Home / 2016 Election

2016 Campaign

See also First 100 Days for a comparison of Trump's campaign promises with his actions as president.

Timeline

2015.06.16Donald Trump announces that he is running for president. washingtonpost.com
2015.06.16In a speech announcing his Presidential campaign, Trump refers to Mexican Americans as criminals and rapists. washingtonpost.com (See also Mexican Americans)
2015.06.17Neil Young says Trump never had permission to use his song during campaign announcement. bloomberg.com
2015.06.24Trump dines with Fox News chief Roger Ailes. politico.com
2015.06.25Univision cuts ties with Donald Trump's Miss USA pageant over racist remarks. latimes.com (See also Mexican Americans, Feuds, Mexico, Trump Business)
2015.06.26Trump says Univision employees are now banned from his golf club. politico.com (See also Feuds, Trump Business)
2015.06.28Trump defends the fact his clothing line is made in China despite attacking companies for moving overseas. nationalreview.com (See also China, Trump Business)
2015.06.28Trump says he will force the people of Mexico to build a border wall. msnbc.com (See also Mexican Americans, Mexico)
2015.06.29NBC cuts business ties with Donald Trump after he calls Mexicans rapists and criminals. businessinsider.com (See also Mexican Americans, Trump Business)
2015.06.30Donald Trump Sues Univision For $500 Million claiming they are, "suppressing his freedom of speech" by cutting ties with him after he made racist comments. npr.org (See also Lawsuits, Feuds, Trump Business)
2015.07.01Macy's pulls Trump clothing line from stores. cnn.com (See also Feuds, Trump Business)
2015.07.01Serta announces they will stop selling Trump brand mattresses due to Trump's racist comments. bloomberg.com (See also Mexican Americans, Trump Business, Feuds)
2015.07.02Trump defends his anti-Mexican comments with, "Well someone is doing the raping. Who is doing the raping?" cnn.com (See also Mexican Americans)
2015.07.04Trump says he didn't expect backlash from comments to be so serve. cbsnews.com (See also Mexican Americans)
2015.07.07PVH Corp. discontinues Trump menswear line in response to Trump making racist anti-Mexican comments. forbes.com (See also Mexican Americans, Trump Business, Feuds)
2015.07.09Trump says Putin would return Edward Snowden if he becomes president. washingtontimes.com (See also Russia)
2015.07.09Trump says he still doesn't know where Obama was born. cnn.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories)
2015.07.11Trump promises to, "Take the country back." During rally. azcentral.com
2015.07.12Trump says at rally that Mexicans are. “Taking our Jobs” and “Killing Us." slate.com (See also Mexican Americans, Mecio)
2015.07.14Brother of murder victim angry over Trump 'sensationalizing' sister's death. cnn.com
2015.07.14Trump Tweets a picture of his face superimposed against an American flag with a stock image of Nazi soldiers marching in the background. news.vice.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Jewish Americans)
2015.07.14Trump says Obamacare never worked and costed $5 billion. politifact.com (See also False Statements)
2015.07.14Trump sends letter to LPGA head daring him to move the Women's British Open to another location besides Trump's golf course. businessinsider.com (See also Feuds)
2015.07.17Trump calls for boycott of Mexico. nypost.com (See also Mexico)
2015.07.17Trump falsely claims to be ten times as popular as anyone else on Google. washingtonpost.com (See also False Statements, claims)
2015.07.18Trump who dodged the draft says John McCain isn't a war hero and he likes people who didn't get captured. nytimes.com
2015.07.19Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell says he doesn't want a clown like Trump introducing their band. billboard.com
2015.07.20Donald Trump claims if you're from Syria and a Christian, you can't come to the U.S. as a refugee. politifact.com (See also Immigration, Syria, False Statements, Muslim Immigration Ban)
This is false - there is nothing in the US laws or regulations that discriminates against Christian refugees
2015.07.21Trump gives out Senator Lindsey Graham's personal phone number live on national television. washingtonpost.com
2015.07.23Trump threatens a third party run if they refuse to make him the nominee. thehill.com
2015.07.28Trump defends Mike Huckabee's controversial Holocaust Analogy. bloomberg.com (See also Jewish Americans)
The billionaire presidential candidate also questions Secretary of State John Kerry's intelligence.
