This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
It includes events described in investigations into links between Trump associates and Russian officials following July 2016 through Election Day November 8, 2016. Events and investigations also occurred during the presidential transition from November 9, 2016, to January 20, 2017, and continued through the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, and 2020 onwards; 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.
Related information is sorted by some topic threads in another timeline.
Before July 2016
July 2016 – November 8, 2016
July 2016 Summer: IRA employees use the stolen identities of four Americans to open PayPal and bank accounts to act as conduits for funding their activities in the United States. The FBI applies for a FISA warrant to monitor communications of four Trump campaign officials. The FISA Court rejects the application, asking the FBI to narrow its scope. A warrant on Carter Page alone is granted in October 2016. Lawyer and Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Joseph E. Schmitz receives a cache of emails from a client that is purported to be Clinton's deleted 30,000 emails, acquired from a dark web forum. Schmitz meets with officials at the FBI, the State Department, and the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) in an effort to get the emails reviewed. The State Department and ICIG decline to review the emails. Schmitz's efforts are independent of the investigation by Peter Smith's team. Facebook board member Marc Andreessen hosts a meeting with Facebook executives and Cambridge Analytica's Christopher Wylie to discuss what Cambridge Analytica is doing with the Facebook data they harvested. July: The IRA's translator project grows to over 80 employees. Carter Page makes a five-day trip to Moscow. The Steele dossier alleges that in July, during his Moscow trip, Page met Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin, and discussed the possible lifting of sanctions against Russia. In his congressional testimony, Page denies meeting with the Russians named in the dossier. He says he met Sechin's associate Andrey Baranov, but says "nothing that this gentleman said to me ever implied or asked for anything related to sanctions. Again, there may have been some general reference... but no kind of negotiations in any format". July 5: At his London office, Steele reveals to an FBI agent from Rome some of his findings that indicate a wide-ranging Russian conspiracy to elect Trump. "United Muslims of America", an IRA group, orders posters with fake Clinton quotes promoting Sharia Law. The posters are ordered for the "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally they are organizing. July 5–6: Denis Klimentov emails his brother Dmitri and Director of the MFA's Information and Press Department Maria Zakharova about Page's visit to Moscow and his connection to the Trump campaign. He offers to contact Page on behalf of the MFA. Dmitri Klimentov then contacts Peskov about introducing Page to Russian government officials. The next day, Peskov replies, "I have read about [Page]. Specialists say that he is far from being the main one. So I better not initiate a meeting in the Kremlin." July 6: "Guccifer 2.0" releases another cache of DNC documents and sends copies to The Hill. Assange, as "WikiLeaks", asks "Guccifer 2.0" via Twitter direct messaging to provide any information related to Clinton they may have. July 6–10: The IRA's "Don't Shoot" Facebook group and affiliated "Don't Shoot Us" website try to organize a protest outside the St. Paul, Minnesota, police headquarters on July 10 in response to the July 6 fatal police shooting of Philando Castile. Some local activists become suspicious of the event because St. Paul police were not involved in the shooting: Castile was shot by a St. Anthony police officer in nearby Falcon Heights. Local activists contact Don't Shoot. After being pressed on who they are and who supports them, Don't Shoot agrees to move the protest to the St. Anthony police headquarters. The concerned local activists investigate further and urge protesters not to participate after deciding Don't Shoot is a "total troll job." Don't Shoot organizers eventually relinquish control of the event to local organizers, who subsequently decline to accept any money from Don't Shoot. July 7: In a lecture at the New Economic School in Moscow, Page criticizes American foreign policy, saying that many of the mistakes spoiling relations between the US and Russia "originated in my own country." Page had received permission from the Trump campaign to make the trip. In an email exchange, Manafort and Kilimnik discuss whether his campaign work is helping his relationship with Deripaska. Kilimnik writes that Deripaska is paying significantly more attention to the campaign and expects him to reach out to Manafort soon. Using his official Trump campaign email address, Manafort asks Kilimnik to forward an offer to provide "private briefings" to Deripaska. July 8: Page gives the commencement address at the New Economic School and criticizes "U.S. policy toward Russia for being too harsh". Page emails Dahl and Gordon about outreach he received "from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential Administration here." July 9: The Washington Post reports that Trump is considering Flynn as his running mate, with support from Senator Jeff Sessions. Trump eventually selects Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana. The "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally occurs in Washington, D.C. The rally is organized by the IRA group "United Muslims of America." Page emails Clovis and describes a private meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Arkady Dvorkovich. He says Dvorkovich "expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems." July 10: A Black Lives Matter protest rally is held in Dallas. A "Blue Lives Matter" counterprotest is held across the street. The Blue Lives Matter protest is organized by the "Heart of Texas" Facebook group, controlled by the IRA. DNC staffer Seth Rich is murdered in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a block from his home. Assange makes statements about Rich in July and August implying that he is the source of the stolen DNC emails. July 11–12: FBI informant Stefan Halper has an initial encounter with Carter Page at a London symposium. A former federal law enforcement official tells The New York Times the encounter was a coincidence, rather than at the FBI's direction. Papadopoulos and fellow campaign foreign policy advisor Walid Phares exchange emails discussing the upcoming Transatlantic Parliamentary Group on Counterterrorism (TAG) conference, of which Phares is also co-secretary general. In the email chain, Phares advises Papadopoulos that other summit attendees "are very nervous about Russia. So be aware." July 12: An IRA group buys ads on Facebook for the "Down with Hillary" rally in New York City. The Illinois State Board of Elections discovers some of its servers have been hacked and closes the security hole used to compromise the systems. July 13: A hacker or group calling themselves "Guccifer 2.0" releases over 10,000 names from the DNC in two spreadsheets and a list of objectionable quotes from Sarah Palin. Kukes donates $49,000 to the Trump Victory fund. In 2017, his 2016 political donations become a subject of the Mueller investigation. The Illinois State Board of Elections takes its website offline. July 14: "Guccifer 2.0" sends Assange an encrypted 1 GB file containing stolen DNC emails, and Assange confirms that he received it. WikiLeaks publishes the file's contents on July 22. German hackers Andrew Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix meet with Assange for at least four hours. Müller-Maguhn is named in the Mueller report as a possible conduit for delivering hacked emails to Assange. July 15: Sergei Millian reaches out to Papadopoulos on LinkedIn, introducing himself "as president of [the] New York-based Russian American Chamber of Commerce." He claims to have "insider knowledge and direct access to the top hierarchy in Russian politics." Bill Browder files a FARA complaint with the DoJ against Akhmetshin, Glen Simpson, and others for working as unregistered lobbyists for Russia. The FARA complaint is included with Grassley's letter. July 16: The IRA's Blacktivist group organizes a rally in Chicago to honor Sandra Bland on the first anniversary of her death. The rally is held in front of the Chicago Police Department's Homan Square building. Participants pass around petitions calling for a Civilian Police Accountability Council ordinance. Papadopoulos, Clovis, and Phares attend the TAG conference. Contemporaneous handwritten notes in Papadopoulos's journal show that he, Clovis, and Phares discuss potential September meetings with representatives of the "office of Putin" in London. The notes say they will attend as unofficial campaign representatives. Later Clovis tells a grand jury that he does not recall attending the TAG conference, although a photograph from the conference shows him seated next to Papadopoulos. July 18: "Guccifer 2.0" dumps a new batch of documents from the DNC servers, including personal information of 20,000 Republican donors and opposition research on Trump. An Ecuadorian security guard is caught on video receiving a package outside the London embassy from a man wearing a mask and sunglasses. Later that day, Wikileaks tells Russian hackers that it received files and will be publishing them soon. July 18–21: Republican Convention in Cleveland Nigel Farage encounters Stone and Alex Jones at a restaurant. The next day, Stone contacts Manafort and suggests a meeting between Trump and Farage. Manafort responds that he will pass on the request. July 18: Kislyak attends the convention, meeting Page and Gordon; as Trump's foreign policy advisers, they stress that he would like to improve relations with Russia. Sessions speaks with Kislyak at a Heritage Foundation event. Gordon lobbies to remove arms sales to Ukraine from the Republican platform, citing concerns over conflict escalation in Donbas. In December 2017, Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported the weapons sale, says that Trump directed Gordon to weaken that position. July 21: Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination. Farage and Andy Wigmore encounter staffers for Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant at the bar in the Hilton Hotel. A staffer invites Wigmore and Farage to Mississippi. July 19: The Illinois State Board of Elections informs the Illinois Attorney General (IAG) and the Illinois General Assembly of the breach. The IAG notifies the FBI, which brings in the Department of Homeland Security to help investigate. Around this date, but prior to July 22, according to Cohen, Stone calls Trump in his Trump Tower office and tells him that he just got off the phone with Assange and Wikileaks will be releasing information within a few days. July 21 – August 12: The Illinois State Board of Elections brings its website back online. The GRU attacks the system five times per second before giving up on August 12. July 22: WikiLeaks publishes 20,000 emails from seven key DNC officials. The emails show them disparaging Bernie Sanders and favoring Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primaries. July 22–26: Papadopoulos asks Timofeev about Millian. Timofeev responds that he has not heard of him.