TIMELINE:THE COUP THAT FAILED
The full story of the Obama administration’s collusion investigation has still not been told, and in the months and years ahead we may learn much more. For the health of our republic, we believe it’s essential for Americans to learn who exactly ordered or encouraged the use of federal surveillance tools against the party out of power—and promoted the use of such tools even in the absence of evidence. Abuses by the FBI and perhaps other government agencies are now themselves the subject of federal investigation. As we write, it’s impossible to say exactly where such investigations will lead, and the possible strands extend well beyond the material covered in chapter two. Given the number of possible leads, readers may find it helpful to retain the following chronology of events and possible players in this drama, which includes issues that could not be fully explored at this writing but may loom larger as more information is disclosed. Everyone mentioned below and involved in this story deserves the presumption of innocence. Americans also deserve a full accounting of how powers normally reserved for targeting terrorists and foreign adversaries were turned against U.S. citizens participating in politics.
June 2015
Donald Trump announces campaign for president.
August 2015
General Michael Flynn (ret.), former head of Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, meets Donald Trump.
September 24, 2015
Stefan Halper awarded contract valued at $244,960 to study Russia and China by Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment.
February 2016
London Centre of International Law Practice contacts George Papadopoulos on LinkedIn after he leaves Ben Carson presidential campaign. London Centre subsequently hires him.
March 2016
Papadopoulos accepts offer to join Trump campaign as a volunteer foreign policy adviser. Before he leaves London Centre, he is invited by Arvinder Sambei to Rome and there is introduced to Joseph Mifsud by former Italian prime minister Vincenzo Scotti.
April 26, 2016
Mifsud meets Papadopoulos in London. According to Papadopoulos, Mifsud tells him that Russia has potentially damaging Hillary Clinton emails. Special counsel Robert Mueller later reports that Mifsud denied saying any such thing in an FBI interview; Mueller alleges that Mifsud provided false answers under FBI questioning.
May 10, 2016
Papadopoulos meets with Australian diplomat Alexander Downer at a London wine bar. Two months later Downer reported to U.S. embassy in London that Papadopoulos reported hearing that Russians had potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos doesn’t recall telling this to Downer.
June 2016
Former British spy Christopher Steele hired by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm employed by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee via the Perkins Coie law firm to investigate Trump’s possible ties to Russia.
July 2016
Carter Page first meets Stefan Halper after receiving an invitation to an overseas seminar from Steven Schrage. Halper would continue contacts with Page in succeeding months.
July 31, 2016
FBI official Peter Strzok formally opens counterintelligence probe known as “Crossfire Hurricane” into the Trump campaign.
August 2016
FBI learns from another government agency—but never tells the FISA Court—that Carter Page served as an operational contact for U.S. intelligence.
August 8, 2016
Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page communicate via text message:
Page: [Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!
Peter Strzok: No. No, he’s not. We’ll stop it.
August 15, 2016
Strzok texts Page: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office—that there’s no way he gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
August 16, 2016
FBI opens “Crossfire Razor” probe into General Flynn.
August 17, 2016
FBI provides “defensive briefing” used as “cover” to monitor and assess candidate Trump and General Flynn, according to handwritten notes of FBI agent Joe Pientka.
August 29, 2016
Stefan Halper emails Trump campaign cochairman Sam Clovis; they meet in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, a few days later.
September 2016
Papadopoulos invited by Stefan Halper to London. Halper introduces Papadopoulos to person known as Azra Turk. Halper records conversation in which Papadopoulos says colluding with Russia would be treason and neither he nor anyone on the Trump campaign would ever do such a thing. Government never discloses this evidence to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, or FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] Court).
September 19, 2016
Christopher Steele gives FBI report that will play “a central and essential role” in the FBI’s and Justice Department’s decision to seek a FISA warrant, according to a 2019 report by the Obama-appointed inspector general of the Justice Department. Inspector general also reports that in warrant application officials never told the court that Clinton and the Democrats paid for the dossier and never fully disclosed Steele’s Russian connections, among other omissions.
September 26, 2016
Stefan Halper awarded Office of Net Assessment contract valued at $411,575 to study China’s economy.
October 18, 2016
Top Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, whose wife worked on the anti-Trump project for Fusion GPS, gives one of many briefings to FBI officials on Steele’s collusion allegations.
October 21, 2016
FBI secures the first FISA warrant application to surveil Carter Page.
November 2016
FBI dismisses Steele as a confidential source after he breaks protocol by disclosing his work and his relationship with the FBI while serving as an anonymous source for a magazine article. But FBI doesn’t stop promoting his claims as reliable with other agencies and the FISA Court.
November 8, 2016
Trump is elected president.
November 18, 2016
Trump names General Flynn his national security adviser.
December 15, 2016
Strzok texts Page: “Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad.”
December 23, 2016
Flynn phone call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
December 29, 2016
Another Flynn call with Kislyak.
December 2, 2016
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper requests Flynn’s identity be unmasked.
December 14–15, 2016
John Brennan and James Comey request Flynn’s