2015.07.29Trump calls attorney Elizabeth Beck a "vicious, horrible person" for recounting a 2011 incident in which he called her "disgusting" for needing to pump breast milk. cnn.com (See also Assaults on Facts, False Statements, Women)
2015.08.02Donald Trump: "I pay as little as possible" in taxes. cbsnews.com (See also Trump Taxes)
2015.08.04Trump says the Republicans should shut down the government rather than fund Planned Parenthood. cnn.com (See also Planned Parenthood, Women, Health Care)
2015.08.05Donald Trump: "Mexico will pay for wall because I say so." cnn.com (See also Mexico)
2015.08.06Trump sues two celebrity chefs who no longer want to be a part of his new hotel. businessinsider.com (See also Lawsuits, Fueds)
2015.08.07Trump says Republican debate host Megyn Kelly had, "blood coming out of her wherever." cnn.com (See also Fueds, Women, Sexism, Misogyny)
2015.08.12Trump says Bernie Sanders "showed that he's weak" by allowing #BlackLivesMatter protesters to take the mic at a Seattle campaign event. cnn.com (See also Black Americans)
2015.08.14Boston mayor asks Trump to do the Ice Bucket challenge, Trump responds by calling him a clown and saying Boston should "get a real mayor." boston.com (See also People with Disabilities)
2015.08.16Trump's newly unveiled immigration plan calls for the end of automatic citizenship for people born in the United States. abcnews.go.com (See also Immigrants, Immigration)
2015.08.18Trump tweets intention to immediately approve Keystone XL pipeline if he wins presidential election. cnn.com (See also Keystone XL Pipeline, Environment)
2015.08.21Trump is asked to comment about two of his supporters who brutally beat and urinated on a homeless man while saying, “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” Trump responds to the question with, "The people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. " washingtonpost.com (See also Mexican Americans, Americans in Poverty, Racism, Hate Crimes, Trump Effect)
2015.08.25Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos is ejected from a Trump news conference in Dubuque, IW cnn.com (See also Mexican Americans)
2015.08.27Trump links Asians with theft and "performs" the speech of a Chinese trade negotiator, offending Asian Americans. abc7.com (See also Asian Americans)
2015.08.27Trump responds to praise from White Supremacists with: "Everyone likes me." talkingpointsmemo.com (See also Racism, Black Americans)
2015.11.10Trump calls for Starbucks Boycott over them changing the design of their cups. cnsnews.com
2015.11.13Trump says he knows more about ISIS then the generals do. newrepublic.com (See also ISIS)
2015.12.07Donald Trump releases a statement calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, citing a debunked online poll from a far right think tank that claims 25% of American Muslims support terrorism against the west. donaldjtrump.com (See also Muslims)
2015.12.08Trump says he might have supported Japanese Internment if he was alive at the time. time.com (See also Asian Americans, Fascism, Assaults on Civil Liberties)
2015.12.16Trump indicates during debate that he has no idea what the Nuclear Triad is. rollingstone.com (See also Nuclear Weapons)
2016.02.16Trump call for Apple boycott in response to the company refusing to help FBI hack iPhone. cbc.ca (See also Technology)
2016.02.19Trump gives speech during rally where he promotes an urban legend from an internet chain email about a Muslim massacre as fact. theguardian.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Muslims)
2016.02.23Trump says during speech in Nevada, "I Love the poorly educated." youtube.com
2016.02.25In a Republican primary debate, Trump falsely claims he cannot release his tax returns because they are under audit. politico.com (See also Trump Taxes, False Statements)
There is no legal restriction preventing him from releasing his tax returns even if he's being audited. They are his to release if he sees fit to do so.
