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April 20 - June 17, 2019
Also underway was a little-understood effort by Russian Internet trolls to influence American voters on social media through false news reports and incendiary political ads.
At a hastily arranged news conference, Sessions insisted that his recusal was not a reaction to the Post’s reporting, but instead the result of weeks of consultations with Justice Department ethics officials who had advised him to recuse.
Sessions happened to be at the White House for a meeting with Trump and others when word came that Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, was appointing a special counsel. Trump was livid. “How could you let this happen, Jeff,” he told Sessions, according to Mueller's report, amid a lengthy diatribe in the Oval Office.
His lawyers were adamantly opposed to the idea. They did not trust Mueller’s team and feared that their client could not get through an interview session without being accused of perjury.
Legal analysts asserted that Trump might be obstructing justice in real time—using his presidential platform and pardon power to dissuade possible witnesses from cooperating with Mueller.
Trump’s posture as president toward Russia also gave the law enforcement and intelligence communities cause for concern. He took great pains to conceal the details of his conversations with Putin, including at least once taking the notes of his own interpreter and demanding that the details of the discussion not be disclosed, even inside his administration.
At a news conference in Helsinki the following year, Trump stood next to his Russian counterpart and seemed to cast doubt on whether Russia had been responsible for the election-related meddling at all—delivering a remarkable rebuke to those in the US intelligence community who had assessed the Kremlin was to blame. “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said.
Witnesses who sat for those interviews said afterward that they were surprised by the prosecutors’ careful, detailed work.
Working from a small office building in St. Petersburg, these trolls allegedly duped real Americans with whom they interacted online, amplifying tense debates about race, gun control, and sexual identity, pushing pro-Trump messages and even getting some Americans to organize and attend rallies they orchestrated.
“The Americans are very impressionable people, and they see what they want to see,” adding, “I am not at all disappointed that I appear in this list. If they want to see the devil—let them.”
“If one day God lets this liar enter the White House as a president—that day would be a real national tragedy.”
According to Facebook, in total the IRA-controlled accounts made over 80,000 posts before their deactivation in August 2017, and these posts reached at least 29 million U.S persons and “may have reached an estimated 126 million people.”62
The IRA posted content about the Clinton candidacy before Clinton officially announced her presidential campaign. IRA-controlled social media accounts criticized Clinton’s record as Secretary of State and promoted various critiques of her candidacy.
According to media reports, Assange told a U.S. congressman that the DNC hack was an “inside job,” and purported to have “physical proof” that Russians did not give materials to Assange.182
However, Cohen recalled conversations with Trump in which the candidate suggested that his campaign would be a significant “infomercial” for Trump-branded properties.329
Trump was interested in and receptive to the idea of a meeting with Putin.438
Papadopoulos understood Sessions to be similarly supportive of his efforts to arrange a meeting.439 Gordon and two other attendees, however, recall that Sessions generally opposed the proposal, though they differ in their accounts of the concerns he voiced or the strength of the opposition he expressed.440
Polonskaya responded that she had “already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request,” that “we are all very excited the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” and that “[t]he Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced.”452
As Papadopoulos later stated to the FBI, Mifsud said that the “dirt” was in the form of “emails of Clinton,” and that they “have thousands of emails.”464 On May 6, 2016, 10 days after that meeting with Mifsud, Papadopoulos suggested to a representative of a foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton 465
On April 27, 2016, after his meeting with Mifsud, Papadopoulos wrote a second message to Miller stating that “some interesting messages [were] coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.”467 The same day, Papadopoulos sent a similar email to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, telling Lewandowski that Papadopoulos had “been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host [Trump] and the team when the time is right.”468
Papadopoulos was dismissed from the Trump Campaign in early October 2016, after an interview he gave to the Russian news agency Interfax generated adverse publicity.492
During his time with the Campaign, Page advocated pro-Russia foreign policy positions and traveled to Moscow in his personal capacity.
Page “got hooked on Gazprom thinking that if they have a project, he could. . . rise up. Maybe he can. . . . [I]t’s obvious that he wants to earn lots of money.”529 Podobnyy said that he had led Page on by “feed[ing] him empty promises” that Podobnyy would use his Russian business connections to help Page.530
Page told investigating agents that “the more immaterial non-public information I give them, the better for this country.”538
Page’s affiliation with the Trump Campaign took on a higher profile and drew the attention of Russian officials after the candidate named him a foreign policy advisor.
On July 7, 2016, Page delivered the first of his two speeches in Moscow at NES.566 In the speech, Page criticized the U.S. government’s foreign policy toward Russia, stating that “Washington and other Western capitals have impeded potential progress through their often hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change.”567 On July 8, 2016, Page delivered a speech during the NES commencement.568 After Page delivered his commencement address, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and NES board member Arkady Dvorkovich spoke at the ceremony and stated that the
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A Campaign spokesman told Yahoo! News that Page had “no role” in the Campaign and that the Campaign was “not aware of any of his activities, past or present.”589 On September 24, 2016, Page was formally removed from the Campaign.590
Members of the Trump Campaign interacted on several occasions with the Center for the National Interest (CNI), principally through its President and Chief Executive Officer, Dimitri Simes. CNI is a think tank with expertise in and connections to the Russian government.
CNI describes itself “as a voice for strategic realism in U.S. foreign policy,” and publishes a bi-monthly foreign policy magazine, the National Interest.594
As CNI stated when seeking a grant from the Carnegie Corporation in 2015, CNI has “unparalleled access to Russian officials and politicians among Washington think tanks,”599 in part because CNI has arranged for U.S. delegations to visit Russia and for Russian delegations to visit the United States as part of so-called “Track II” diplomatic efforts.600
Kushner told the Office that the event came at a time when the Trump Campaign was having trouble securing support from experienced foreign policy professionals and that, as a result, he decided to seek Simes’s assistance during the March 14 event.604
Simes perceived the introduction to be positive and friendly, but thought it clear that Kislyak and Trump had just met for the first time.627 Kislyak also met Kushner during the prespeech reception. The two shook hands and chatted for a minute or two, during which Kushner recalled Kislyak saying, “we like what your candidate is saying . . . if s refreshing.”628
Several public reports state that, in addition to speaking to Kushner at the pre-speech reception, Kislyak also met or conversed with Sessions at that time.629 Sessions stated to investigators, however, that he did not remember any such conversation.630 Nor did anyone else affiliated with CNI or the National Interest specifically recall a conversation or meeting between Sessions and Kislyak at the pre-speech reception.631 It appears that, if a conversation occurred at the pre-speech reception, it was a brief one conducted in public view, similar to the exchange between Kushner and Kislyak.
Michael Cohen recalled that Trump Jr. may have told candidate Trump about an upcoming meeting to receive adverse information about Clinton,
The Russian attorney who spoke at the meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had previously worked for the Russian government and maintained a relationship with that government throughout this period of time. She claimed that funds derived from illegal activities in Russia were provided to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.
if Trump won the Presidency, to remain outside the Administration and monetize his relationship with the Administration.878
Gates further stated that Deripaska wanted a visa to the United States, that Deripaska could believe that having Manafort in a position inside the Campaign or Administration might be helpful to Deripaska, and that Manafort’s relationship with Trump could help Deripaska in other ways as well.886
According to Manafort, during the meeting, he and Kilimnik talked about events in Ukraine, and Manafort briefed Kilimnik on the Trump Campaign, expecting Kilimnik to pass the information back to individuals in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Manafort instead preferred to stay on the “outside,” and monetize his campaign position to generate business given his familiarity and relationship with Trump and the incoming Administration.
Trump was elected President on November 8, 2016. Beginning immediately after the election, individuals connected to the Russian government started contacting officials on the Trump Campaign and Transition Team through multiple channels—sometimes through Russian Ambassador Kislyak and at other times through individuals who sought reliable contacts through U.S. persons not formally tied to the Campaign or Transition Team.
As soon as news broke that Trump had been elected President, Russian government officials and prominent Russian businessmen began trying to make inroads into the new Administration.
In the message, Putin offered his congratulations to Trump for his electoral victory, stating he “look[ed] forward to working with [Trump] on leading Russian-American relations out of crisis.”969
Five days later, on November 14, 2016, Trump and Putin spoke by phone in the presence of Transition Team members, including incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.975
Aven told the Office that he is one of approximately 50 wealthy Russian businessmen who regularly meet with Putin in the Kremlin; these 50 men are often referred to as “oligarchs.”977
Aven [~ ~ ~ ~ ~] told Putin he would take steps to protect himself and the Alfa-Bank shareholders from potential sanctions, and one of those steps would be to try to reach out to the incoming Administration to establish a line of communication.986
Dmitriev said that his and the government of Russia’s preference was for candidate Trump to win, and asked Nader to assist him in meeting members of the Trump Campaign.997
Nader and Prince discussed Dmitriev.1035 Nader informed Prince that the Russians were looking to build a link with the incoming Trump Administration.1036
one was a two-page biography, and the other was a list of Dmitriev’s positive quotes about Donald Trump.1042
Dmitriev was not enthusiastic about the idea of meeting with Prince, and that Nader assured him that Prince wielded influence with the incoming Administration1054
His sister is now a Minister of Education.”1055
