This page reflects information learned about Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests through February 2018. For more recent updates on the status of the special counsel investigation, see our indictments page

Congress and U.S. intelligence agencies are scrutinizing connections between Russia and the Trump campaign as they investigate evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Here are members of Team Trump who are known to have Russian connections and the story lines that have made those ties relevant.

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Team Trump Russian ties

Team Trump

Donald Trump

President of the United States and real estate developer. His business contacts in Russia date to the late 1980s.

Timeline

1986 | Trump sits next to Russian Ambassador Yuri Dubinin at a luncheon hosted by Leonard Lauder, the oldest son of Estée Lauder who managed the sprawling cosmetic business at the time. Read more

1987 | Trump visits Moscow and tours various sites in an effort to strike real estate deals in Soviet-era Russia. He stays in a hotel overlooking the Kremlin, and tells Playboy that Russian jets escorted his own on the way to the airport. Read more

December 1988 | Trump invites Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his wife to visit Trump Tower in New York, but the meeting never materializes. Read more

1996 | Trump says he will hold a press conference with a Miami-based tobacco company in Moscow announcing plans to build an office and apartment complex similar to Trump Tower in New York. Read more

2005 | Trump gave the development company Bayrock a one-year deal to find a site for a Trump Tower. Felix Sater later testified that he identified a former pencil factory as a site for the project, before the deal fell apart. Read more

Nov. 9, 2013 | While in Moscow for his Miss Universe competition, Trump meets with Russian businessmen, including real estate developer Aras Agalarov, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Before the pageant, Trump said to MSNBC, "I do have a relationship" with Putin. Read more

May 2014 | Trump tells a group at the National Press Club that while he was in Moscow, he spoke with Putin "indirectly and directly."

April 2015 | Alexander Torshin, a former Russian senator from Putin's party who now heads Russia's central bank, told Bloomberg News that he had a friendly exchange with Trump at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association of America. A White House official said Trump does not recall the exchange. Read more

July 2015 | At a town hall in Las Vegas, Trump tells an audience that he knew Putin. "I don't think you'd need the sanctions. I think that we would get along very, very well," he said. Read more

September 2015 | Putin and Trump are on the season premiere of "60 Minutes." Although Trump would later say in a debate, "I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes.' We were stablemates," Time magazine revealed that they were interviewed in separate cities. Read more

Late 2015 to early 2016 | Post reporting shows Trump's company was seeking to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow during the presidential campaign. In July 2016 — during the height of the campaign when connections to Russia were under great scrutiny — Trump denied having any business connections to Moscow. Felix Sater, a Russian-born real estate developer, urged Trump to visit Moscow in November 2015 and suggested Putin might say "great things" about him. The deal is abandoned by January 2016 because because Trump's business lacked the land and permits. Read more

December 2015 | Putin says Trump is "colorful" and "talented." Trump calls the compliment an “honor.” Even as ties to Russia become a campaign issue in 2016, Trump refuses to renounce Putin: “A guy calls me a genius, and I’m going to renounce? I’m not going to renounce him.” (Putin has not publicly called Trump a genius.) Read more

April 2016 | Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attends a speech in Washington in which Trump vows to seek better relations with Russia. The president of the think tank that invited Kislyak said he introduced the two in a receiving line. Read more

June 15, 2016 | In a private conversation among GOP leaders that included Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that Putin "pays" Trump. Read more

July 2016 | In news conferences and tweets, Trump says he has “nothing to do with Russia,” and "I don't know who Putin is. ... I've never spoken to him." He also tweeted, “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.” At the same time, at a news conference, Trump encouraged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's email. Read more

Nov. 10, 2016 | Two days after the election, a Russian official tells a reporter in Moscow that the Kremlin had been in contact with Trump’s campaign. Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks denies it, saying, “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” Read more

Nov. 10, 2016 | President Barack Obama personally warns Trump against hiring Michael Flynn as his national security adviser when the two meet in the Oval Office, current and former administration officials said. Read more

Jan. 20, 2017 | Inauguration Day. Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. He designates the day as “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.” Read more

Jan. 30, 2017 | Trump fires acting attorney general Sally Yates for not defending the travel ban. Just days before — on Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 — Yates warned White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was misleading Vice President Pence on his contacts with the Russian ambassador and that he could be blackmailed by Russia. Read more

Jan. 28, 2017 | President Trump and Putin speak on the phone for an hour. Read more

February 2017 | Trump pressures FBI Director James B. Comey to drop the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to the bureau chief's personal notes. People close to the matter said Comey kept detailed notes of his meetings with Trump. Read more

March 2017 | After a briefing at the White House with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, associates of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Trump asked him to get then-FBI Director James Comey to pull back its focus on Flynn in the Russia investigation. Read more

March 23-24, 2017 | A day or two after the meeting, Trump calls Coats and asks him to issue a public statement denying the existence of any evidence of coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Coats declines to act on the request. Trump also approached Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, and asked him the same thing. Rogers also refused to comply. Read more

Week of May 1, 2017 | Comey reportedly sought more money and resources for the Russia investigation. The Washington Post reports this on May 10, a day after Trump fires Comey. Read more

May 8, 2017 | Trump tells Vice President Pence and others that he wants to fire Comey because of his grievances with the bureau head, one of which includes the belief that Comey was focusing too much on the Russia investigation rather than finding the cause of leaks to journalists. Read more

May 9, 2017 | Trump fires Comey, who was leading the investigation into Trump team's ties to Russia. The stunning decision sparked fears that the investigation might be upended now that Trump himself can handpick a new supervisor. Read more

May 10, 2017 | Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House. Lavrov's official photographer, who also works for the Russian news agency Tass, took photos of the foreign minister, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Trump smiling and shaking hands in the Oval Office. Read more

May 11, 2017 | In an NBC interview, Trump reveals that Comey told him three times he was not under investigation. Read more

May 15, 2017 | The Post reports that Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. Read more

May 19, 2017 | The Post reports that a senior White House adviser close to President Trump is under scrutiny by investigators who are looking into the possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. Read more

June 12, 2017 | Trump's close personal friend Christopher Ruddy tells PBS’s “NewsHour” that the president could fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to oversee the Russia investigation. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says: "Chris Ruddy speaks for himself." Read more

June 14, 2017 | The special counsel plans to interview top intelligence officials as part of a larger investigation that now includes looking into whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said. Read more

July 12, 2017 | CNN publishes footage from 2013 showing Trump, Aras Agalarov, his son Emin Agalarov and the son's publicist at a dinner during the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas. Emin Agalarov's publicist, Rob Goldstone, sent an email to Donald Trump Jr. in 2016 saying a Russian lawyer had potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton and that the information "comes directly from the Russian government." Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner meet with the lawyer on June 9, 2016. Read more

July 19, 2017 | In an interview with The New York Times, Trump says he would have never appointed Sessions if he had known the attorney general would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump described the decision by the attorney general as "unfair." Sessions is one of Trump's most loyal supporters. Read more

Aug. 3, 2017 | The Post reports special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is using a grand jury in federal court in Washington, D.C., as part of the Russia investigation, a sign that the investigators are continuing to aggressively gather evidence of possible coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. The special counsel investigation now includes a look at whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey. Read more

Jan. 4, 2018 | President Trump directed the White House’s top lawyer, Don McGahn, to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the FBI's investigation into Russian election meddling and tried to persuade him not to do so, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The New York Times first reported the lawyer's efforts. Read more

Jan. 16, 2018 | The same day the House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon for refusing to answer questions from investigators during a closed-door interview, it is revealed that the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has also subpoenaed Bannon to appear before a grand jury. The New York Times first reported the Mueller subpoena, which was issued the previous week. Bannon later agreed to be interviewed by Mueller's team rather than appear before a grand jury. Read more

January 20, 2018 | The Post identifies at least half a dozen politically connected Russians who were in Washington on Inauguration Day — including some whose presence has not been previously reported. Read more

January 25, 2018 | During an impromptu meeting in the West Wing with reporters, Trump says he is “looking forward” to testifying under oath to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as part of the probe of Russian investigation. “I would love to do it, and I would like to do it as soon as possible,” Trump said. “I would do it under oath, absolutely.” Read more

January 18, 2018 | McClatchy reports the FBI is investigating whether Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia's central bank who is known for his close relationship with Putin, funneled money to the NRA to help Trump win the presidency. Read more

March 1, 2018 | NPR publishes translated tweets from Torshin saying he knew Trump through the NRA. Read more

Paul Manafort

A political consultant and lobbyist and former Trump campaign chairman, Manafort was also a former business associate of Rick Gates and Roger Stone. Manafort was involved in a couple of million-dollar investment deals with oligarchs linked to Putin. He also advised former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in 2014.

Timeline

2005 | For nearly a decade starting in 2005, Manafort worked for people with ties to the party of Putin ally and Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych — and for the party itself — in a successful effort to remake Yanukovych's image and return him to the presidency. Read more

2006 | Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Putin, becomes Manafort's client. He invests in Manafort's Cayman Islands fund, which bought assets primarily in Ukraine. (Later in court, Deripaska accuses Manafort and Rick Gates of defrauding him out of $19 million.) Read more

2006 | Manafort reportedly signs a $10 million annual contract with Deripaska to secretly advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Associated Press. He also proposed a strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition in former Soviet republics. Before the March 2017 story, Manafort and the Trump administration had said Manafort never worked for Russian interests. Manafort and Deripaska denied that any work was done on behalf of Putin or the Russian government, and the AP account has not been confirmed. Read more

2008 | Manafort and associate Rick Gates agree to work on a Park Avenue development project with Ukrainian oligarch and steel tycoon Dmitry Firtash, but the project falls apart. Read more

April 2016 | Manafort writes an email to Trump press aide Hope Hicks -- now the White House communications director -- saying she should disregard a list of questions from The Washington Post about his relationships with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and a Ukrainian businessman, according to people familiar with the email. Read more

Early May 2016 | Konstantin Kilimnik, one of Manafort's former business associates from Ukraine, meets him during one of his visits to the United States. Read more

May 19, 2016 | Manafort formally becomes Trump's campaign chairman and chief strategist. Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is fired June 20. Read more

May 21, 2016 | George Papadopoulos, who Trump identified as a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, emails Manafort saying Russia is "eager" to meet Trump. Manafort forwards the email to Rick Gates -- a campaign official. Read more

June 8, 2016 | In an email exchange, Trump Jr. agrees with publicist Rob Goldstone to meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on June 9, 2016. The emails show Trump Jr. was told the information "comes directly from the Russian government." The president’s son forwards the email to Jared Kushner and Manafort, informing them of the time of the meeting. Goldstone is the publicist for Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star who met Donald Trump in 2013. Read more

June 9, 2016 | Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Manafort meet Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who claims to have potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to a statement by Trump Jr. The meeting at Trump Tower lasts 20 to 30 minutes, Trump Jr. said. Music publicist Rob Goldstone, Russian American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and former State Department employee Anatoli Samochornov, who served as the translator, accompany the Russian lawyer to the meeting. An eighth person who attended the meeting was later identified as Ike Kaveladze, a U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate company. Read more

July 7, 2016 | Manafort offers to give briefings on the presidential race to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who is closely aligned with the Kremlin. “If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote in the July 7, 2016, email, portions of which were read to The Post. There is no evidence showing that Deripaska received Manafort’s offer or that any briefings took place. Read more

Aug. 14, 2016 | A New York Times story alleges Manafort received $12.7 million in secret cash payments from Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's party between 2005 and 2012. The findings are dubbed the "secret ledger." Read more

Early August 2016 | Manafort meets Kilimnik again at the Grand Havana Room in New York City. Kilminik says the two discussed clients, the situation in Ukraine and the U.S. presidential election. Read more

Aug. 19, 2016 | At the request of Trump, Manafort resigns. Read more

March 21, 2017 | A Ukrainian lawmaker releases documents alleging that Manafort laundered payments from Yanukovych's party using offshore accounts in Belize and Kyrgyzstan. Manafort denied receiving those payments. Read more

March 24, 2017 | Paul Manafort volunteers to be interviewed before the House Intelligence Committee on Russia ties, says Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Read more

April 12, 2017 | Manafort indicates he may register as a foreign agent for the work he’s done on behalf of political figures in Ukraine. Jason Maloni, his spokesman, said the work ended before Manafort began working for the Trump campaign and “was not conducted on behalf of the Russian government.” Read more

June 26, 2017 | A consulting firm led by Manafort retroactively filed forms 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. Read more

July 25, 2017 | The Senate Intelligence Committee issues a subpoena for Manafort to testify separately after congressional committees have wrestling with him on how and when he would provide his testimony. The Post reports Manafort has agreed to submit notes that he took in a meeting with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to Senate investigators before his appearance in a closed-door session. The notes could give insight into what actually took place during the June 2016 meeting. Read more

July 26, 2017 | FBI agents conduct a pre-dawn raid on Manafort's home, seizing documents and other materials related the the special counsel's investigation. The raid occurred without warning and signified an aggressive new approach to the investigation. Read more

Oct. 30, 2017 | Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates are charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and making false statements. Read more

Dec. 4, 2017 | The special counsel asserts Manafort has been "assessed to have ties" to Russian intelligence. Read more

Jan. 3, 2017 | Manafort sues special counsel Robert Mueller. In a 17-page lawsuit, Manafort's attorneys argue that the Justice Department exceeded its legal authority when acting attorney general Rod Rosenstein ordered Mueller to investigate "links and/or coordination" between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. Read more

Feb. 23, 2017 | Manafort's deputy, Rick Gates, pleads guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI. Read more

Ret. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn

Former national security adviser and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Flynn resigned as the NSC head after The Washington Post reported that he misled Vice President Mike Pence and others on the true nature of his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, saying he had not privately discussed U.S. sanctions.

Timeline

2013 | Flynn meets Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on a trip to Moscow. Read more

Dec. 10, 2015 | Flynn is paid more than $45,000 by Russian-government-backed RT for his participation in a Moscow panel honoring the news agency. At a related gala, he sat at the table of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Also in 2015, he was paid more than $22,000 by Russia-related entities for two speeches in Washington. Read more

November 2016 | Senior members of Trump’s transition team warn Flynn in late November that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s conversations were almost certainly being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said. But he chooses to make the phone call anyway, which eventually leads to his resignation. Read more

Before Nov. 8, 2016 | Flynn contacts Kislyak, according to Post reporting. It's not clear how often they communicated or what was discussed. Read more

December 2016 | Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak meet at Trump Tower for 20 minutes. This was just before the Obama administration sanctioned Russia for interfering in the 2016 election. Read more

Dec. 22, 2016 | Flynn contacts Kislyak about the incoming administration’s opposition to a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal and requested that Russia vote against or delay it, court records say. The ambassador later called back and indicated Russia would not vote against it, the records say. Read more

Dec 25, 2016 | Flynn wishes Kislyak merry Christmas through a text message.

Dec. 29, 2016 | Flynn places five phone calls to Kislyak, who was being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies. The same day, President Obama announces sanctions against Moscow. Surprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin chooses not to retaliate. Read more

Jan. 12, 2017 | Post columnist David Ignatius reveals that conversations took place between Flynn and Kislyak. On Jan. 15, Vice President Mike Pence says on "Face the Nation" that Flynn had assured him that he and Kislyak did not discuss sanctions. Read more

Jan. 24, 2017 | Flynn tells FBI interviewers that he did not discuss sanctions with Kislyak, contradicting transcripts from intelligence officials who monitored the calls. Two days later, acting attorney general Sally Q. Yates tells the White House counsel that Flynn had discussed sanctions and could be vulnerable to blackmail by Russia. Trump fired Yates Jan. 30 for refusing to enforce his travel ban. Read more

Feb. 8, 2017 | Flynn tells a Post reporter that he did not discuss sanctions with Kislyak. The next day, he waffles; a spokesman says Flynn "couldn't be certain that the topic never came up." Also that day, Pence learns from a Post story that the White House knew in January that Flynn and Kislyak had discussed sanctions. Read more

Feb. 13, 2017 | Flynn is fired after news reports revealed that he misled Pence. Read more

March 7, 2017 | Flynn files paperwork to register as a foreign agent because of lobbying work potentially benefitting Turkey. Days later it is revealed that his lawyers twice alerted the White House counsel during the transition that Flynn may need to register, meaning the nation's top national security voice was also being paid to represent the interests of another country. Read more

March 28, 2017 | The Post reports that the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to block Yates from testifying in a House Intelligence Committee hearing after her lawyer told the Justice Department that her testimony would probably contradict statements by White House officials. Committee chair and former Trump adviser Devin Nunes canceled the hearing. Read more

April 25, 2017 | The heads of the House Oversight Committee say Flynn likely broke the law by failing to disclose foreign income he earned from Russia and Turkey. Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking Democrat Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said they believe Flynn neither received permission nor fully disclosed income he earned for a speaking engagement in Russia and lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey when he applied to reinstate his security clearance, after viewing two classified memos and Flynn’s disclosure form in a private briefing. Read more

April 27, 2017 | The Pentagon’s inspector general will investigate whether Flynn failed to obtain proper approval to receive payments from foreign groups. Flynn was paid to appear with the Russian president during a dinner for RT, and he worked as a foreign agent representing Turkish interests in the fall. The Pentagon has advised retiring officers that they may be subject to a constitutional clause that prohibits top officials from receiving money or favors from foreign governments. Read more

May 5, 2017 | The Post reports that senior members of Trump’s transition team warned Flynn that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s conversations were almost certainly being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies, but he chose to call him anyway. The caution came a month before Flynn was recorded telling Kislyak that the Trump administration would address Moscow’s concerns about U.S. sanctions. Read more

May 10, 2017 | For the first time in the Senate's Russia investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas documents related to the Russia investigation from Flynn after he declines to hand them over. Read more

May 22, 2017 | Flynn invokes the Fifth Amendment, refusing to comply with a Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena for documents related to its investigation into Russian meddling. Read more

Nov. 23, 2017 | Flynn's lawyers have ended their communications with Trump’s legal team, a sign that the former national security adviser may be preparing to cooperate in the special counsel's Russia investigation. Read more

Dec. 1, 2017 | After a series of behind-the-scenes negotiations with the special counsel, Flynn pleads guilty to one felony count of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Read more

Dec. 6, 2017 | The Post reports that Flynn assured his former associate that U.S. sanctions against Russia would immediately be "ripped up" by the Trump administration, according to a witness who spoke with congressional investigators. The move would have helped facilitate a deal to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East in partnership with Russian interests, the witness said. Read more

Carter Page

Former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, energy executive and oil industry consultant. Page had worked in Moscow for years as a vice president with Merrill Lynch and made recent trips to Russia.

Timeline

2004 to 2007 | Page runs the Moscow office of Merrill Lynch. He said he advised the state-run energy conglomerate Gazprom and other energy companies. However, Page's then-supervisor said Page's role was to execute deals rather than to negotiate or advise on them. Read more

March 2016 | Page is hired by the Trump team. In an interview with Bloomberg News, he says he owns shares of Gazprom and that his stock portfolio had suffered since the United States and Europe imposed economic sanctions on Russia. Read more

July 7, 2016 | Page gives a speech critical of U.S. policy toward Russia on a Moscow trip that had been approved by Trump's campaign manager on the condition that Page not formally represent the campaign. While there, Page allegedly met with Igor Sechin, a Putin confidant and chief executive of the energy company Rosneft, according to a dossier cited by Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Some of the information in the dossier has been verified by U.S. intelligence agencies, while other parts have proved false. Read more

July 18, 2016 | Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak speaks with Page and campaign adviser J.D. Gordon following a panel at the Republican National Convention, where Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) had also met Kislyak. Read more

Sept. 26, 2016 | Page leaves the campaign after reports showed he met with Igor Sechin, the head of state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft, and other high-ranking Russian officials during the campaign. Page denies meeting “any of those guys” and volunteers to testify in front of Congress to clear his name. Read more

April 3, 2017 | BuzzFeed reports Page met with a Russian agent named Victor Podobnyy in 2013 in New York at an energy conference, according to court filings. Page later tells The Washington Post that the reason his name came up in the court filings was because he was helping the Justice Department build its case against Evgeny Buryakov, an undercover Russian agent who was posing as a bank executive in New York at Vnesheconombank. Buryakov was later convicted of foreign espionage. Read more

April 11, 2017 | The Post reports that the FBI obtained a secret court order in 2016 to monitor Page's communications. A FISA court judge determined there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as a foreign agent. Officials said the court renewed the warrant more than once. Page is the only American known to have had his communications directly targeted with a FISA warrant as part of the Russia probe. He has denied any wrongdoing. Read more

June 26, 2017 | The Post reports that FBI agents have questioned Page at length in Russia probe. Over a series of five meetings in March, totaling about 10 hours of questioning, Page repeatedly denied wrongdoing when asked about allegations that he may have acted as a kind of ­go-between for Russia and the Trump campaign. Read more

Jeff Sessions

Attorney general. The former senator from Alabama and early Trump supporter recused himself from investigations related to the 2016 campaign after The Post found that, contrary to statements he made in his confirmation hearing, he had met with the Russian ambassador twice during the campaign.

Russian ties

Kislyak

Timeline

April 27, 2016 | Sessions and Kislyak reportedly meet on the sidelines of Trump's first major foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Read more

July 18, 2016 | Sessions speaks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation at the Republican National Convention. Read more

Sept. 8, 2016 | Sessions meets Kislyak in his Senate office.

Jan 10, 2017 | During Sessions’s nomination hearing for attorney general, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asks about a CNN report on Russian ties to the Trump campaign. Sessions answers: "I did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it." Read more

Jan. 17, 2017 | Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) asks Sessions in a letter: "Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after Election Day?" Sessions responds, "No." Read more

March 1, 2017 | The Post reports Sessions met with Kislyak at least twice in 2016, contacts he failed to disclose during his confirmation hearing. Read more

March 2, 2017 | Sessions recuses himself from the Russia investigation. Read more

May 24, 2017 | CNN reports that Sessions did not reveal his meetings with Kislyak when he applied for his security clearance to serve as the attorney general. It was the same information Sessions omitted during his confirmation hearing. Read more

June 13, 2017 | Appearing for the first time since his recusal from the Russia investigation, Sessions tells the Senate intelligence committee he does not recall meeting Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel in April. He says if there was a brief encounter, it didn't have anything to do with the campaign and that any suggestion implying he was involved in collusion is an "appalling and detestable lie." Read more

July 21, 2017 | The Post reports U.S. spy agencies intercepted Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak telling his superiors in Moscow that he discussed Trump campaign-related matters icluding policy issues important to Moscow with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The accounts from Kislyak to Russian officials contradict public assertions by the attorney general. A former U.S. official said that the intelligence indicates that Sessions and Kislyak had “substantive” discussions on matters including Trump’s positions on Russia-related issues and prospects for U.S.-Russia relations in a Trump administration. Read more

Nov. 14, 2017 | Sessions reveals for the first time that he now recalls the March 2016 meeting with George Papadopoulos, a lower-level Trump adviser, at the Trump Hotel. However, Sessions added that he had “no clear recollection of the details of what he said.” Read more

Jan 4, 2017 | President Trump directed the White House’s top lawyer, Don McGahn, to stop Sessions from recusing himself from the FBI's investigation into Russian election meddling and tried to persuade him not to do so, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The New York Times first reported the lawyer's efforts. Read more

Jan. 23, 2017 | Justice Department officials say Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been interviewed by the special counsel's team. He is the first known Cabinet member to be questioned in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Read more

Jared Kushner

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, New York real estate developer. Kushner's circle of friends and business ties includes prominent Russians.

Timeline

2015 | Kushner, his brother and a friend start Cadre, a real estate company. Among its investors is Russian tech investor Yuri Milner. Read more

April 2016 | Kushner attends then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's first major foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel, which he says was his idea. Kushner says he met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak briefly and thanked him for attending the event. Read more

April - November 2016 | According to Reuters, Kushner has two calls with Kislyak during this period. Kushner says he does not recall such calls. Read more

June 8, 2016 | In an email exchange, Trump Jr. agrees with publicist Rob Goldstone to meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on June 9, 2016. The emails show Trump Jr. was told the information "comes directly from the Russian government." The president’s son forwards the email to Kushner and Paul Manafort, informing them of the time of the meeting. Goldstone is the publicist for Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star who met Donald Trump in 2013. Read more

June 9, 2016 | Kushner, Donald Trump J., and Paul Manafort meet Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who claims to have potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to a statement by Trump Jr. The meeting at Trump Tower lasts 20 to 30 minutes, Trump Jr. said. Music publicist Rob Goldstone, Russian American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and former State Department employee Anatoli Samochornov, who served as the translator, accompany the Russian lawyer to the meeting. An eighth person who attended the meeting was later identified as Ike Kaveladze, a U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate company. Read more

Oct. 30, 2016 | Kushner receives a "random" email from "Guccifer400," which he intereprets as a hoax. Kushner says the email threatens to reveal Trump's tax returns in exchange for 52 bitcoins. Kushner says he brought the email to the attention of the Secret Service and deleted it. Read more

Nov. 16, 2016 | Kushner says his assistant recieves a request for a meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Read more

Dec. 1, 2016 | Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak meet at Trump Tower for 20 minutes. According to intercepts of Russian communications, Kushner discussed with the Russian ambassador the possibility of setting up a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin in an apparent move to hide the conversations from monitoring. Read more

Dec. 6, 2016 | The Russian Embassy asks Kushner several times to meet with the Russian ambassdor. He declines all requests, but allows a meeting between Kislyak and his assistant to "avoid offending the Ambassador." Read more

Dec. 12, 2016 | Kislyak meets Kushner's assistant and requests Kushner meets with Russian banker Sergey Gorkov, "who could give insight into how Putin was viewing the new administration and best ways to work together.” Gorkov is the head of Vnesheconombank, which is on the U.S. sanctions list. Read more

Dec. 13, 2016 | Kushner meets with Gorkov for about 25 minutes. Kushner says Gorkov told him about his bank and discussed the disappointing state of U.S.-Russia relations under Obama. Kushner says no specific policies were discussed. Read more

Jan. 20, 2017 | Dasha Zhukova, wife of oligarch and Putin friend Roman Abramovich, attends the inauguration as a guest of Ivanka Trump.

March 27, 2017 | White House and Senate officials say Kushner will be available to interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee. Read more

May 25, 2017 | The Post reports Kushner's meetings in December with Kislyak and Gorkov are now under scrutiny as part of an escalating probe into Trump's campaign ties to the Kremlin. Kushner has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and the scrutiny does not mean that he will face any charges. Read more

May 26, 2017 | The Post reports Kushner requested a secret communications channel with Kislyak. Kislyak found this unusual. Read more

June 1, 2017 | Vnesheconombank, whose chief executive is Sergey Gorkov, says that the meeting with Kushner was for business purposes. This contradicts the White House, which said Kushner’s interactions were for diplomatic reasons. But either reason has its complications. Read more

June 15, 2017 | The Post reports that special counsel Robert S. Mueller is investigating Jared Kushner’s business dealings as part of the Russia probe. Read more

July 24, 2017 | Kushner spends about two hours answering questions from Senate investigators about his contacts with Russian officials. Prior to his testimony, he releases an 11-page statement denying any improper contacts with Russian officials. Read more

Donald Trump Jr.

Trump's eldest son. Trump Jr. is operating the family business while his father is in office.

Timeline

February 2006 | Felix Sater says he escorted Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. around Moscow at Donald Trump's request. Read more

2008 | Trump tells a real estate conference, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” according to trade publication eTurboNews. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” During the speech, Trump Jr. says he traveled to Russia six times in the previous 18 months. Read more

May 2016 | Alexander Torshin, a former Russian senator from Putin's party who is now a top official at Russia's central bank, told Bloomberg News that he dined with Donald Trump Jr. at an event at the annual National Rifle Association of America convention in Nashville. A White House official said the two interacted briefly but did not eat together. Read more

June 8, 2016 | In an email exchange, Trump Jr. agrees with publicist Rob Goldstone to meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on June 9, 2016. The emails show Trump Jr. was told the information "comes directly from the Russian government." The president’s son forwards the email to Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, informing them of the time of the meeting. Goldstone is the publicist for Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star who met Donald Trump in 2013. Read more

June 9, 2016 | Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort meet Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who claims to have potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to a statement by Trump Jr. The meeting at Trump Tower lasts 20 to 30 minutes, Trump Jr. said. Music publicist Rob Goldstone, Russian American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and former State Department employee Anatoli Samochornov, who served as the translator, accompany the Russian lawyer to the meeting. An eighth person who attended the meeting was later identified as Ike Kaveladze, a U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate company. Read more

October 2016 | Trump visits France to speak to an obscure think tank with ties to Russia.

March 17, 2017 | Reuters reports that 63 people with Russian passports or addresses have invested nearly $100 million in seven Trump properties in South Florida. Read more

Sept. 7, 2017 | In his testimony to Senate investigators, Donald Trump Jr. said the meeting with the Trump campaign and the Russian lawyer in Trump Tower produced “no meaningful information,” according to people who attended the hearing. Trump Jr. also said he was not aware what role his father played in drafting an explanation for the meeting. Read more

Nov. 13, 2017 | The Post reports Trump Jr. exchanged direct messages on Twitter with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign at the same time the website published hacked emails from Democratic officials. The messages encouraged Trump Jr. to promote the hacked emails. Trump Jr. didn't respond to most of the messages. Read more

Dec. 6, 2017 | Trump Jr. is grilled about his Russia contacts by the House intelligence committee for about seven hours. Trump Jr. tells the committee he neither informed his father about his June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer nor his private exchanges with Wikileaks on Twitter. Read more

Dec. 7, 2017 | The Post reports that the executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and Dan Scavino, the campaign’s social media director, in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump’s campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages. While Scavino expressed interest in learning more at one point, it is unclear whether the campaign pursued the idea. Read more

Jan. 25, 2018 | The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he plans to release all witness interviews related to the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower. The transcripts include interviews with Donald Trump Jr., music promoter Rob Goldstone, Russian American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, U.S.-based Russian real estate company employee Ike Kaveladze, and Anatoli Samochornov, the translator for Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Read more

Rex Tillerson

Secretary of state and former chief executive of ExxonMobil. Tillerson developed extensive ties in Russia during his tenure with the oil giant.

Timeline

1998 | Tillerson is appointed head of Exxon Neftegas Limited, which was in charge of the U.S. part of the huge Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project off the coast of Siberia. Read more

2004 | Tillerson becomes president of ExxonMobil around the same time Igor Sechin takes control of Russian oil giant Rosneft, the company in charge of the Russian part of the Sakhalin-1 project. Read more

2006 | Tillerson uses his relationship with Rosneft to fight off Gazprom, Russia's largest gas producer, from exerting control over the export of gas from Sakhalin-1. Read more

2011 | Tillerson and Sechin sign the first in a series of deals as part of a landmark “Strategic Cooperation Agreement” that involved drilling in the Russian Arctic and the Black Sea. The agreements led to Tillerson having several direct interactions with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

April 2012 | Tillerson and Sechin, then deputy prime minister, go on a publicity tour touting the ExxonMobil-Rosneft cooperation.

June 2012 | Tillerson and Sechin are in attendance when Putin inaugurates a new presidential commission on fuel and energy and the three meet again in Moscow later that year. A video shows Putin and Tillerson toasting each other with champagne.

2013 | Putin awards Tillerson the “Order of Friendship.” Read more

April 12, 2017 | Tillerson, in his official capacity as secretary of state, meets with Putin in Moscow to discuss Syria. “There is a low level of trust between our countries,” Tillerson said in a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Read more

May 10, 2017 | Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the State Department. Lavrov is seen in the Oval Office laughing with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Trump, a photo that ignites minor controversy. Read more

May 11, 2017 | Tillerson and Lavrov travel to Fairbanks, Alaska, for a meeting of the Arctic Council. Read more

Wilbur Ross

Commerce Secretary Ross holds a stake in the Bank of Cyprus, which has prominent Russian investors.

Timeline

1990s | President Bill Clinton appointed Ross to the board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund, a USAID effort to bolster businesses in post-Cold-War Russia. Read more

February 2017 | In Ross's confirmation hearing, senators ask about his stake in the Bank of Cyprus and his relationship with Russian shareholders, including Putin friend Viktor Vekselberg, who was once on oil giant Rosneft's board of directors, and former KGB agent Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, a former vice chairman of the bank. Read more

Roger Stone

Longtime Trump friend, adviser and political consultant, former business partner of Paul Manafort. Stone claimed to have communicated indirectly with WikiLeaks before the website published emails that the intelligence community said were stolen by Russian agents.

Russian ties

Russian hackers

Timeline

Aug. 10, 2016 | In a speech to a Florida Republican group, Stone said he'd been in contact with WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange through mutual friends. Read more

Aug. 21, 2016 | Stone tweets "Trust me, it will soon be Podesta's time in the barrel," referring to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. WikiLeaks released a trove of Podesta's emails in October.

March 11, 2017 | Stone admits corresponding via Twitter on Aug. 14 with Guccifer 2.0, a hacker involved in the WikiLeaks releases. But Stone denies colluding with the Russians. Read more

Sept. 26, 2017 | Stone testified in a closed hearing before the House Intelligence Committee. In a prepared statement shared with The Post before the hearing, he said he planned to vehemently deny that he had any contact with Russian operatives during Trump's 2016 campaign or that he colluded to influence the election. He also said he planned to deny any foreknowledge of the WikiLeaks plan to release Podesta's emails. Read more

J.D. Gordon

Former Trump campaign adviser. The Republican strategist resisted adding anti-Russia language in the GOP platform and met with Kislyak at the convention.

Russian ties

Kislyak

Timeline

July 18, 2016 | Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak speaks with Page and campaign adviser J.D. Gordon following a panel at the Republican National Convention, where Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) had also met Kislyak. Read more

July 2016 | During the convention, a delegate’s proposal regarding U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed rebels is softened before inclusion in the GOP platform. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort told NBC in August that the change “absolutely did not come from the campaign.” Read more

March 2017 | Gordon says that he had advocated for the Russia-friendly change in platform, believing it to match Trump’s views, and he had consulted about the matter with “campaign policy colleagues” before the convention.

Michael Caputo

Adviser to the Trump campaign for the New York primary. The public relations executive was once paid to improve Putin's image in the United States.

Timeline

1994-2000 | Caputo moves to Russia shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union and is first employed by U.S. Agency for International Development. He then starts a public relations firm.

2000 | Caputo enters a contract with the Russian conglomerate Gazprom Media to improve Putin’s image in the United States. He told the Buffalo News that he was “not proud of the work today. But at the time, Putin wasn’t such a bad guy.” Read more

Rick Gates

Business associate of Manafort since 2006, Gates helped lead a nonprofit supporting Trump policies, America First. He took a leave of absence in March after The Washington Post reported on his business deals with Manafort.

Timeline

2006 | Gates joins Manafort's firm after oligarch Oleg Deripaska is solicited to become a client. Deripaska invested in Manafort's Cayman Islands fund that bought assets primarily in Ukrainea. (Later, Deripaska accused Manafort and Gates in court of defrauding him out of $19 million.) Read more

2008 | Manfort and Gates agree to work on a Park Avenue development project with oligarch Dmitry Firtash, but the project falls apart.

2012-2014 | Gates arranges introductions for two Washington lobbying firms — the Podesta Group and Mercury LLC — to represent the European Center for a Modern Ukraine.

2014 | In Washington, Manafort and Gates promote the policy priorities of the political party of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia.

June 2016 | Gates begins working with Manafort as his deputy on Trump's presidential campaign.

March 2017 | In a brief interview with The Post, Gates describes his work as “supporting the private equity fund started by the firm and democracy building and party building in Ukraine.” Read more

March 23, 2017 | Gates was forced out of America First Policies for his ties to Manafort after the Associated Press reported that Manafort had worked for Russian government interests. Read more

Oct. 30, 2017 | Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates turn themselves in on charges connected to the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference. They are charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and making false statements. It marks the first criminal allegations to come from Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation. Read more

Feb. 23, 2018 | Gates pleads guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI. The plea deal is a sign that he will cooperate and provide information to the special counsel's investigation of Russia's election interference. Read more

Marc E. Kasowitz

Trump's longtime personal lawyer. Trump chose Kasowitz in May to represent him in the Russia investigation. Other Kasowitz clients include Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and Sberbank, Russia's largest state-owned bank.

Timeline

March 2017 | Kasowitz, who has represented Trump in various circumstances such as divorce proceedings, real estate deals and allegations of fraud related to Trump University, is named to the legal team defending Russia’s largest state-run bank in a corporate-raiding case, BuzzFeed reports. Read more

May 23, 2017 | The Washington Post reports that Trump has retained Kasowitz to help him navigate the burgeoning federal and congressional Russia investigations. Read more

May 25, 2017 | Kasowitz was scheduled to make arguments in a civil lawsuit on behalf of one of oligarch Oleg Deripaska's companies, which Kasowitz has represented for years. Another lawyer from his firm -- Kasowitz Benson Torres -- appeared instead. Court records show that Kasowitz also represents Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank. Read more

June 8, 2017 | Kasowitz publicly disputes former FBI director James B. Comey's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Kasowitz says that Trump "never, in form or substance" directed Comey to cease investigating anyone and that Trump never told Comey he required and expected his loyalty. Read more

Michael Cohen

A longtime Trump Organization lawyer, Cohen became personal counsel to the president following the inauguration. In late January, Cohen met with a Ukrainian lawmaker and agreed to ferry a Russian-backed peace plan for Ukraine to the White House. The New York Times reported Cohen said he left the plan in Flynn's office days before Flynn resigned as national security adviser. Cohen told The Washington Post he threw the plan in the trash.

Timeline

Late 2015 | Cohen recieves a proposal for a Moscow residential project from a company founded by Sergei Gordeev, a billionaire who once served in the upper house of the Russian parliament. He rejects the pitch. Read more

January 2016 | The Post reports that Cohen sent an email during the presidential campaign to Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, asking for help on a stalled Trump Tower deal in Moscow. The email marks the most direct interaction yet documented of a top Trump aide and a senior member of Putin’s government. Cohen told congressional investigators that Felix Sater, a Russian-American businessman, encouraged him to write the email. Read more

June 2016 | Felix Sater, a Russian-born real estate developer and former Trump business associate, emails Cohen asking him to attend an economic conference in Russia. Sater telling Cohen that he could be introduced to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, top financial leaders and perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin. Cohen rejects the invite, saying it is too close to the GOP convention. Read more

Late January 2017 | Felix Sater, Michael Cohen and Andrii V. Artemenko meet in a luxury hotel in Manhattan to discuss Artmenko's proposed deal to end conflict over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sater later said he thought Cohen would hand the peace deal proposal to National Security Advisor Flynn himself. Cohen said he never intended to do so. Read more

March 6, 2018 | The Post reports the special counsel has requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents involving Cohen. There is no indication that Cohen is a subject or target of the Russia investigation, but the scrutiny of his interactions is another sign of the far-reaching nature of the probe. Read more

Ivanka Trump

President Trump's older daughter has taken an office in the West Wing and a job as adviser and assistant to the president. She has met with foreign heads of state, including Justin Trudeau of Canada and Angela Merkel of Germany.

Russian ties

Russian business

Timeline

Jan. 20, 2017 | Dasha Zhukova, wife of oligarch and Putin friend Roman Abramovich, attends the inauguration as a guest of Ivanka Trump. Read more

Felix Sater

The Russian-born Trump business partner tried to help get a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow in 2005 and again in 2015. In January 2017, he helped bring a pro-Russia peace plan for Ukraine to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump has frequently said he doesn’t remember Sater, who was the managing director of Bayrock Group, the firm that developed Trump SoHo.

Timeline

1974 | Felix Sater emmigrates from the Soviet Union. His family moves to Brighton Beach, N.Y.

1990s | In his 20s, Sater works as a stockbroker on Wall Street. He loses his trading license after he stabs a man in the face with the stem of a margarita glass during a bar fight. The incident leads to a year in prison.

1998 | Sater pleads guilty to one charge of racketeering for a stock fraud scheme that involved the Mafia. Sater becomes a confidential informant for the FBI and cooperates with federal prosecutors on national security and organized crime matters, which delays his sentencing and keeps his court records sealed.

2005 | Sater is part of the development company Bayrock Group located at Trump Tower. He, his Bayrock partners and Trump agree to explore developing a hotel in Moscow and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale. The Moscow deal later fell through. Read more

February 2006 | Trump asks Sater to escort Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump around Moscow, according to Sater. “He asked if I wouldn’t mind joining them and looking after them while they were in Moscow,” Sater said. Read more

2007 | Sater testifies in a deposition that he had found Russian investors for the Trump Tower in Moscow. He also says the project had a site picked out, a shuttered pencil factory named after U.S. anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Read more

Sept. 19, 2007 | Sater, Trump and Bayrock founder Tevfik Arif attend the launch party for Trump SoHo, a hotel project on which they collaborated. Read more

2008 | Sater leaves Bayrock following stories that surface about his tumultuous past.

2009 | At a court hearing, FBI officials back up Sater’s claims that he was an informant. He’s fined $25,000 and avoids prison time. He also testifies that Bayrock was a company that he built with his “own two hands.” Read more

Nov. 5, 2013 | In sworn testimony, Trump claims he barely knows Sater and “wouldn’t know what he looked like.” As of April 2017, Sater's LinkedIn profile states that he was a Trump adviser for a year beginning in January 2010. Read more

2015 | At her Senate confirmation hearing to become U.S. attorney general, Loretta E. Lynch was asked why the government hid Sater’s court records. Lynch said Sater had “provided valuable and sensitive information” for more than a decade. Read more

November 2015 | In an email, Sater urges Trump to visit Moscow to promote a proposal to build a Trump Tower in the Russian capital, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence. Sater suggests President Vladimir Putin might say “great things” about him. Trump never traveled to Moscow and the business deal ultimately fell through. Sater encouraged Michael Cohen, the executive vice president for the Trump Organization, to send an email to Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov asking for help on the Trump Tower deal. Read more

June 2016 | Sater emails Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen asking him to attend an economic conference in Russia. Sater telling Cohen that he could be introduced to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, top financial leaders and perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin. Cohen rejects the invite, saying it is too close to the GOP convention. Read more

Jan. 27, 2017 | Sater, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Ukrainian politician Andrii V. Artemenko meet privately in New York to discuss a peace proposal for Ukraine and lifting sanctions against Russia. Read more

George Papadopoulos

Sergei Millian, a key source for the "dossier" compiled by a former British spy, told certain individuals during the campaign that he was in touch with Papadopoulos, a campaign adviser. Papadopoulos met with foreign leaders and gave an interview criticizing U.S. sanctions on Russia.

Russian ties

Millian

Timeline

March 14, 2016 | Papadopoulos meets a professor in Italy that he thinks would be interesting to the campaign because of his supposed links to the Kremlin. The Post later reports the professor may be Joseph Mifsud, the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy. Read more

March 21, 2016 | In a meeting with The Washington Post's editorial board, Trump reveals that George Papadopoulos is one of his foreign policy advisers. Trump describes Papadopoulos as "an energy and oil consultant," and says he's "an excellent guy." Read more

March 24, 2016 | Papadopoulos meets a professor in London that he thinks would be interesting to the campaign because of his supposed links to the Kremlin. A woman who claims to be the niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin joins them. Read more

March 31, 2016 | At a campaign national security meeting, Papadopoulos says his connections could help in arraging a meeting with Putin. Trump tweets an image from meeting. Read more

April 18, 2016 | Papadopoulos is introduced by the professor to a Russian who works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is likely Ivan Timofeev, a senior MFA official. Read more

April 22, 2016 | Papadopoulos and Timofeev discuss setting up meetings between the campaign and government officials in Moscow or London. Read more

April 27, 2016 | Papadopoulos and the professor meet in London. Papadopoulos said the professor told him that Russians "had dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Read more

May 21, 2016 | Papadopoulos emails Manafort saying Russia is "eager" to meet Trump. Paul Manafort, who would later become Trump's campaign chairman, forwards the email to Rick Gates -- a campaign official. Read more

Summer 2016 | Papadopoulos attempts to set up a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, but it never transpires. Read more

January 27, 2017 | Papadopoulos is interviewed at the FBI in which he makes false statements about his interactions with Russians. Read more

February 16, 2017 | The FBI interviews Papadopoulos again. His counsel was present for the interview.

February 17, 2017 | About this time, Papadopoulos deactivates his Facebook account, which contained information about communications with the London-based professor and the Russian MFA connection.

July 1, 2017 | Sometime this month, Papadopoulos is charged under seal.

July 27, 2017 | Papadopoulos is arrested when he arrives at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. Read more

October 5, 2017 | Papadopoulos pleads guilty to making a false statement in a federal investigation about the nature of his relationships and interactions with foreign officials he understood to be close to Russian government officials.

October 30, 2017 | Unsealed court papers show Papadopoulos was in contact with several senior Trump campaign aides about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The campaign officials are not identified in court documents. Read more

Erik Prince

Prince, a Trump business associate, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the founder of notorious private security firm Blackwater, presented himself as an unofficial envoy of Trump in a meeting with a representative of Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles days before Trump's inauguration, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. The meeting was brokered by the United Arab Emirates who hoped to loosen Russian ties to Iran by strengthening ties between Russia and the United States.

Russian ties

Putin rep.

Brian Benczkowski

Trump has nominated Brian Benczkowski to lead the Justice Department's criminal division. Benczkowski previously helped manage Trump's transition team for the department. Benczkowski has told members of Congress ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing on July 25 that he previously represented Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions. The owners of the Russian bank have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Timeline

November 16, 2016 | The Post reports Benczkowski is helping to manage the Justice Department transition for the Trump campaign. Read more

June 5, 2017 | Trump nominates Benczkowski to be an assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division. Read more

July 19, 2017 | Benczkowski tells members of the Senate Judiciary Committee he has ties to the Russian bank Alfa Bank, which he previously represented. Read more

July 25, 2017 | Benczkowski faces questions during his Senate confirmation hearing on his ties to Alfa Bank. Read more

Russian ties

Vladimir Putin

Russian president who U.S. intelligence agencies believe personally ordered the interference into the 2016 election, including penetrating the Democratic National Committee's computer systems and distributing fake news stories. Putin has consistently denied the allegations, calling the attacks a "political witch hunt."

Russian business interests

Historically, oligarchs have used relationships with foreign business leaders for political gain. Many of the Russian business people with whom Team Trump has various types of relationships are listed separately in this article.

Sergey Kislyak

Russian ambassador to the United States since 2008, a career diplomat not considered especially close to Putin.

Igor Sechin

Executive chairman of the Russian state oil giant Rosneft, former deputy prime minister in Putin's cabinet.

Ties to Team Trump

Page

Tillerson

Russian hackers

The GRU, Russia’s military intelligence organization, is thought to have begun cyber operations aimed at influencing the U.S. presidential election by March 2016, according to the U.S. intelligence community. The GRU hacked the Democratic National Committee and also the personal email accounts of Democratic Party officials and political figures. By May, 2016, the GRU had stolen large volumes of data from the DNC. The GRU relayed that material to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization, the intelligence community concluded. Guccifer 2.0. is an online persona linked to the GRU and used perhaps by more than one individual to publicize hacked materials. Analysts are skeptical Guccifer 2.0 conducted the actual hacking, but agree with officials that the name was used as a front to disclose materials online.

Ties to Team Trump

Stone

Sergey N. Gorkov

Chief of Vnesheconombank,a Russian government-owned development bank that was placed on the U.S. sanctions list in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev sits on the bank's supervisory board.

Ties to Team Trump

Kushner

Sergei Millian

The 38-year-old Belarusan American is believed to be the man behind one of the most salacious claims in the controversial dossier compiled by Christopher Steele: that Donald Trump hired prostitutes at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton and that the Kremlin has kept evidence of the encounter. Millian denies that he played this role.

Ties to Team Trump

Trump

Papadopoulos

Andrii V. Artemenko

The Ukrainian politician met with Trump's personal lawyer in New York to try to propose a peace deal for Ukraine.

Ties to Team Trump

Trump

Cohen

Sater

Putin representative

A Russian representing President Vladimir Putin met with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who said he represented Trump, in the Seychelles days before the inauguration, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. The meeting was arranged by the United Arab Emirates, who hoped to drive a wedge between Russia and Iran by facilitating a closer relationship between Russia and the United States.

Ties to Team Trump

Prince

Dmitry Firtash

Firtash is a Ukrainian oligarch and ally of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in 2014. Firtash is wanted in the United States on corruption charges stemming from an FBI investigation that dates to 2006. He is accused of kicking back proceeds from gas deals to Gazprom, Russia's state-backed oil company. According to legal papers, Firtash was involved in real estate deals with Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates, including a failed Manhattan project in 2008.

Ties to Team Trump

Manafort

Gates

Oleg Deripaska

Russian billionaire who paid millions to Manafort for management fees and is considered close to President Vladimir Putin. The AP first reported that Manafort proposed a strategy to Deripaska that included plans to influence politics and news coverage in favor of Putin. Deripaska has strongly denied the existence of this proposed Manafort strategy and has taken out ads in U.S. newspapers denying the AP's claims. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump was unaware of Manafort’s business ties with Deripaska.

Ties to Team Trump

Manafort

Kasowitz

Victor Podobnyy

A Russian spy who met with Trump adviser Carter Page in January 2013 at an energy conference in New York. At the time, the Russians were seeking information on U.S. sanctions and on energy development. Page insists the information he passed to Podobnyy was immaterial, and he said he assisted prosecutors in the case.

Ties to Team Trump

Page

Aras Agalarov

Billionaire developer Agalarov, known as "The Trump of Russia" because he likes to put his name on his properties, was among the investors who brought Trump's 2013 Miss Universe competition to Moscow. He told The Post he first met Trump during production of a music video in which Trump appeared with Agalarov's pop-singer son and some of the Miss Universe contestants. Agalarov served as liaison between Trump and Vladimir Putin, and the two had planned to meet at Trump's invitation the day before the pageant. (Putin cancelled the meeting.) Agalarov said he and Trump agreed to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, but the plan was never realized.

Ties to Team Trump

Trump

Emin Agalarov

Emin Agalarov is a Russian pop star and the son of Aras Agalarov, a real estate developer. The Agalarovs and Trump first met each other in 2013 after the younger Agalarov hired a Miss Universe winner to appear in one of his music videos. Emin Agalarov's publicist Rob Goldstone helped set up a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, in 2016. A lawyer for Agalarov and his father said Emin Agalarov is an acquaintance of Veselnitskaya and that she asked if he could introduce her to Trump officials.

Viktor Vekselberg

A friend of Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian-born oil tycoon Vekselberg is a large shareholder in the Bank of Cyprus, in which Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also had a stake. Ross led a rescue of the once-troubled bank and served on the bank's board of directors.

Ties to Team Trump

Ross

Yuri Milner

Russian tech billionaire Yuri Milner is among the main investors in Cadre, a real estate startup created in 2015 by Jared Kushner, his brother and a friend.

Ties to Team Trump

Kushner

Alexander Torshin

Alexander Torshin is a former Russian senator from Putin's party who is now a top official at Russia's central bank. A proponent of gun rights and aligning the Russian government with the Orthodox Church, he built relationships with top U.S. conservatives, meeting with them in Moscow and attending National Rifle Association meetings, where he said he interacted with Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. A White House official said President Trump does not recall the exchange. Torshin has faced allegations in Spain that he is involved with organized crime, which he has denied. He has not been charged.

Ties to Team Trump

Trump

Trump Jr.

Konstantin Kilimnik

Konstantin Kilimnik is Paul Manafort’s former business associate who helped run his political consulting practice for a decade in Ukraine. His work involved serving as a liaison to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and meeting with Ukrainian politicians. The Senate Intelligence Committee is interested in Manafort's relationship with Kilimnik, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kilimink says he grew up in Ukraine but moved to Moscow when he was 17.

Ties to Team Trump

Manafort

Natalia Veselnitskaya

Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower in June 2016 promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to a statement by Trump Jr. The president's son said Veselnitskaya's comments were "vague" and "made no sense," and that she changed the subject to other topics. Veselnitskaya has advocated for lifting economic sanctions against Russia imposed by Congress. The Kremlin has denied knowing her.

Rob Goldstone

Rob Goldstone is a publicist for Russian pop star Emin Agalarov who told Donald Trump Jr. in June 2016 in an email that a Russian lawyer could provide potentially damaging information against Hillary Clinton. Goldstone has run a boutique public relations firm for 20 years. He signed Emin Agalarov as a client in 2012. Agalarov’s father, Aras, is a major real estate developer connected with the Kremlin. Trump Jr. said he first met Goldstone in 2014 at a Trump golf course in Florida. He has denied any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Rinat Akhmetshin

Rinat Akhmetshin is Russian American lobbyist who attended the June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. Akhmetshin was born in Russia and served in the Russia military. He denies working for the Russian government but told The Post that he served in a counterintelligence unit of the Soviet military. He said he became a U.S. citizen in 2009. Akhmetshin has previously been hired to conduct opposition research for a variety of clients, mostly Russians.

Anatoli Samochornov

Anatoli Samochornov is a former State Department employee who was one of three individuals brought by Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya to the meeting in June 2016 with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower. He served as a translator.

Ike Kaveladze

Ike Kaveladze is a U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate company who took part in a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. Before he was identified, the full list of individuals at the meeting remained a mystery. Kaveladze was asked by Aras Agalarov, a Russian real estate tycoon, to attend the meeting on his behalf. Kaveladze works on real estate and finance for one of Agalarov’s companies. Kaveladze’s lawyer says he is a U.S. citizen and has lived in the United States for many years.

Dmitry Peskov

The personal spokesman for Russian President Vladi­mir Putin. Michael Cohen, the executive vice president for the Trump Organization, sent an email to Peskov in January 2016 asking for help on a stalled Trump Tower project in Moscow. The email marked the most direct interaction yet of a top Trump aide and a senior member of Putin’s government.

Ties to Team Trump

Cohen

Sater

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Sources: Staff reports.

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