2016.02.25Trump defends his sister for "criticism she got over signing a bill," despite the fact that judges don't sign bills. weeklystandard.com
2016.03.13Trump says he will look into paying the legal fees for a supporter of his who was arrested for assaulting a protester. nytimes.com (See also Trump Effect, Criminality)
2016.04.03Trump takes 5 different positions on abortion in 3 days. washingtonpost.com (See also Abortion)
2016.05.03Trump accuses Ted Cruz’s father of aiding in the JFK's assassination. politico.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories)
2016.05.09Donald Trump announces that Steven Mnuchin — who made his fortune at Goldman Sachs, worked for a firm funded by George Soros, and donated to Hillary Clinton — will be responsible for helping him raise $1 billion for Republicans and his own campaign. nytimes.com (See also Steven Mnuchin, Department of the Treasury)
2016.05.10Trump selects a White Nationalist Leader to be a Delegate in California. motherjones.com (See also Racism, Black Americans)
2016.06.02PGA announces they will move Tour from Trump golf course to Mexico. cnn.com (See also Trump Business, Feuds)
2016.06.21Trump has only Black GOP official kicked out of event with no explanation. rawstory.com (See also Racism, Black Americans)
2016.06.21Trump solicits campaign donations from foreign elected officials in Iceland, a violation of FEC guidelines and federal law. grapevine.is (See also Criminality)
2016.06.23Trump says he can't recall if he said that he has one of the world's best memories or not. thehill.com
2016.06.27Trump solicits campaign donations from foreign elected officials in Scotland, a violation of FEC guidelines and federal law. fusion.net (See also Criminality)
2016.06.30Six employees say Trump tapped the phone lines at the Mar-a-Lago. theweek.com (See also Criminality)
2016.07.16The Trump campaign works behind the scenes to ensure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving arms to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting Republican foreign policy leaders. washingtonpost.com (See also Ukraine, Conflicts of Interest, Russia)
2016.07.21Trump insists Putin won't go into Ukraine despite him already having gone into Ukraine in 2014. cnn.com (See also Russia)
2016.07.22Trump gives White Supremacists VIP seating at the GOP Convention. littlegreenfootballs.com (See also Black Americans, Racism)
2016.07.26During O’Reilly interview Trump takes 3 different positions on minimum wage in less than 30 seconds. thinkprogress.org
2016.07.26Paul Manafort denies having connections with Russia. time.com (See also Paul Manafort, Russia)
2016.07.29Trump claims Hillary rigged the debates by having them occur during an NFL game. politifact.com
2016.07.29Trump pledges to leave marijuana legalization up to states. politifact.com (See also Promises vs Actions, Social Issues)
2016.07.30Hillary Clinton six points ahead of Donald Trump in latest poll telegraph.co.uk
2016.08.05Balloon Boy family makes video supporting Donald Trump. tampabay.com (See also Endorsements)
2016.08.05Trump names 13 Wall Street and Real Estate Titans as Economic Advisers. npr.org (See also Economy, Trade)
Fails to name any actual economists.
2016.08.15Retired General Michael Flynn stuns former colleagues by calling Obama a liar, leading crowd in "lock her up" chant, and openly aligning with Trump. washingtonpost.com (See also Michael Flynn)
2016.08.19Trump's new foreign adviser accused of Holocaust denial, apparently said "Ovens were too small to kill 6 million Jews." dailykos.com (See also Jewish Americans, Anti-Semitism)
2016.08.24Chicago Police say Trump lied about a meeting where he says they told him they could stop crime within a week if they were allowed to, "be tough." mediaite.com (See also False Statements)
2016.08.27Trump promises to restore honesty to the United States at rally. politicususa.com (See also Hypocrisy)
2016.09.06Trump mangles facts on Clinton and Haiti jobs project in a speech, claiming Clinton ignored environmental and labor rules. politifact.com (See also False Statements)
2016.09.09Trump falsely claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers endorsed him. politifact.com (See also False Statements)
2016.09.23Officials are concerned that Trump foreign policy advisor, Carter Page, has spoken with the Kremlin about lifting economic sanctions on Russia. cnbc.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Conflicts of Interest)
2016.10.05The Panama Papers Leak and Trump's name appears 3,540 times in the documents huffingtonpost.com (See also Trump Business)
2016.10.13Trump claims that Hillary Clinton meets secretly with banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty. nytimes.com
2016.10.13Trump threatens to sue The New York Times over publishing article where they interviewed two women who claim Trump sexually assaulted them. nytimes.com (See also Lawsuits, Fueds, Women, Attempts to Discredit Media, Misogyny)
2016.10.19The final Trump-Clinton debate transcript, annotated washingtonpost.com
Everything that was said, with our notes.
2016.11.02Video is uncovered showing Trump with mob leader he previously denied knowing. yahoo.com (See also False Statements, Assaults on Facts)
2016.11.21The American Democracy Legal Fund files a criminal complaint against Trump with the Justice Department for bribery. thedcgazette.com (See also Criminality)
2017.01.11Both of Trump's joint fundraising committees are called out by the FEC for transgressions that include accepting large donations from anonymous sources. opensecrets.org (See also Conflicts of Interest)
2017.01.11Four pieces of evidence showing FBI Director James Comey cost Clinton the election. vox.com
2017.01.15Buried in the unverified dossier provided to the FBI is an allegation that Trump agreed to sideline the issue of Russian intervention in the Ukraine during his campaign after Russian promised to feed stolen DNC emails to WikiLeaks. businessinsider.com (See also Ukraine, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.02.03Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden is hell-bent on getting out the truth about Trump and Russia. m.motherjones.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.02.23Hacked phone texts appear to show that Paul Manafort was blackmailed over relations with pro-Russian Uknranians while serving as Trump's campaign chair in the summer of 2016. politico.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption, First 100 Days)
2017.03.04Trump reportedly removes Priebus and Bannon from Air Force One manifest after being enraged over Russian connection leaks. dailykos.com (See also Russia, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus)
2017.03.25Sources claim Flynn has turned on Trump and become a witness for the FBI. rawstory.com (See also Michael Flynn)
2017.06.27A consulting firm led by Paul Manafort, retroactively filed forms Tuesday showing that his firm received $17.1 million over two years from a political party that dominated Ukraine before its leader fled to Russia in 2014. washingtonpost.com (See also Corruption, Conflicts of Interest, Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.06.29The Wall Street Journal reports that Russian hackers discussed during the 2016 presidential campaign if they could obtain emails deleted by Hillary Clinton and get them to Michael Flynn, the retired general who was then a member of the Trump campaign. buzzfeed.com (See also Michael Flynn, Corruption, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.07.09Donald Trump Jr. was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign. nytimes.com (See also Russia, Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption)
The meeting was also attended by Paul J. Manafort and Jared Kushner, who only recently disclosed the meeting.
2017.07.12Congress and the Justice Department are examining whether the Trump campaign’s digital operation – overseen by Jared Kushner – helped guide Russia’s sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016. mcclatchydc.com (See also Jared Kushner, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption)
2017.07.14The former Soviet intelligence officer who attended the now-infamous meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and other top campaign officials last June was previously accused in federal and state courts of orchestrating an international hacking conspiracy. thedailybeast.com (See also Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.07.15A prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer attended the meeting with Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year, adding a new wrinkle to the Trump team’s evolving explanations about the June 2016 session, as this wasn't previously disclosed. apnews.com (See also Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption)
2017.07.21Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general. washingtonpost.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Jeff Sessions, Department of Justice)
2017.07.22Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said that U.S. intelligence agencies uniformly believe the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 presidential campaign, despite Trump’s earlier claim there was a misunderstanding between the agencies. thehill.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.07.24In his first public defense of his meetings with Russian officials during Donald Trump’s campaign and transition, Jared Kushner on Monday presented his encounters with those operatives as innocent interactions, saying "I did not collude." politico.com (See also Jared Kushner, Russian Meddling in Election, Jeff Sessions)
2017.07.25Paul Manafort, a top campaign aide to President Trump, appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee early Tuesday morning to answer questions about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. washingtonpost.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.08.01Here are all the misleading statements made so far about Trump Jr.'s meeting with the Russians. buzzfeed.com (See also Donald Trump Jr, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.08.02Instead of looking at Russian meddling in last year’s election, Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey and the president’s public drubbing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Republican Bob Goodlatte of Virgina, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has a different priority: investigating Hillary Clinton. bloomberg.com (See also Corruption, Russian Meddling in Election, Assaults on Government, Jeff Sessions)
2017.08.03Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections, a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase. wsj.com (See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.08.04Investigators working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, recently asked the White House for documents related to the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, and have questioned witnesses about whether he was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the presidential campaign. nytimes.com (See also Michael Flynn, Corruption, Conflicts of Interest)
2017.08.11Trump invites disgraced ex-congressman (who sent sexually explicit text messages to children) to rally and gives him VIP seating. cnn.com
2017.08.14Trump campaign emails show aide’s repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings. washingtonpost.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.08.17In the summer of 2016, as WikiLeaks was publishing documents from Democratic operatives allegedly they turned down a large cache of documents related to the Russian government, instead focusing on Hillary Clinton. foreignpolicy.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.08.24CIA director Mike Pompeo has not impeded work looking into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, but several officials said there is concern about what he might do if the CIA uncovered new information potentially damaging to Trump. washingtonpost.com (See also Mike Pompeo, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.08.30Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, potentially providing Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump’s campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes. politico.com (See also Legal Activity, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption)
2017.08.31Special counsel Bob Mueller has teamed up with the IRS to assist with his investigation into alleged Russian election interference, enlisting the help of agents from the IRS’ Criminal Investigations unit, one of the federal government’s most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities, focusing exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering. thedailybeast.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Issues, Corruption, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.09.01Paul Manafort's notes from a controversial Trump Tower meeting with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign included a mention of political contributions near a reference to the Republican National Committee. nbcnews.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, Corruption, Legal Issues)
It is illegal for foreigners to donate to American elections.
