This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, sorted by topics. It also includes events described in investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials. Those investigations continued in 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and 2019, largely as parts of the Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation, the Special Counsel investigation, multiple ongoing criminal investigations by several State Attorneys General, and the investigation resulting in the Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election.
Background: presidential election campaign 2015 March 18: Donald Trump announces he is forming a presidential exploratory committee. June 16: Trump announces his candidacy for president. August 21: Jeff Sessions makes his first appearance at a Trump campaign rally. December 21: Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta receives an email, which is later leaked by WikiLeaks, advising the campaign on how to handle Trump, recommending that the "best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin".
2016 February 2: Trump comes in second in the Iowa caucuses. February 28: Sessions formally endorses Trump. March 3: Sessions is appointed to the Trump campaign's national security advisory committee. March 15: Trump closes in on the Republican nomination, having won five primaries. April 21: A staffer at the Center for the National Interest (CNI) photographs a detailed outline of the foreign policy speech Trump was scheduled to deliver on April 27, which was sitting on the desk of Dimitri Simes, the Center's president. The House Intelligence Committee would later investigate Simes' involvement in drafting the speech. May 4: Trump becomes the only remaining candidate for the Republican presidential nomination when John Kasich withdraws. May 19: Mother Jones reports that before Trump launched his campaign in 2015, Lewandowski and other political advisors suggested to Trump that they follow standard practice and hire someone to perform opposition research on him. Trump refused. May 26: The Associated Press reports that Trump has secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Republican nominee. June 6: Clinton becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee. At a primary night rally in New York, Trump promises a speech discussing information about Clinton. Trump says "I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week [June 13], and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons". July 18–21: Republican Convention in Cleveland July 21: Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination at the Republican Convention. July 22: WikiLeaks publishes 20,000 emails from seven key DNC officials. The emails show them disparaging Bernie Sanders and favoring Clinton in the 2016 presidential primaries. July 24: DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is forced to resign because of the WikiLeaks email publication. July 25–28: Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. July 28: Clinton formally accepts the Democratic nomination. August 17: Steve Bannon is named Trump campaign CEO. Kellyanne Conway is named Trump campaign manager. August 25: Trump names Sam Clovis as a campaign national co-chairman. October 7: At 4:03 PM EDT, The Washington Post publishes a raw video tape from the television show Access Hollywood of Trump bragging about grabbing women by their genitals. While the tape is not relevant to the Russian interference in the election, the distraction of its release lessens the public impact of the joint intelligence report released hours earlier and may have triggered WikiLeaks' Podesta emails release 30 minutes later. Around 4:30 PM EDT, WikiLeaks begins publishing thousands of Podesta emails, revealing excerpts from Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street."18 revelations from Wikileaks' hacked Clinton emails ". BBC News. October 27, 2016. Trump Jr. retweets WikiLeaks' and others' announcements about the release. November 8: Trump is elected President of the United States.
Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin
Maria Butina was the founder of the Russian "" association, and has worked with Alexander Torshin, who was the Russian Senator from Mari El Republic (2001–2015) and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia (2015–2018). From 2011 to 2016, Torshin and Butina developed contacts with the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), the foremost American gun lobby. Paul Erickson is a Republican activist involved in several presidential campaigns, and was a romantic partner of Butina.
Internet Research Agency The Internet Research Agency (IRA) is a Russian entity, sometimes called a "troll farm", tasked with coordinating online propaganda efforts to interfere in American elections. It is funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed "Putin's chef", owner of the Concord company group. The IRA's finances were managed by Elena Khusyaynova, a Russian accountant, under the code name "Project Lakhta".
2014 April: The IRA creates a department called the "translator project". The department's focus is on interfering in the U.S. election. May: The IRA begins its election interference campaign of "spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general." June 4–26: Aleksandra Krylova and Anna Bogacheva, two IRA employees, travel to the U.S. to collect intelligence. Maria Bovda, a third employee, is denied a visa. All three are indicted in February 2018 for their work on election interference. September 11: The IRA spreads a hoax they created about a fictitious chemical plant fire in Centerville, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, purportedly started by ISIS. The hoax includes tweets and YouTube videos showing a chemical plant fire. Centerville is home to many chemical plants, but the plant named in the tweets does not exist. Initial tweets are sent directly to politicians, journalists, and Centerville residents. September 21 – October 11: The Material Evidence art exhibition is displayed at the Art Beam gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. It portrays the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine in a pro-Russian light. It is promoted by Twitter accounts that also spread the September 11 chemical plant fire hoax. The exhibition is partly funded by the IRA. November 26–30: An unnamed IRA employee travels to Atlanta. December 13: The IRA uses Twitter to spread a hoax about an Ebola outbreak in Atlanta. Many of the Twitter accounts used in the September 11 chemical plant fire hoax also spread this hoax. The hoax includes a YouTube video of medical workers wearing hazmat suits. Using a different set of Twitter accounts, the IRA spreads a hoax about a purported police shooting of an unarmed black woman in Atlanta. The hoax includes a blurry video of the purported event.
2015 July onward: Thousands of fake Twitter accounts run by the IRA begin to praise Trump over his political opponents by a wide margin, according to a later analysis by The Wall Street Journal. November 3: The IRA Instagram account "Stand For Freedom" attempts to organize a confederate rally in Houston, Texas, on November 14. It is unclear if anyone showed up. The Mueller Report identifies this as the IRA's first attempt to organize a U.S. rally. November 19: The IRA creates the first Twitter account. Purporting to be the "Unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans," it peaks at over 100,000 followers.
2016 February 10: IRA instructs workers to "use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them)." March 15: In St. Petersburg, shift workers posing as Americans follow instructions to attack Clinton on Facebook and Twitter. April: The IRA starts buying online ads on social media and other sites. The ads support Trump and attack Clinton. April 4: A rally is held in Buffalo, New York, protesting the death of India Cummings. Cummings was a black woman who had recently died in police custody. The IRA's "Blacktivist" account on Facebook actively promotes the event, reaching out directly to local activists on Facebook Messenger asking them to circulate petitions and print posters for the event. Blacktivist supplies the petitions and poster artwork. April 16: A rally protesting the death of Freddie Gray attracts large crowds in Baltimore. The IRA's Blacktivist Facebook group promotes and organizes the event, including reaching out to local activists. April 19: The IRA purchases its first pro-Trump ad through its "Tea Party News" Instagram account. The Instagram ad asks users to upload photos with the hashtag #KIDS4TRU to "make a patriotic team of young Trump supporters." April 23: A small group of white-power demonstrators hold a rally they call "Rock Stone Mountain" at Stone Mountain Park near Stone Mountain, Georgia. They are confronted by a large group of protesters, and some violent clashes ensue. The counterprotest was heavily promoted by IRA accounts on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, and the IRA website blackmatters.com. The IRA uses its Blacktivist account on Facebook to reach out, to no avail, to activist and academic Barbara Williams Emerson, the daughter of Hosea Williams, to help promote the protests. Afterward, RT blames anti-racist protesters for violence and promotes two videos shot at the event. May 2: A second rally is held in Buffalo, New York, protesting the death of India Cummings. Like the April 4 rally, the event is heavily promoted by the IRA's Blacktivist Facebook account, including attempted outreach to local activists. May 21: Two competing rallies are held in Houston to alternately protest against and defend the recently opened Library of Islamic Knowledge at the Islamic Da'wah Center. The "Stop Islamization of Texas" rally is organized by the Facebook group "Heart of Texas". The Facebook posting for the event encourages participants to bring guns. A spokesman for the group converses with the Houston Press via email but declines to give a name. The other rally, "Save Islamic Knowledge", is organized by the Facebook group "United Muslims of America" for the same time and location. Both Facebook groups are later revealed to be IRA accounts. May 25: The Westboro Baptist Church holds its annual protest of Lawrence High School graduation ceremonies in Lawrence, Kansas. The "LGBT United" Facebook group organizes counterprotesters to confront the Westboro protest, including by placing an ad on Facebook and contacting local people. About a dozen people show up. Lawrence High School students do not participate because they are "skeptical" of the counterprotest organizers. LGBT United is a Russian operatives account that appears to have been created specifically for this event. May 29: The IRA hires an American to pose in front of the White House holding a sign that says, "Happy 55th Birthday, Dear Boss." "Boss" is a reference to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. June 1: The IRA plans a Manhattan rally called "March for Trump" and buys Facebook ads promoting the event. June 4: The IRA first email account sends news releases about the "March for Trump" rally to New York City media outlets. June 5: The IRA contacts a Trump campaign volunteer to provide signs for the "March for Trump" rally. June 23: The IRA persona "Matt Skiber" contacts an American to recruit for the "March for Trump" rally. June 24: The IRA group "United Muslims of America" buys Facebook ads for the "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally. June 25: The IRA's "March for Trump" rally occurs. The IRA Facebook group LGBT United organizes a candlelight vigil for the Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Orlando, Florida. July: The IRA's translator project grows to over 80 employees.