This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the post-election transition, this article begins with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017, and is followed by the second half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Post-election transition, starting November 8, 2016
January–June 2017 – Trump administration
January January: For two days in early January 2017, in a gathering George Nader attended and brokered, Joel Zamel and General Ahmed Al-Assiri met with Michael Flynn and other members of the Trump transition team in New York. Steve Bannon was involved as well. In October 2018, the meeting came under the Mueller investigation's scrutiny. White House Counsel Donald McGahn tells Trump he believes that Flynn had misled the FBI and lied to Vice President Pence, and should be fired. McGahn researches the Logan Act and federal laws related to lying to federal investigators. Records turned over to the Mueller investigation show McGahn believes Flynn violated one or more of those laws.
January 20: Trump and Pence take office. While seated at Trump's inauguration speech, Flynn texts Alex Copson, chairman of ACU Strategic Partners, that Russian sanctions blocking a private Russian-backed plan to build nuclear plants in the Middle East will now be "ripped up". An associate of Copson later denies the allegation. Sergei Millian, Source D in the Steele dossier, attends VIP inauguration events. He also arranges to meet with Papadopoulos at the Washington, D.C., restaurant Russia House. Further unredacted text restored by the Department of Justice and released on June 19, 2020 in response to a court order. Millian brings Moroccan American music producer Aziz Choukri to the meeting. Papadopoulos later claims Choukri accused Millian of working for the FBI, but in a separate interview Choukri denies the accusation occurred. Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer involved in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, and Rinat Akhmetshin, another participant in that meeting, attend the Liberty Ball at the Library of Congress hosted by Representative Dana Rohrabacher's campaign committee. Akhmetshin later claims he received tickets from event organizers, but Rohrabacher's office claims the campaign has no record of such an invitation or of ticket purchases by the two. Ukrainian oligarch Serhiy Lyovochkin attends using tickets acquired for him by Sam Patten and Kilimnik. Ukrainian lawmaker Serhiy Kivalov attends the event, but refuses later to tell reporters how he obtained the tickets he displayed on Twitter. Ukrainian lawmaker Borislav Bereza attends using tickets he says he received from someone "connected to Illinois." Ticket sales are counted as donations to Rohrabacher's campaign. In July 2018, Rohrabacher spokesman Kenneth Grubbs tells ABC News, "Apparently, there was some party-crashing going on." Maria Butina attends the inaugural Freedom Ball with Paul Erickson. It is one of the three balls Trump attends. January 20–21: Manafort, Kilimnik, and Lyovochkin meet in a Westin Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, to discuss the proposed Ukraine peace plan. January 21: Trump appoints Flynn as National Security Advisor. Bannon phones Page, and they talk about Russia. According to congressional testimony given by Page in November 2017, Bannon referred to the dossier and asked him to cancel a scheduled television appearance. January 22: Michael Flynn is sworn in as National Security Advisor. January 23 Sean Spicer repeats that Flynn did not discuss sanctions with Kislyak in late December. Emails from December show Spicer most likely knew Flynn discussed sanctions with Kislyak on December 29, 2016, and may have known about the purpose of the call in advance. GCHQ director Robert Hannigan suddenly resigns. The Guardian reports that the resignation may have been over concerns about sharing intelligence with the Trump administration. During a committee business meeting, the Senate Intelligence Committee votes unanimously to start a formal inquiry into Russian activities during the 2016 presidential election cycle.
January 24: The FBI interviews Flynn about his conversations with Kislyak. Flynn denies discussing sanctions with Kislyak, which the FBI knows is false. He conceals the interview, which took place without a lawyer present, from the White House. On December 1, 2017, Flynn will plead guilty to lying during the interview. Comey tells top FBI agents that Trump asked him to stay on as FBI director. The Senate Intelligence Committee begins its inquiry into Russian active measures in the 2016 elections. January 24–26: The FBI interviews Igor Danchenko, a primary source for the Steele dossier, for three days about the information he provided to Steele. January 25: The House Intelligence Committee announces that it is investigating "any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns" and other topics. January 26: Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warns McGahn and White House Counsel's Office attorney James Burnham that Flynn has not been truthful about his contacts with Russia and may be vulnerable to blackmail by Russian intelligence. Afterwards, McGahn asks John Eisenberg look into the possible legal implications of the Flynn-Kislyak interactions and the FBI interview. Flynn is fired 18 days later, on February 13. Priebus and McGahn personally tell Trump that Flynn is under criminal investigation. Dmitriev tells Gerson that Putin is asking for feedback on the reconciliation document and wants Dmitriev to have key U.S. meetings within the next two weeks. He says Putin will speak to Trump by phone on January 28. Dmitriev tells Nader that Putin emphasized to him that they need to "build this communication channel to avoid bureaucracy."
January 27: The FBI interviews Papadopoulos at his family's Chicago home about Russian meetings in 2016. After being cautioned about making false statements, Papadopoulos repeatedly lies to the investigators, telling them he only met Mifsud in February 2016 before he joined the Trump campaign and denying he tried to help Russians set up meetings with the campaign. In October 2017 he will plead guilty to making omissions and false statements during the interview. Hours after the interview, he applies for the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Energy. Eisenberg informs McGahn that Flynn may have violated the law, but is unlikely to be prosecuted. McGahn has further discussions with Yates about Flynn. During a private dinner at the White House, Comey gets the impression that Trump wants to "create some sort of patronage relationship." Comey will later testify that Trump requested "loyalty" from him, and that he offered "honesty" instead. Deripaska's longtime American lobbyist Adam Waldman visits Julian Assange. January 28: Dmitriev asks Nader whether he can confirm to Putin that Trump may use ideas in his reconciliation document in their phone call later that day. Nader confirms that he and Gerson passed the document on to the Trump team, and that they took it seriously. After the Trump-Putin call, Dmitriev tells Nader "the call went very well" and that Putin wants Dmitriev to continue making public statements on Russian cooperation. Separately, Gerson tells Dmitriev the call went well, and Dmitriev replies that the document "played an important role." January 29: Trump's lawyers give Mueller a confidential memo and claim that Trump knew only that Flynn had been interviewed by the FBI, and believed Flynn had been cleared. January 31: Trump dismisses Yates for refusing to enforce Executive Order 13769, calling it "betrayal" and "weak". Alexander Torshin, Maria Butina, Paul Erickson, and former Kremlin staffer Andrey Kolyadin dine with Representatives Dana Rohrabacher and Thomas Massie at a private dinner hosted by Rockefeller heir George O’Neill Jr.
February February: According to later reporting by Michael Wolff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, during a visit to the White House, warns Kushner that UK intelligence services may have had the Trump campaign under surveillance. Blair denies Wolff's claims. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates falsely assert for a second time in writing to the Justice Department that their work for the Ukrainian government did not require registering as foreign agents in the United States. In September 2018, Manafort pleads guilty to lying to the Justice Department about the extent of his work for the Ukrainian government. The FBI investigation of reported cyber links between the Trump Organization and Alfa-Bank concluded that there were no such links. Early February: Cohen delivers a pro-Russian Ukrainian peace plan to Flynn while visiting the White House. The plan was developed by Sater and Andrii Artemenko, a Ukrainian politician who said he was encouraged by "top aides" to Putin. The meeting was arranged by Ukrainian-American Alex Oronov, whose daughter is married to Cohen's brother. Allen Tactical Security Consultants founder Tommy Allen vetted the peace plan at the request of former congressman Curt Weldon, a longtime friend of Artemenko. Artemenko and Weldon secured funding for promoting the plan from Vekselberg's fund at Columbus Nova. February 2: Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina attend the National Prayer Breakfast. Torshin is scheduled to meet privately with Trump beforehand, but the meeting is canceled after a national security aide points out that Torshin is under investigation for organized crime and money laundering. A spokesman for Torshin later says Torshin was officially on vacation at the time, adding, "President Trump has never proposed a meeting to Mr. Torshin." Ted Malloch is reportedly Trump's top pick to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the European Union. E.U. officials threaten to reject Malloch's credentials if he becomes the new ambassador. In 2018, Malloch is served a search warrant by the FBI and questioned by Mueller. During a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin asserts that Ukrainian oligarchs funded Clinton's 2016 campaign. Senators Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse announce an investigation by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism into Russian influence in U.S. elections. Eisenberg reviews the underlying information the Justice Department provided on the Flynn-Kislyak phone calls. He discusses it with McGahn, and they decide Flynn is unlikely to be prosecuted, though they do not know what Flynn told the FBI. February 3: Russian tech magnate Aleksej Gubarev files a libel suit in London against Christopher Steele and his company, Orbis Business Intelligence. Gubarev claims he was defamed by allegations in the Steele dossier. Aleksej Gubarev files a libel suit against BuzzFeed in the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Gubarev claims he was defamed by BuzzFeed publishing the Steele Dossier. February 6: Patten publishes an article, "Ukraine Can Win in the Trump Age", in U.S. News & World Report that he and Lyovochkin co-wrote as part of his unregistered lobbying work. February 8: Sessions is confirmed as Attorney General by a vote of 52 to 47; he is sworn in the next day. Comey meets with Priebus at the White House and informs him that Justice Department policy is not to discuss investigations with the White House. Flynn publicly denies that he discussed sanctions with Kislyak in December.