2017.09.06Amid ongoing concern over the role of disinformation in the 2016 election, Facebook said Wednesday it found that more than 5,000 ads, costing more than $150,000, had been placed on its network between June 2015 and May 2017 from "inauthentic accounts" and Pages, likely from Russia. wired.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.09.06Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda, seeking to target voters. washingtonpost.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.09.19US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, including a period when Manafort was knows to talk to Donald Trump, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe. cnn.com (See also Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.09.20Less than two weeks before Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign chairman offered to provide briefings on the race to a Russian billionaire closely aligned with the Kremlin, in an email from Paul Manafort to an overseas intermediary. washingtonpost.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, Corruption, Russia)
“If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote in the July 7, 2016, email.
2017.09.25Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions during the 2016 presidential campaign. washingtonpost.com (See also Racism, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.10.09Google has found evidence that Russian agents bought ads on its wide-ranging networks in an effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential campaign. nytimes.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election)
The search giant is facing increased scrutiny over its role in the 2016 presidential campaign, and is one of a number of internet companies being examined.
2017.10.11The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is looking at Cambridge Analytica’s work for Donald Trump’s campaign as part of its investigation into Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 race. thedailybeast.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, had holdings in Cambridge Analytica worth between $1 million and $5 million as recently as April of this year.
2017.10.17US investigators believe it was Yevgeny Prigozhin's company (a colleague of Putin and a Russian oligarch) that financed a Russian "troll factory" that used social media to spread fake news during the 2016 US presidential campaign. cnn.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.10.18Some of the Trump campaign’s most prominent names and supporters, including Trump’s campaign manager, digital director, Kellyanne Conway, and Donald Trump Jr., pushed tweets from professional trolls paid by the Russian government in the heat of the 2016 election campaign. thedailybeast.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, Donald Trump Jr)
2017.10.24The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is pursuing an investigation into possible money laundering by Paul Manafort, adding to the federal and state probes concerning the former Trump campaign chairman. wsj.com (See also Corruption)
2017.10.25Alexander Nix, who heads a controversial data-analytics firm that worked for Donald Trump’s campaign, wrote in an email last year that he reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about Hillary Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails, while Assange confirmed that such an exchange took place. thedailybeast.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.10.27The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website funded by a major Republican donor, first hired the research firm that months later produced for Democrats the salacious dossier describing ties between Donald J. Trump and the Russian government. nytimes.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.10.30A professor with close ties to the Russian government told an adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in April 2016 that Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails." nytimes.com (See also Corruption, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)
The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation, representing the most explicit evidence that the Trump campaign was aware that the Russian government was trying to help Mr. Trump and that the campaign was eager to accept that help.
2017.10.30Facebook plans to tell lawmakers on Tuesday that 126 million of its users may have seen content produced and circulated by Russian operatives, many times more than what the company previously disclosed about the reach of the disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election. washingtonpost.com (See also 2016 Election, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.10.30Special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III on Monday revealed charges against three former Trump campaign officials — former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime business partner Rick Gates and former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos — marking the first criminal allegations to come from probes into possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs. washingtonpost.com (See also Legal Activity, Corruption, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)
2017.10.30Trump campaign’s Russia ties: Who’s involved washingtonpost.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption)
2017.11.02The Justice Department has identified more than six members of the Russian government involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee’s computers and swiping sensitive information that became public during the 2016 presidential election, according to people familiar with the investigation. wsj.com (See also Department of Justice, Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Activity)
2017.11.11Donald Trump dismissed probes into whether his campaign colluded with Russia as an “artificial Democratic hit job,” and said he believed Putin was being sincere when he insisted that Russia did not attempt to interfere in the 2016 election. politico.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.11.12Former CIA Director John Brennan said he believed Donald Trump called him and two other top intelligence officials “political hacks” to “delegitimize” the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. wsj.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Unpresidential Behavior)
2017.11.13Donald Trump Jr. exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign at the same time the website was publishing hacked emails from Democratic officials. washingtonpost.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Legal Issues, Donald Trump Jr)
2017.11.13Donald Trump tweeted about the hacked emails of then-Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta approximately 15 minutes after WikiLeaks requested his son Donald Trump Jr. to do so. thehill.com (See also Corruption, Donald Trump Jr)
2017.11.17A senior Russian official who claimed to be acting at the behest of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia tried in May 2016 to arrange a meeting between Mr. Putin and Donald J. Trump. nytimes.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.11.18Earlier this year, a Russian-American lobbyist and another businessman discussed over coffee in Moscow an extraordinary meeting they had attended 12 months earlier: a gathering at Trump Tower with President Donald Trump’s son, his son-in-law and his then-campaign chairman. apnews.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr)
2017.11.20Travels by Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to meet with senior officials in Hungary during the 2016 presidential election are being closely examined by congressional investigators, given the increasingly close ties between Hungary and Russia and the role of the country as a hub for Russian intelligence activity. abcnews.go.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.12.01Michael Flynn will reportedly testify that Donald Trump instructed him to make contact with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign. thedailybeast.com (See also Michael Flynn, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Criminality)
2017.12.01Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn has promised “full cooperation” in the special counsel’s Russia investigation and, according to a confidant, is prepared to testify that Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians, initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria. abcnews.go.com (See also Michael Flynn, Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia, Legal Issues, Criminality)
2017.12.06Donald Trump Jr. asked a Russian lawyer at the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting whether she had evidence of illegal donations to the Clinton Foundation, the lawyer told the Senate Judiciary Committee in answers to written questions. nbcnews.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Donald Trump Jr, Legal Issues)
2017.12.07An executive at a leading Russian social media company made several overtures to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 — including days before the November election — urging the candidate to create a page on the website to appeal to Russian Americans and Russians. washingtonpost.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Donald Trump Jr, Russia)
Dan Scavino, the White House social media director, expressed interest in learning more, and Donald Trump Jr. forwarded a pitch about the concept to Scavino.
2017.12.07The British publicist who arranged the June 2016 meeting with Russians and Donald Trump Jr. sent multiple emails to a Russian participant and a member of Donald Trump's inner circle later that summer, the first indication there was any follow-up after the meeting. cnn.com (See also Donald Trump Jr, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, False Statements)
2017.12.08Candidate Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address for hacked WikiLeaks documents, according to an email provided to congressional investigators. cnn.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, Donald Trump Jr)
2017.12.13Donald Trump Jr. met with the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee for 9 hours, as part of the panel’s investigation into Russia, the 2016 U.S. election and whether his father’s election campaign colluded with Moscow. reuters.com (See also Donald Trump Jr, Legal Issues, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Election)
2017.12.14Donald Trump continues to reject the evidence that Russia supported his run for the White House as part of an unprecedented assault on a pillar of U.S. democracy. washingtonpost.com (See also Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia, Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, H.R. McMaster, John Kelly, 2016 Election)
2017.12.14Fourteen former national security, intelligence, and foreign policy officials who have served at senior levels in Republican and Democratic administrations recently wrote an amicus brief as part of a lawsuit brought against Donald Trump's campaign and Roger Stone, his longtime confidant. businessinsider.com (See also Legal Issues, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.12.15Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign, turn over documents as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, according to people familiar with the matter. wsj.com (See also Legal Activity, 2016 Election, Steve Bannon, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2017.12.16Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained “many tens of thousands" of Trump transition emails, including emails of Jared Kushner. axios.com (See also Jared Kushner, Trump Relationship with Russia, Legal Issues)
2017.12.22Donald Trump promised to protect steel while campaigning, but his pledge to do something has actually done more harm than good, as layoffs are coming instead. nytimes.com (See also False Statements, Jobs)
2017.12.22The Associated Press found that a Russian hacking group targeted at least 200 journalists, publishers and bloggers as early as mid-2014 up to a few months ago. apnews.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Assaults on Civil Liberties)
2017.12.27Special counsel Robert Mueller has begun to question Republican National Committee staffers about the party's 2016 campaign data operation, which helped President Donald Trump's campaign team target voters in critical swing states. businessinsider.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, Legal Issues, Jared Kushner)
2017.12.30George Papadopoulos, a Trump foreign policy adviser, was the improbable match that set off a blaze that has consumed the first year of the Trump administration. nytimes.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, Legal Issues)
2018.01.29Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be “extraordinarily reckless,” voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate, throwing fuel on an already fiery partisan conflict over the investigations into Russia’s brazen meddling in the 2016 presidential election. nytimes.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Nationalism, Trump Relationship with Russia, Assaults on Facts)
2018.01.29The Trump administration informed lawmakers that new Russia sanctions called for in a bipartisan bill passed last year are not necessary yet because the measure is already "serving as a deterrent," despite the fact that lawmakers in both parties nudged the administration to implement sanctions legislation that passed overwhelmingly in July — with only five no votes in both the House and Senate. politico.com (See also Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia, Unprecedented Actions)
2018.01.31The FBI released a statement condemning a push by House Republicans to release a secret memo that purports to show how the bureau and the Justice Department abused their authorities to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. nytimes.com (See also Corruption, Department of Justice)
2018.02.01The FBI agent accused of undermining Donald Trump and being sympathetic to Hilary Clinton has been revealed as the initial author of a controversial FBI decision that upended Clinton's campaign just days before the 2016 election: the letter to Congress by then-FBI Director James Comey announcing the bureau was investigating newly discovered Clinton emails. cnn.com (See also False Statements, Corruption)
2018.02.03The U.S. Justice Department has backed Special Counsel Robert Mueller over a lawsuit filed against him by Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, who had argued that the case should be dismissed. reuters.com (See also Legal Activity, Corruption)
2018.02.16The special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations with illegally trying to disrupt the American political process, including efforts designed to boost the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump and hurt that of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. nytimes.com (See also 2016 Election, Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Activity)
The indictment represents the first charges by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, for meddling in the 2016 presidential election — the fundamental crime that he was assigned to investigate.
2018.02.18Another former member of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign reportedly will plead guilty to charges resulting from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. splinternews.com (See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2018.02.23Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed new charges against former Donald Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates describing a "scheme" in which the two longtime business partners allegedly laundered $30 million, failed to pay taxes for almost 10 years and used real estate they owned to fraudulently secure more than $20 million in loans. cnn.com (See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2018.02.24Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort was hit with new charges on Friday, including an allegation he secretly recruited and funded a group of former European politicians to lobby in the United States on behalf of Ukraine. nbcnews.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Issues)
The superseding indictment was filed just a couple of hours after Manafort's business partner, former campaign aide Rick Gates, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators — even while he was negotiating a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller.
2018.03.16Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI deputy director Andrew Mc­Cabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire — a move that McCabe alleged was an attempt to slander him and undermine the ongoing special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Department of Justice, Conflicts of Interest, Resignations and Dismissals)
2018.03.19Senior executives at Cambridge Analytica – the data company that credits itself with Donald Trump’s presidential victory – have been secretly filmed saying they could entrap politicians in compromising situations with bribes and Ukrainian sex workers. channel4.com (See also 2016 Election, Corruption)
2018.03.20Stephen K. Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s early efforts to collect troves of Facebook data as part of an ambitious program to build detailed profiles of millions of American voters, according to a former employee of the data-science firm. washingtonpost.com (See also Steve Bannon)
2018.03.25Cambridge Analytica assigned dozens of non-U.S. citizens to provide campaign strategy and messaging advice to ­Republican candidates in 2014, according to three former workers for the data firm, even as an attorney warned executives to abide by U.S. laws limiting foreign involvement in elections. washingtonpost.com (See also Steve Bannon, Legal Issues)
2018.04.03Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told special counsel Robert Mueller in a classified August 2, 2017, memo that he should investigate allegations that Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was "colluding with Russian government officials" to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. cnn.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Activity, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2018.04.09Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of Donald Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to three people with knowledge of the case. washingtonpost.com (See also Legal Activity, Corruption)
2018.04.20The Democratic National Committee opened a surprise legal assault on Donald Trump, filing a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the organization was the victim of a conspiracy by Russian officials, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential run. nytimes.com (See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2018.04.27A federal judge in Washington has thrown out a civil lawsuit President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, filed challenging the authority of special counsel Robert Mueller. politico.com (See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election)
2018.05.03Federal investigators have wiretapped the phone lines of Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer for Donald Trump who is under investigation for a payment he made to an adult film star who alleged she had an affair with Trump. nbcnews.com (See also Legal Activity, Legal Issues)
2018.05.03Sam Clovis, the former Trump campaign aide who had been serving as USDA's liaison to the White House, is leaving the Agriculture Department and will return home to Iowa. politico.com (See also Resignations and Dismissals, Russian Meddling in Election)
2018.05.10Thousands of Facebook ads bought by Russians to fool U.S. voters have been released by Congress. usatoday.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)
2018.05.19Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son: an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation, an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes, and a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor. nytimes.com (See also Donald Trump Jr, Israel, Russia, Legal Issues, Russian Meddling in Election)
The meetings are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign.
