kilimnik in Madrid, discussed a proposed Ukrainian peace plan with Kilimnik on several occasions, and shared polling data with Kilimnik while working for the Trump campaign. The New York Times reports that while Manafort worked for the Trump campaign he provided Kilimnik with internal polling data for Kilimnik to pass on to Ukrainian oligarchs Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, both of whom Manafort previously did work for in Ukraine. The Supreme Court removes without comment a temporary stay in the legal battle by a "Corporation" from "Country A" fighting a grand jury subpoena. The stay had paused the accrual of fines by the company while it appealed the District Court of Appeals decision from December 18, 2018. This is believed to be the first U.S. Supreme Court decision related to the Mueller investigation. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (D.C. Cir.) issues its full opinion in the appeal by a "Corporation" from "Country A" against a grand jury subpoena. The judges write, "[the company] failed to satisfy its burden of showing that Country A's law would prohibit complying with the subpoena, we agree with the district court that enforcing the subpoena is neither unreasonable nor oppressive." The company immediately appeals the decision to the Supreme Court. In October 2020, CNN reveals that "Country A" is Egypt. January 9: The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Robert Foresman. January 10: The first Russia-related hearing of the newly Democratic majority House takes place: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies in a closed-door hearing on the Treasury Department's decision to ease sanctions on companies aligned with Oleg Deripaska. After the hearing, Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls it "one of the worst classified briefings we've received from the Trump administration". She says they spent "most of the time reading an unclassified document". Other Democrats echoed Pelosi. January 11: Mother Jones reports that the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) appears to have coordinated ad buys with Republican candidates in at least three U.S. Senate races. Like the scheme reportedly used by the NRA and the Trump campaign, National Media Research, Planning and Placement (NMRPP) CFO Jon Ferrell placed scores of ad buys on behalf of the three senate campaigns and the NRA to air ads within minutes of each other on the same local television stations. The three senate campaigns were Senator Richard Burr's 2016 reelection campaign in North Carolina, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's successful 2018 campaign to unseat Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, and the unsuccessful 2018 campaign by Montana state auditor Matt Rosendale to unseat Montana Senator Jon Tester. The New York Times reports that the FBI opened counterintelligence and criminal investigations against Trump a few days after he fired Comey in May 2017. They were alarmed by Trump's actions and concerned that he may have been working for Russia against American interests. The investigations were eventually combined and taken over by Mueller. Giuliani tells The Hill that Trump's legal team should be allowed to make corrections to Mueller's final report before it is seen by Congress or the public. The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Nunberg.
January 12: The Washington Post reports that Trump ordered his translator for the second Putin meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7, 2017, to hand over their notes and not discuss the meeting. The Hamburg meeting was one of five Trump-Putin interactions where no detailed records exist. Trump tells Jeanine Pirro on Justice with Judge Jeanine that Cohen made a plea deal to protect his father-in-law from prosecution. The Mueller report refers to his statements on Cohen in the interview as evidence of witness intimidation. January 14: The New York Times reports on the unusually large expenses claimed by the Trump inauguration fund. The Daily Beast reports that Mueller's office and the SDNY are investigating a breakfast meeting involving Flynn, Nunes, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and 50–60 other foreign officials at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., on January 18, 2017. This line of inquiry is part of their investigations into the Trump inauguration fund. The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Robert Curran.
January 15: Mueller's team requests a delay in Richard Gates' sentencing because he is still helping with their investigations. Mueller's team files FBI special agent Jeffrey Weyland's partially redacted statement detailing the ways in which they believe Manafort lied to them, including about his contacts with Trump administration officials and his work to help people get positions in the administration. 157 pages of mostly redacted exhibits are included in the filing. They allege Manafort made contradictory statements to the Mueller team on several occasions as well as to the grand jury contradicting himself, other witnesses, and documents. William Barr appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing to become the next Attorney General. Barr refuses to commit to recusing himself from the Mueller investigation or release Mueller's eventual report. He also states that he would not fire Mueller if asked to do so by Trump without good cause. Barr circulated a memo among Trump administration members in 2018 in which he criticized the Mueller investigation. Judge Howell imposes $50,000 a day fines on the foreign company fighting a grand jury subpoena from Mueller for not complying with the subpoena.
January 17: The Justice Department announces that Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom agreed to pay the U.S. government $4.6 million and retroactively register as a foreign agent for the work they performed for Manafort and the Ukrainian government. $4.6 million is the amount of money Skadden received from the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice and Manafort's offshore bank accounts. In the settlement agreement, which details the actions taken by Skadden on the behalf of Manafort and Ukraine, attorney and former White House counsel Gregory B. Craig is referred to as "Partner-1". BuzzFeed News reports that Cohen gave Trump, Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump regular and "very detailed" updates about the Trump Tower Moscow project during the 2016 campaign, including that he was discussing the project with Russian government officials. They also report that Cohen told Mueller's team that Trump directed him to lie to Congress about the project. January 18: Mueller spokesman Peter Carr refutes some of the information in the January 17 BuzzFeed News article that claimed Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress. He says, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate". BuzzFeed top editor Ben Smith responds, "We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing". Mueller's team interviews Bannon for the fourth and final time. Trump tweets that Cohen lied to reduce his sentence, and finishes with, "Watch father-in-law!" The Mueller Report refers to this tweet as evidence of witness intimidation. January 20: Giuliani tells Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that the Trump Tower Moscow project continued through October or November 2016. His statement confirms what Cohen told Mueller's team about the project. January 21: In a New York Times interview, Giuliani quotes Trump as saying discussions about the Trump Tower Moscow project were "going on from the day I announced to the day I won." His statement confirms what Cohen told Mueller's team about the project. Giuliani walks back his recent statements on the Trump Tower Moscow project. He issues a public statement saying, "My recent statements about discussions during the 2016 campaign between Michael Cohen and candidate Donald Trump about a potential Trump Moscow 'project' were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the president. Trump's personal counsel also sends a letter to Mueller's team stating that Giuliani's public comments "were not intended to suggest nor did they reflect knowledge of the existence or timing of conversations beyond that contained in the President's [written responses to the Special Counsel's Office]." January 22: The Supreme Court grants a motion from the "Corporation" from "Country A" to file its appeal under seal in its case challenging a subpoena from Mueller's grand jury. A redacted version of the petition will be made public. January 23: