Resources — 2016 "Active Measures" -- What the Public Knows

The Investigation — Dramatization of Vol II, featuring John Lithgow, Joel Grey, Jason Alexander, Annette Bening, Kevin Kline, Justin Long, Kyra Sedgwick, Aidan Quinn, Alyssa Milano, and Zachary Quinto

The Mueller Report in meme form — links to Twitter threads by Tami Barages with graphics presenting quotes from the Mueller report in social-media-friendly form. (Plus additional images and references supplied by this site.)

“The Scope of Investigation and Definition of Authority” Memo from Rod J. Rosenstein to Robert S. Mueller III

-Court documents-

Case 1:17-cr-00182-RDM United States of America Vs. George Papadopoulos -- Indictment and guilty plea of Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, Filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia 10/05/17

Case: 1:17-cr-00201 United States of America Vs. Paul J. Manafort Jr. and Richard W. Gates III -- Indictment of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, Filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia 10/27/2017. Guilty Plea of Richard Gates (and Statement of the Offense) on both counts of his superseding indictment. Guilty Plea of Paul Manfort (and Statement of the Offense) for Superseding Criminal Information. Exhibits submitted by the government at the time of the guilty plea. Government’s submission in support of its breach determination voiding the plea agreement. Sentencing memorandum filed by the government in the Eastern District of Virginia Court for Paul Manafort.

Case 1:17-cr-00232-RC United States v. Michael T. Flynn - Stipulation of facts in the guilty plea of Michael Flynn, Filed 12/01/17 Government’s memorandum in aid of sentencing.

Case 1:18-cr-00032-DLF United States of America v. Internet Research Agency LLC et al -- Indictment of thirteen Russian persons and three Russian organizations for violations of US law, Filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia 2/16/2018

Case 1:18-cr-00260-ABJ United States of America v. Samuel Patten -- Indictment and guilty plea of Manafort Associate and Cambridge Analytica employee Patten for acting as an unregistered agent of Ukraine. Describes Patten's attempts to find a staw buyer to help his Ukrainian client donate to Trump inaugural fund.

Case 1:18-cr-00024-DLF United States of America v. Richard Pinedo -- Stipulation of facts in the guilty plea of Richard Pinedo, who sold bank account numbers of American citizens to Russians associated with the Internet Research Agency. Filed 02/12/18

Case 1:18-cr-00031-ABJ United States of America v. Alex Van Der Zwaan Statement of charges against an associate of Rick Gates who was involved in lobbying on behalf the Putin-aligned government of Ukraine. Filed 02/20/18 Guilty Plea.

Case 1:18-cv-03501 Democratic National Committee lawsuit against Trump Campaign and Russia

Case 1:18-cr-215 Indictment of Russian GRU agents for hacking and disseminating information from American political campaigns. Filed July 13, 2018.

Case 1:18-cr-00218-TSC United States vs Maria Butina - press release linking to criminal complaint and supporting affidavit against Maria Butina. Indictment. And memorandum in support of pre-trial detention. Filed July 14, 2018.

Case 1:18-cr-00602-WHP United States of America vs. Michael Cohen press release linking to criminal information against Michael Cohen for charges of tax evasion, making false statements to a federally-insured bank, and campaign finance violations, filed August 21, 2018. Superseding Criminal information. Plea Agreement. Government’s sentencing memorandum.

Case 1:18-MJ-464 United States vs Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova - press release and criminal complaint filed Sept 28, 2018

Case 1:18-cr-850 United States vs Michael Cohen - plea agreement and criminal information filed Nov. 29th, 2018 Government’s Sentencing Memorandum.

Case 1:19-cr-18 United States vs Roger Stone - indictment dated Jan. 24, 2019, unsealed upon Stone’s arrest on Jan 25, 2019. Contains seven counts: one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering.

Website for the Office of the Special Counsel with links to the court documents released by that office.

Unsealed Documents in Special Counsel Mueller’s Investigation (Just Security) --- Collection of the substantive documents that have been unsealed in Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation to date. This page will be continually updated as new documents are unsealed.

Litigation Documents Related to the Mueller Investigation (Lawfare) — “Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and related matters has so far yielded a range of prosecutions and appellate litigation. Lawfare will be collecting significant documents from these lawsuits on this page as the investigation and litigation moves forward.”

Public Document Clearinghouse: Congressional Russia Investigations (Just Security) — “Just Security has compiled significant documents in Congress’s various Russia investigations dating back to the 2016 election cycle. This collection seeks to include significant original source materials including letters, subpoenas, deposition transcripts, hearing transcripts, press statements, contempt resolutions, criminal referrals, and any subpoena enforcement litigation.”

-Intelligence reports-

Joint Statement from the Department Of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security -- October 7, 2016 statement on behalf of the US intelligence community

FBI and DHS: "GRIZZLY STEPPE – Russian Malicious Cyber Activity" -- December, 2016 declassified technical report

CIA, FBI, and NSA: "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” -- January, 2017 declassified report (PDF)

Putin's Asymmetric Assault on Democracy in Russia and Europe: Implications for U.S. National Security -- A minority staff report prepared for the use of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Jan 10, 2018

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence - Russia Investigation - one page summary and 253 page final report published March 22, 2018 by the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee. Asserts findings which are disputed in a 21 page summary and 98 page final report by the Democratic minority on the House Intelligence Committee. (Several Republican members of the committee walked back one of the findings in the one page summary. Those quotes are collected in this commentary and this article.)

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence minority report "Exposing Russia’s Effort to Sow Discord Online: The Internet Research Agency and Advertisements" published May 10, 2018, along with the release of hundreds of Russian ads from the 2016 election.

Senate Judiciary Committee - Preliminary Findings About Trump Campaign’s Effort to Obtain Incriminating Information on Secretary Clinton from Russia at Trump Tower Meeting. May 15, 2018 Relevant materials from Inquiry into Circumstances Surrounding Trump Tower Meeting including transcripts of testimony

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - Russian Targeting of Election Infrastructure During the 2016 Election: Summary of Initial Findings and Recommendations published May 8, 2018. Press release published May 16, 2018.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - In-depth Review of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) published July 3, 2018.

Report prepared by “New Knowledge” for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: “The Disinformation Report.” Site includes links to a slide deck and a white paper. Published Dec. 17, 2018.

Report prepared by Oxford Internet Institute for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: “The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018” Published Dec. 17, 2018. Direct link to PDF.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - “Russian Active Measures Campaigns And Interference in The 2016 U.s. Election Volume 1: Russian Efforts Against Election Infrastructure” published July 25, 2019

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - “Russian Active Measures Campaigns And Interference in The 2016 U.s. Election Volume 2: Russia's Use Of Social Media With Additional Views”

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - “Russian Active Measures Campaigns And Interference in The 2016 U.S. Election. Volume 3: U.s. Government Response To Russian Activities”

U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Minority Staff Report - The NRA and Russia: How a Tax-exempt Organization Became a Foreign Asset Published Sept 27th, 2019

U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz - “Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation” Originally published Dec. 9, 2019

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - “Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 Election. Volume 4: Review of the Intelligence Community Assessment with Additional Views” Published April 21, 2020

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: “Russia Investigation Transcripts and Documents: Materials from the Committee's Investigation into Russian Active Measures” July, 2017 - April,2018

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - “Russian Active Measures Campaigns And Interference In The 2016 U.S. Election. Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats And Vulnerabilities” Published Aug. 17, 2020

Top level link for Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Russian Active Measures Campaigns And Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election.

-Congressional testimony-

Full transcript: FBI Director James Comey testifies on Russian interference in 2016 election -- March 20th, 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing, also includes testimony from NSA Director and background material from committee members

”Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns" 10AM Session -- Senate Intelligence Committee Open Hearing, March 30th, 2017. Includes testimony of Clinton Watts. Continues with 2PM Session

Full transcript: Sally Yates and James Clapper testify on Russian election interference -- May 8th, 2017 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing

Full transcript: Acting FBI director McCabe and others testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee May 11th, 2017 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing

CSPAN Video and transcript for testimony of former CIA Director John Brennan on Russian election interference -- May 23rd, 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing

Full Transcript and Video: James Comey’s Testimony on Capitol Hill -- June 8th, 2017 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, in which Comey gives his account of his interactions with Trump prior to being fired.

Transcript: Jeff Sessions' testimony on Trump and Russia -- June 13th, 2017 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing

Video: Jeh Johnson testifies in House Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia -- June 20, 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing with Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson

Video: Open Hearing: - Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Elections -- June 21, 2017 Senate Intelligence Committee. DHS and FBI Counter Intelligence acting directors of relevant divisions, state elections officials, and hacking expert Dr. J. Alex Halderman (at the 2 hour 14 minute mark) discussing the likelihood that a future cyberattack could change votes.

Statement of Jared Kushner to Congressional Committees, July 24, 2017

Prepared Statement: Bill Browder's Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, July 25th, 2017 -- explains the origin of the Magnitsky Act, which freezes the assets of Russian oligarchs deposited in Western banks and investments. Explains that Putin is highly motivated to repeal this act for both financial and political reasons. In retaliation for passage of the Magnitsky Act, Putin banned adoption of Russian children by Americans. Video is also available and includes responses to senators' questions.

Senate Judiciary Committee Interview of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, August 22, 2017

Prepared Statement of Donald Trump Jr. to Senate Judiciary Committee, Sept 7th, 2017

Testimony of Carter Page Thursday Nov. 2, 2017 House Intelligence Committee

Testimony of Fusion GPS Founder Glenn Simpson to the House Intelligence Committee -- Nov. 8 and Nov. 14th, 2017

Contemporaneous memos written by FBI Director James Comey to document his early 2017 meetings with Trump

Video and transcript of testimony by Andrew Wylie to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Cambridge Analytica and the Future of Data Privacy, May 16, 2018

Video with transcript of testimony by Michael Cohen to the House Oversight Committee Feb. 27, 2019. Prepared opening statement. Supporting evidence exhibits.

Transcript of testimony by Michael Cohen to the House Intelligence Committee. Part 1: Feb 28, 2019. Part 2: March 6th, 2019

-Books-

The Apprentice by Greg Miller — recaps the reporting of the Washington Post and others through the campaign and first years of Trump’s presidency. Published October 2nd 2018

Russian Roulette by Michael Isikoff and David Corn — covers much of the content of this site, in book form. Published March 13th 2018

The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder — puts Russian “Active Measures” in the US in the context of Russian and Eastern European politics, and the “Active Measures” previously used in those countries. Published April 3rd 2018

House of Trump, House of Putin by Craig Unger— Details the web of connections between Russian oligarchs and organized crime figures and Trump associates. Published August 14th 2018

Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President - What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know by Kathleen Hall Jamieson — Examines the effectiveness of the Russian electoral efforts. Published October 3rd 2018

Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America — Covers the political activities of Steve Bannon and Robert Mercer before their involvement in the Trump campaign, the overlap of their social-media work with that of the Russian Internet Research Agency, and the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal. Published October 8th 2019

-Films-

Active Measures -- 2018 documentary film directed by Jack Bryan. Covers Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election in the context of similar interference by Russia in the 2014 election in Ukraine and the 2012 election in Georgia.

Get Me Roger Stone — reviews Roger Stone’s role in the 2016 Presidential campaign and in throughout his career in US politics.

PBS Frontline: Putin's Revenge -- Tells the inside story of how Vladimir Putin came to see the United States as an enemy — and why he decided to target an American election. Aired October 25th and November 1, 2017

The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump: The Russians — discusses some of Trump’s most important relationships with Russian and Kazakh real estate developers in New York, in detail. Other relationships are discussed in Part 2 and Part 3.

Operation Infektion: Russian Disinformation: From Cold War to Kanye — Three part New York Times Opinion Video series covering the history and present strategy of the use of “fake news.”

The Great Hack — Netflix documentary on Cambridge Analytica and the use of personal data for political targeting

-Resources compiled by journalists and experts-

Protect the Investigation — Protect the Investigation is a non-partisan initiative to educate the American people about the importance of the special counsel investigation and its current findings.

Committee to Investigate Russia -- Max Boot (Military Historian and Foreign Policy Analyst), James Clapper (Former Director of National Intelligence), Norman Ornstein (American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar), Rob Reiner (Director, Actor, and Activist) and Charles Sykes (Conservative Commentator) keep track of the latest news and frequently update timelines and profiles of key players in the story.

The Moscow Project — an initiative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund dedicated to analyzing the facts behind Trump’s collusion with Russia and communicating the findings to the public

Congressman Eric Swalwell (House Intelligence Committee): "Protect Our Democracy" -- context for the Russia investigation in the House intelligence committee, and proposed legislation to protect future elections.

Bellingcat: UK and Europe investigations — Bellingcat uses open source and social media investigation to investigate a variety of subjects, from Mexican drug lords to conflicts being fought across the world. Bellingcat brings together contributors who specialise in open source and social media investigation, and creates guides and case studies so others may learn to do the same.

Emptywheel — Blog maintained by national security journalists which offers analysis of Russia investigation news

Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab -- covers Russian information and election interference as well as other national security related topics

Hamilton 68: Tracking Russian Influence Operations on Twitter -- Monitors the activities of 600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence efforts online.

Twitter deleted 200,000 Russian troll tweets. Read them here. (NBC) -- NBC News published its database of more than 200,000 tweets that Twitter has tied to "malicious activity" from Russia-linked accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Why We’re Sharing 3 Million Russian Troll Tweets (FiveThirtyEight) -- Nearly 3 million tweets from accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency originally compiled by Profs. Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren of Clemson University

#TrollTracker: Twitter Troll Farm Archives: Part 1 — “On October 17, Twitter released an archive of over ten million tweets posted by accounts from 2013 through 2018. Of the total, over nine million tweets were attributable to 3,800 accounts affiliated with the Internet Research Agency, also known as Russia’s infamous St. Petersburg troll factory.” Parts 2, 3, 4. Buzzfeed report on the Twitter archives. #TrollTracker: How To Spot Russian Trolls

How closely did Russian troll rhetoric mirror Trump’s? See if you can tell the difference (The Washington Post) — “We pulled a number of rhetorical examples from the indictment [of Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova] all allegedly written by those involved in the Russian effort — and some quotes from Trump during the campaign and his presidency. Can you tell which is which? The quiz is below.”

Alphabet-Owned Jigsaw Bought a Russian Troll Campaign as an Experiment (Wired)

Presidential obstruction of justice: The case of Donald J. Trump (2nd Edition) (The Brookings Institution) -- Detailed accounting of the facts relating to the investigations of President Trump and his actions in relation to those investigations.

Considering collusion: A primer on potential crimes (The Brookings Institution) — The specific “collusion” crimes that may be implicated by any coordinated efforts between the president or his campaign aides and Russian operatives . Aug. 22nd, 2018

Max Bergmann, Jeremy Venook, and the Moscow Project Team: “Conspiracy Against the United States: The Story of Trump and Russia” Nov. 27th, 2018

Diana Pilipenko and Talia Dessel (Center for American Progress): “Following the Money: Trump and Russia-Linked Transactions From the Campaign to the Presidential Inauguration” — “What is known of Russia’s use of financial resources to help elect President Trump—and his own willingness to violate campaign finance laws—raises serious questions about many still-unexplained transactions executed during the campaign and the postelection transition period.” - Dec. 17, 2018

Karen Yourish and Larry Buchanan (New York Times): “Trump and His Associates Had More Than 100 Contacts With Russians Before the Inauguration” — interactive timeline for each person. From Jan, 2019.

Marshall Cohen and Tal Yellin (CNN): "The Many Paths from Trump to Russia" -- interactive diagram mapping the personal and financial connections between Russia and members of Trump's team. From Dec. 1st, 2017

Michael Crowley (Politico): “All of Trump’s Russia Ties, in 7 Charts” — These charts illustrate dozens of links. The solid lines mark established facts, while dotted ones represent speculative or unproven connections. From April, 2017

Bonnie Berkowitz, Denise Lu and Julie Vitkovskaya (Washington Post): "Here’s what we know so far about Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests" -- another interactive Trump-Russia diagram

Darren Samuelsohn, Sarah Frostenson, and Jeremy C.F. Lin: "The 332 people connected to the Russia probes" (Politico) -- gives individual names as well as general categories

(Axios): “Everyone caught up in the Trump investigations” — List of people convicted, charged, or interviewed in the Russia investigation, along with a timeline of key events, as of 11/29/2018

Karen Yourish, Larry Buchanan, and Alicia Parlapiano (New York Times): “Everyone Who’s Been Charged in Investigations Related to the 2016 Election” — tables and graphs showing relationships to the president. Jan. 25, 2019.

Andrew Prokop (Vox): “All of Robert Mueller’s indictments and plea deals in the Russia investigation so far”— Details the 33 people and three companies charged as of 11/29/2018

Phillip Bump (Washington Post): “The lies that Mueller has already documented” — List of 15 specific false or allegedly false claims made by seven different people that have been uncovered over the course of Mueller’s investigation as of Nov. 20th, 2018

Aaron Blake, (WaPo): “20 lies and alleged lies the Trump team has told in the Mueller probe, dissected” — 20 alleged and proved lies from the Mueller investigation, with some analysis for each one.

Youjin Shin and Reuben Fischer-Baum (Washington Post): “The many contradictions in Trump’s relationship with Russia” — A look at Trump’s shifting positions in four areas: His relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his stance on Russian election interference, his knowledge about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting and his business interests in Russia.

Ryan Goodman (Just Security): “Perjury Chart: Trump Associates’ Lies, False, or Misleading Statements on Russia to Federal Authorities”— Includes incidents which appear to be perjury based on what is publicly known, but which had not resulted in charges as of Dec. 3rd, 2018

Marshall Cohen, Sam Fossum, Em Steck, Tal Yellin (CNN): “How Team Trump keeps changing its story in the Russia investigation” — “Public contradictions, walkbacks and flip-flops have become a hallmark of how Trump’s team has responded to the Russia probe, which was launched in 2016 and is now in its third year. Here are the most consequential examples of Team Trump changing its story.” Published Feb. 13th, 2019

Garrett M Graff (Wired): "A Complete Guide to All 17 (Known) Trump and Russia Investigations" — “Donald Trump faces a legal assault unlike anything previously seen by any president—at least 17 distinct court cases stemming from at least seven different sets of prosecutors and investigators. (That total does not count any congressional inquiries, nor does it include any other inquiries into other administration officials unrelated to Russia.)” Dec. 17th, 2018

Larry Buchanan and Karen Yourish (New York Times): “Trump Has Publicly Attacked the Russia
Investigation More Than 1,100 Times” — graphical analysis of nearly every public statement or Twitter post that he has made while in office. Published Feb 19th, 2019

Mark Mazzetti, Maggie Haberman, Nicholas Fandos and Michael S. Schmidt (New York Times): “Intimidation, Pressure and Humiliation: Inside Trump’s Two-Year War on the Investigations Encircling Him” — Published Feb 19th, 2019

Jason Leopold, Zoe Tillman, Ellie Hall (Buzzfeed): ”The Mueller Report’s Secret Memos” — BuzzFeed News filed five separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits for all the subpoenas and search warrants that then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s team executed, as well as all the emails, memos, letters, talking points, legal opinions, and interview transcripts it generated. In response to a court order, the Justice Department released the first installment of documents: hundreds of pages of summaries of FBI interviews with witnesses, available at this link. Another installment will be released every month for at least the next eight years. — Published November 2, 2019 Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Meg Kelly and Elyse Samuels (Washington Post): “How Russia weaponized social media, got caught and escaped consequences” — “Russia’s use of strategic propaganda is part of a decades-old playbook. What is new is how cleanly, simply and effectively it was able to distribute false information, manipulate mainstream media and amplify existing divisions using social media platforms.” Published November 18, 2019.

Ann Applebaum (The Atlantic): “The Science of Making Americans Hurt their Own Country” — “For decades now, Russian security services have studied a concept called “reflexive control” — the science of how to get your enemies to make mistakes. To be successful, practitioners must first analyze their opponents deeply, to understand where they get their information and why they trust it; then they need to find ways of playing with those trusted sources, in order to insert errors and mistakes. […] The Russian security services have now studied us and worked out (it probably wasn’t very hard) that large numbers of Americans […] are very happy to accept sensational information, however tainted, from any source that happens to provide it. As long as it suits their partisan frames, and as long as it can be used against their opponents, they don’t care who invented it or for what purpose.” Published March 19, 2021

-Summaries of key developments by journalists-

Joe Uchill (The Hill): "Five reasons the intel community believes Russia interfered in election" -- summary of the evidence for Russian involvement in hacking of DNC and John Podesta

Massimo Calabresi (TIme Magazine): "Inside Russia’s Social Media War on America" -- Goals and methods of the social media component Russian active measures campaign

Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger, and Scott Shane (New York Times): "The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S." -- details about how the DNC hacking was discovered

John Sipher (Just Security): "The Public Needs a Lesson in Russian Strategic Deception: It’s What You Want to Hear" -- "Unlike Russia’s fake news and disinformation efforts designed to confuse or meet tactical ends, strategic deception is designed to build a believable and consistent narrative [...] play to preconceived notions, and tell an adversary something it is desperate to know."

Natasha Bertrand (The Atlantic): “Trump’s Top Targets in the Russia Probe Are Experts in Organized Crime” — Some of President Trump’s favorite targets in the Russia probe have spent their careers in the Justice Department and the FBI investigating organized crime and money laundering, particularly as they pertain to Russia.

Sean Illing interviewing Timothy Snyder (Vox): "How Russia pioneered “fake news” -- "This, Snyder argues, is how Russian oligarchs in the Putin era control citizens: They cultivate enough chaos so people become cynical about public life and, eventually, about truth itself. In the 2010s, Russia began to deploy these techniques abroad as a means of destabilizing Western countries."

Kate Brannen (Just Security): "Getting to the Bottom of the Trump Tower Meeting"

Max Bergmann, Sam Berger, and Jeremy Venook, (The Moscow Project): "A Case Study In Collusion: The Hack and Release of Emails" Published May 16, 2018

(The Moscow Project): “How recent developments impact our understanding of the Russia investigation” — Summarizes the revelations of the week of Nov. 23rd - Nov 30th, 2018, during which Michael Cohen pled guilty to lying to Congress, a draft plea agreement for Jerome Corsi was leaked to the press, and the Special Counsel’s office announced that Paul Manafort was in breach of his plea agreement.

Philip Bump (Washington Post): “What the Trump dossier says — and what it doesn’t” — “The Steele dossier makes a wide range of claims, many of which are rumors that couldn’t be independently verified. Many other claims involve things that would have been publicly known at the time the report was apparently drafted.“

Sarah Grant, Chuck Rosenberg (Lawfare): “The Steele Dossier: A Retrospective” — “The dossier holds up well over time, and none of it, to our knowledge, has been disproven. But much of the reporting simply remains uncorroborated, at least by the yardstick we are using.” Published December 14, 2018

Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb (CNN): “Revisiting the Trump-Russia dossier: What's right, wrong and still unclear?” — “The most salacious claims in the dossier remain unproven two years after it first burst into the public conversation, but many of the allegations that form the bulk of the intelligence memos have held up over time, or have proven to be at least partially true.” Published January 7, 2019

Ashley Feinberg (Slate): “The Pee Tape Is Real, but It’s Fake” — “Someone made this video and most likely recorded it in a hotel room that costs about $18,000 a night. Was it all for the sake of feeding rumors, or for confusing everyone, or for tricking some overconfident journalist into the ultimate feat of Fake News? The only thing we can say definitively is that based on the room in which it appears to have been filmed, this can’t possibly be the real thing.” This conclusion is based on the fact that: “The room we see in the video […]did not exist in that form when the video would supposedly have taken place.”

David Corn (Mother Jones): “Yes, There Was Collusion. Look at the Manafort Case” — “A review of the Manafort timeline provides a clear picture.” Published Jan 22nd, 2019.

(The Moscow Project) “Cohen Testimony Takeaways”: — “Michael Cohen’s testimony reinforced just how open-and-shut the case for collusion has become. In his seven hours before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen provided answers to some of the key questions remaining in the Russia investigation. “ Published Feb 27th, 2019

Madeleine Carlisle and Gabby Deutch (The Atlantic): “9 Striking Moments From Michael Cohen’s Testimony” — Selected quotes from Cohen’s public testimony. Published Feb 27th, 2019

Sonam Sheth and Natasha Bertrand (Business Insider): "Evidence is mounting that Russia took 4 clear paths to meddle in the US election” High level overview and summary of what was known about the active measures campaign as of Jul. 16, 2017

Terri Gross interviews journalist Luke Harding (NPR): "Fresh Air" -- Journalist Investigating Trump And Russia Says 'Full Picture Is One Of Collusion'." Published November 21, 2017

John Harwood (CNBC): "Trump's embrace of Russia: The evidence on public display already paints a jarring picture" -- Long before running for president, Trump relied on Russian money. Trump consistently defends Russia and attacks U.S. officials investigating Russia. Published March 2, 2018

Scott Shane and Mark Mazetti (New York Times): “The Plot to Subvert an Election” — collects details revealed over two years about the Russian social media influence campaign, and efforts to recruit Trump-linked figures

Simon Shuster (Time Magazine): “How Putin's Oligarchs Got Inside the Trump Team” — It is oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska, wielding extraordinary wealth and global connections, who may have played the most important role in the Russian influence campaign. Published September 20, 2018.

Jim VandeHei (Axios): “What we now know about Trump and Russia” — Short list of key facts as of Dec. 9, 2018.

Rosalind S. Helderman, Leslie Shapiro and Chris Alcantara (Washington Post): “What we learned about Trumpworld outreach to Russia since Mueller’s investigation began” — graphic representation of occasions on which people around Trump sought Russian help – both to benefit Trump personally and politically. Published Feb. 19, 2019

Philip Bump (Washington Post): “The slowly written Mueller report that’s sitting in plain sight “— “It’s a broad description of criminal activity that overlaps at only one point: Involvement in the 2016 election.” Published Feb. 22, 2019

Chad Day and Eric Tucker (AP): “Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view” — “Mueller has spoken loudly, if indirectly, in court — indictment by indictment, guilty plea by guilty plea. “ Published
Feb. 23, 2019

Craig Unger (Washington Post): “Trump’s businesses are full of dirty Russian money. The scandal is that it’s legal.” For more than three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to the Russian Mafia held the deeds to, lived in or ran criminal operations out of Trump Tower in New York or other Trump properties. March 29, 2019

David Corn (Mother Jones): “Here’s the Real Trump-Russia Hoax” (March 29, 2019) and “Trump Aided and Abetted Russia’s Attack. That Was Treachery. Full Stop.” (March 24, 2019)

Darren Samuelsohn, Josh Gerstein, Cory Bennett and Kyle Cheney (Politico): “25 subplots to watch in the Mueller Investigation” — one of the best, briefest summaries of the scandal as whole (March 23rd, 2019)

Max Bergman and Jeremy Venook (New York Daily News): “If Mueller didn’t follow the money, Congress must: There are huge red flags regarding potential Russian financial improprieties in the election” — “As Mueller documented, the Trump campaign was clearly open to Russian support. Extensive reporting has also demonstrated that Trump owes much of his net worth to Kremlin-linked buyers and financiers investing in Trump properties. It’s therefore critical to investigate whether the Kremlin went beyond hacking and troll farms to more direct financial assistance. “

Bill Whitaker (CBS News): “How Russian intelligence officers interfered in the 2016 election” — “[T]he case against 12 Russian military officers accused of breaking into the Democratic Party's computers, stealing compromising information, and selectively releasing it to undermine Democratic candidates.”

Larry Buchanan and Karen Yourish (New York Times): “From Criminal Convictions to Ethical Lapses: The Range of Misconduct in Trump’s Orbit” - summarizes scandals not directly related to Russia probe (from Sept 1st, 2018)

David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick (The New York Times): “Trump’s Corruption: The Definitive List” — another summary of non-Russia-related corruption (from Oct. 28, 2018). See also “Trump’s Lies: The Definitive List” (from June 23rd, 2017) and“Donald Trump’s Racism: The Definitive List” (from Jan 15, 2018)

Mike McIntire and Nicholas Confessore, “Trump’s Twitter Presidency: 9 Key Takeaways” — In three articles linked from this summary, The New York Times analyzed Mr. Trump’s posts, studied the accounts he follows and interviewed dozens of administration officials, lawmakers, Twitter executives and ordinary Americans caught up in his tweets.

Jonathan Greenberg (The Washington Post) "Saving face How Donald Trump silenced the people who could expose his business failures" — “Journalists told me how he’d tried to block their reporting on his empire — by making up ethical scandals about them, furnishing fake documents and, in one case, threatening to expose the private life of a closeted media executive. Wall Street analysts witnessed a campaign of intimidation that began when Trump got one of them fired for (correctly) doubting his casinos’ ability to pay off their debts.”

David A. Fahrenthold, Matt Zapotosky and Seung Min Kim (Washington Post): "Mounting legal threats surround Trump as nearly every organization he has led is under investigation" — Trump’s presidential administration, private company, 2016 campaign, inaugural committee, and charity are all under investigation. (Dec. 15, 2018)

Noah Bookbinder, Conor Shaw, and Gabe Lezra (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington): “A Campaign to Defraud” — Describes crimes related to illegal campaign contributions meant to cover up evidence of Trump’s affairs with two women. Published Feb. 25, 2019

David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O'Connell (Washington Post): “How Donald Trump inflated his
net worth to lenders and investors” — “The documents were deeply flawed. Some simply omitted properties that carried big debts. Some assets were overvalued. And some key numbers were wrong.” March 28, 2019

Jefcoate O’Donnell (Foreign Policy): “All the Legal Trouble in Trumpworld” — “Here are the 10 most pressing investigations into the president, his campaign staffers, and his inner circle.” March 8, 2019.

Quinta Jurecic (The Atlantic): “All of the Impeachable Offenses” — “Trump criminally obstructed justice. […] Any impeachment inquiry should consider […] Trump’s pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio […] Turning back asylum seekers […] Repeated calls for the criminal prosecution of his political rivals […] Demands for the U.S. Postal Service to dramatically raise rates for shipping Amazon packages [...] Rescinding of the security clearances of a number of his high-profile critics […] Declassifying sensitive information related to the Russia investigation in order to score political points […] Attacks on the press as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people” […] Abuse of private citizens as having committed treason […] Lies—which, by The Washington Post’s count, now number more than 10,000. […] A criminal effort to violate campaign-finance law […] Plans to resist “all the subpoenas”

Max Boot (Washington Post): “Here are seven reasons Trump should be impeached” — “obstructed the administration of justice” “failed to defend America from foreign election interference” “attempted to investigate and prosecute his political opponents” “failed to produce papers and testimony as duly directed by Congress” “in violation of federal campaign finance laws, conspired with his attorney Michael Cohen in order to conceal alleged relationships” “attempted to misuse his emergency powers” “violation of his oath to uphold the emoluments clauses” June 3, 2019

Ian Prasad Philbrick (New York Times) “The Articles of Impeachment Against Donald J. Trump: A Draft” — June 5, 2019

-Trump/Russia Timelines-

Alan Cullison and Brett Forrest (The Wall Street Journal): Timeline of 30 years of interest by Mr. Trump in establishing a foothold in Russia and nearby Ukraine. The push involved more than 20 separate developments.

Steven Harper (Investigate Russia via BIllMoyers.com): "Interactive Timeline: Everything We Know About Russia and President Trump" -- indexed by person

Lisa Desjardins (PBS Newshour): "The giant timeline of everything Russia, Trump and the investigations" --Click on the image to zoom in on dates and characters. For a more in-depth look at individual cells, check out the spreadsheet.

Matthew Nussbaum (Politico): "The definitive Trump-Russia timeline of events" -- starts in 2013, shows events in increments of days during the campaign

Hannah Levintova (Mother Jones): "The Long, Twisted, and Bizzarre history of the Trump-Russia Scandal" -- timeline of events, starting in the 1980s

Phillip Bump (Washington Post): "A (so far) complete timeline of the investigation into Trump and Russia" -- places information about interactions between the Trump team and Russia in chronological order

"Russia timeline: Key players, meetings and investigation details" (NBC News) -- places information in order of publication

Miles Parks and Tamara Keith (NPR): "Timeline Of Trump And Russia In Mid-2016: A Series Of Coincidences Or Something More?" -- includes recording of Aleksandr Dugin promoting Trump and questioning the legitimacy of the Democratic primary on March 4th, 2016

Josh Marshall (Talking Points Memo): "Look At The Timeline" -- What the Trump campaign was doing while the Russians were hacking the DNC and Podesta e-mail accounts

Meg Kelly (Washington Post): "All the known times the Trump campaign met with Russians" -- "a comprehensive timeline [...] detailing which members of the campaign met with Russians during the campaign as well as internal discussions about those meetings. "

Karen Yourish, Larry Buchanan and Derek Watkins (New York Times): “A Timeline Showing the Full Scale of Russia’s Unprecedented Interference in the 2016 Election, and Its Aftermath” — reveals how parallel threads — contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, