This is a timeline of events from 2020 to 2022 related to investigations into links between Trump associates and Russian officials relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016, election day, the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and the first and second halves of 2019.
These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections.
2019
2020 2020: Sometime before December 23, the Justice Department secretly obtains the April 15 to July 31, 2017, phone records of reporters Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, and Adam Entous, all of whom were reporting on Trump and Russia at the time for The Washington Post. The department also secretly obtains the January 14 to April 30, 2017, phone records of The New York Times reporters Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau, and Michael S. Schmidt, all of whom were reporting on Comey's handling of politically sensitive investigations.
January Early January: Prosecutors recommended Flynn serve up to six months in jail; which is overruled on January 29, when new a sentencing recommendation asks for only probation for Flynn. January 3: Oral arguments in the House's suit against the Justice Department over access to unredacted grand jury testimony in the Mueller probe. and in the McGahn case. The possibility of gun battles is discussed. January 4: Mueller records show that Manafort admits to link from Russian intelligence to origins of Ukraine investigation. January 7: Prosecutors recommend prison time for Flynn. January 14: Flynn asks to withdraw his guilty plea. January 15: The House votes to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Pelosi signs the articles of impeachment, and the House managers formally deliver the articles to the Senate. January 16: The impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins with the swearing in of Chief Justice John Roberts and 99 of the 100 senators. The senators then unanimously vote to issue a summons requiring President Trump respond in writing by the evening of Saturday, January 18, to the charges against him. The Senate then adjourns until the morning of January 20. Flynn sentencing is postponed yet again after he asks to withdraw his guilty plea.
February February 5: Barr issues new restrictions on investigations into politically sensitive individuals or entities, including requiring he approve any inquiry into a presidential candidate or campaign. Wray warns of Russia's continuing "information warfare" against the US heading into the 2020 election. Donald Trump is acquitted on both impeachment charges by the Senate.
February 6: The Senate Intelligence Committee releases volume three of its report on Russian election interference. February 7: Alexander Vindman fired, and his brother Yevgeny is escorted out of the White House and removed from his position. Trump fires Sondland. February 10: Judge indefinitely postpones Flynn sentencing. In a sentencing memo filing, federal prosecutors recommend Stone serve 7–9 years. Schumer calls on all 74 inspectors general to investigate retaliation against whistleblowers who report presidential misconduct, after the firing of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. February 11: Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) blocks three election security bills. Under Trump's pressure, the DoJ abruptly moves to seek a shorter prison sentence for Stone. February 12: Trump defends Stone in a series of tweets while attacking federal judge Amy Berman Jackson and the prosecutors involved in the case, and confirms that Barr intervened in Stone's sentencing recommendation. Trump also implies Judge Jackson is biased because of her role in the sentencing of Manafort and dismissal of a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. Trump withdraws Jessie K. Liu's nomination to become the Treasury Department's terrorism and financial crimes undersecretary because of her office's handling of the Stone and Flynn cases. All four federal prosecutors resign from Stone's case after Barr's Justice Department announced that it planned to reduce its own sentencing recommendation. It is reported Judge Jackson denied Stone's request for a new trial. Jessie K. Liu resigns. February 14: It is reported Barr has assigned outside prosecutors, including Jeffrey Jensen and prosecutors from the office of the Deputy Attorney General, to review the handling of cases against involving former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and the Blackwater founder Erik Prince. It is also reported Flynn case federal prosecutors have been pressured by senior DoJ officials to recommend a lighter sentence for Flynn than they had previously proposed. February 17: More than 2,000 DoJ officials and former prosecutors call for Barr's resignation. February 18: The Washington Post reports that the Federal Judges Association, representing 1,100 life-term federal judges, has called an emergency meeting that "could not wait" regarding Barr. February 19: Assange's barrister alleged at Westminster Magistrates' Court that Rohrabacher had visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2017 and, on instructions from President Trump, offered a pardon if Assange said Russia had no role in the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leaks. White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham denied the allegations. Rohrabacher had previously confirmed the August 16 meeting, saying he and Assange talked about "what might be necessary to get him out" and discussed a presidential pardon in exchange for information on the theft of DNC emails that were published by WikiLeaks before the 2016 presidential election. February 20: Roger Stone sentenced to 40 months in prison, a $20,000 fine, and two years of supervised release. February 21: Stone's attorneys file a motion requesting that Judge Jackson recuse herself from the case because her comment during the sentencing hearing that the jury "served with integrity" showed bias against Stone. U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady dismisses the racketeering lawsuit filed by Devin Nunes on September 4, 2019, against the Campaign for Accountability and Glen Simpson. February 23: Judge Jackson strongly rejects Stone's attorneys' request that she remove herself from Stone's case before ruling on a pending request to delay the beginning of Stone's prison sentence. She castigates the attorneys for using the court to air meritless claims that she is biased against Stone. February 25: Federal judge Amy Berman Jackson rebukes Trump regarding his comments on Stone jury. February 27: The Senate Intelligence Committee interviews Emin Agalarov. February 28: D.C. Cir. rules 2–1 in favor of appeal overturning a lower court's decision requiring McGahn's testimony.
March March 5: House lawyers announce appeal of February 28 Circuit court ruling. Judge Reggie Walton calls Barr "unreliable" and that Barr's public statements about the Mueller report "distorted" and "misleading". Walton cited "inconsistencies" between Barr's statements and the public, partially redacted version of the report, saying Barr's "lack of candor" called "into question [his] credibility and, in turn, the department's"; demands unredacted Mueller report for review. March 6: Regarding the February 28 Circuit court ruling, House lawyers argue that blocking lawmakers from suing to obtain information from the executive branch would leave Congress with little choice but to "direct its sergeant at arms to arrest current and former high-level executive branch officials for failing to respond to subpoenas." March 9: The Australian Information Commissioner sues Facebook for allegedly breaching the privacy of over 300,000 Australians when it gave Cambridge Analytica access to their data. March 10: D.C. Cir. federal appeals court permits access by the House to grand jury Mueller probe evidence from the DoJ, including redactions as well as underlying interviews and memos. The ruling can be appealed to the full court or to the Supreme Court. March 13: On appeal from the House, the full Court agrees to reconsider the McGahn congressional subpoena case. March 16: The charges against Concord Management and Consulting are dismissed with prejudice. March 23: Barr's scheduled March 31 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee is postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was scheduled to testify regarding three topics: overruling prosecutors on Roger Stone's recommended sentence, the arrangement for Giuliani to provide information on Ukraine, and the pulled nomination of Jessie K. Liu. The GOP-majority Senate had previously asked Barr not to testify about the Justice Department's decision to reduce Stone's sentencing recommendation.
April April 3: Trump fires Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson months after Atkinson delivered the whistleblower complaint to Congress that kicked-off the Trump–Ukraine scandal, as required by law. Atkinson states the reason Trump fired him "derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General." April 8: U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly dismisses Larry Klayman's and Corsi's April 5, 2019, lawsuit against Caputo and Stone for lack of jurisdiction, calling the legal arguments "jenga-like". April 16: Judge Jackson denies Roger Stone's motion for a new trial, rejecting his claim that the jury forewoman was biased against him.
April 21: A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report reaffirms the U.S. intelligence community's conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of making Trump president. The report rejects Trump's repeated claims that a "deep state" intelligence community was biased against him and that Kremlin assistance to his campaign was a "hoax," perpetrated by Democrats. The committee found "specific intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government demonstrated a preference for candidate Trump," and that Vladimir Putin "approved and directed" aspects of the interference. April 26: Trump tweets, then deletes, a series of Twitter attacks against journalists who received awards for their reporting on Trump/Russia and the Mueller probe. April 28: Oral arguments in the McGahn case are heard before the full US Court of Appeals. Nearly three-dozen search warrants of Stone are unsealed, which reveal contacts between Stone, Assange, and other key 2016 Russian interference figures; and that Stone orchestrated hundreds of fake Facebook accounts and bloggers to run a political influence scheme on social media.
May May 1: In her first press briefing, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany incorrectly states the Mueller probe is "the complete and total exoneration of President Trump." May 7: The Trump administration asks the US Supreme Court to temporarily block the release of secret Robert Mueller grand jury evidence, which the D.C. Circuit cleared in March regarding US House investigation of Trump for obstruction and potential new articles of impeachment. The DoJ drops its prosecution of Flynn, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak in the weeks before Trump's inauguration. May 13: Manafort released from prison early due to COVID-19 concerns. He will spend the rest of his sentence in home confinement. May 21: Cohen released from prison early due to COVID-19 concerns. He will spend the rest of his sentence in home confinement. May 28: The New York Times reports that Mueller's team investigated Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Walid Phares' ties to the Egyptian government.