2018.05.20Donald Trump demanded that the Justice Department investigate whether the department or the F.B.I. “infiltrated or surveilled” his campaign at the behest of the Obama administration, following through on his frequent threats to intervene in the special counsel inquiry as he targets those he views as political enemies. nytimes.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Assaults on Government, Legal Issues, Fascism)
2018.06.04Federal prosecutors accused Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, of attempting to tamper with witnesses in his federal tax and money laundering case. nytimes.com (See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election)
2018.06.11Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, emerging amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member Alexander Torshin illegally channeled money through the gun rights group to add financial firepower to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. mcclatchydc.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia, Department of Justice)
2018.06.14The Justice Department’s inspector general painted a harsh portrait of the F.B.I. during the 2016 presidential election, describing a destructive culture in which James B. Comey, the former director, was “insubordinate,” senior officials privately bashed Donald J. Trump and agents came to distrust prosecutors, while also criticzing Comey for breaking with longstanding policy and publicly discussing — in a news conference and a pair of letters in the middle of the campaign — an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in handling classified information. nytimes.com (See also Legal Issues)
The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, did not challenge the conclusion that Mrs. Clinton should not be prosecuted.
2018.06.15A federal judge ordered Paul Manafort to jail Friday over charges he tampered with witnesses while out on bail — a major blow for Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman as he awaits trial on federal conspiracy and money-laundering charges next month. washingtonpost.com (See also Criminality, Legal Activity)
2018.07.12Despite concerns from American intelligence and law enforcement officials, the White House has ordered that more lawmakers be given access to classified information about an informant the F.B.I. used in 2016 to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. nytimes.com (See also Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia)
Both the director of national intelligence and the director of the F.B.I. tried to keep the classified documents tightly restricted, fearing that a broader dissemination of operational reports and other sensitive material could lead to more leaks of detailed information about the role of the confidential F.B.I. informant.
2018.07.13A federal grand jury handed down an indictment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation that provided new details about Russia hackers’ attempted, and in at least one case, successful infiltration of state and local election systems, stealing the personal information of approximately 500,000 voters in a July 2016 hack, led by a Russian military officer, of an unnamed state’s board of elections website. talkingpointsmemo.com (See also Criminality, Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Election)
2018.07.13Roger Stone, a longtime associate of Donald Trump, appears to be the unnamed individual in a new Russia probe indictment made public, who is described as having communicated with Guccifer 2.0 in 2016. cnn.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)
2018.07.13The indictment of 12 Russian intelligence operatives by special counsel Robert Mueller stated that "a candidate for the U.S. Congress" contacted Russian operatives posing as the hacker "Guccifer 2.0" and requested information stolen from the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) email server. thehill.com (See also Criminality, Russian Meddling in Election)
2018.07.13The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election issued an indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaign. nytimes.com (See also Criminality, Russian Meddling in Election, Russia)
2018.07.15Donald Trump said that he hadn’t thought of pressing Russian President Vladimir Putin on extraditing the dozen Russian officials charged with hacking Democratic emails, instead blaming the Democrats’ “bad defenses” for getting hacked during the 2016 campaign. washingtonpost.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia)
2018.07.16A Russian woman who tried to broker a pair of secret meetings between candidate Donald J. Trump and the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin during the 2016 presidential campaign, and met with Donald Trump Jr., was charged Monday and accused of carrying out a secret Russian effort to influence American politics. nytimes.com (See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Criminality, Donald Trump Jr)
2018.07.31The jury was selected in the trial of Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and opening arguments are set to begin. reuters.com (See also Legal Activity, Criminality)
2018.08.03Maria Butina, the Russian gun-rights activist who was charged last month with working as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin, socialized in the weeks before the 2016 election with a former Trump campaign aide who anticipated joining the presidential transition team, emails show, putting her in closer contact with Trump’s orbit than was previously known. washingtonpost.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia)
2018.08.05Donald Trump tweeted that a Trump Tower meeting between top campaign aides and a Kremlin-connected lawyer was designed to “get information on an opponent” — the starkest acknowledgment yet that a statement he dictated last year about the encounter was a lie. nytimes.com (See also Reversals, Criminality, Trump Relationship with Russia, False Statements, Donald Trump Jr)
The tweet also served as an admission that the Trump team had not been forthright when Donald Trump Jr. issued a statement in July 2017 saying that the meeting had been primarily about the adoption of Russian children.
2018.08.06Rick Gates — the star witness against Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman — admitted in federal court that he committed a host of crimes with his former boss, Paul Manafort, and confessed to stealing from him and others. washingtonpost.com (See also Criminality, Legal Activity)

2016.07 The 2016 Republican Platform as confirmed at the 2016 Republican convention

2017.01.10 The Federal Election Commission requests information essential to full public disclosure of Trump's federal election campaign finances from the Trump for President campaign. Failure to adequately respond by the response date noted could result in an audit or enforcement action.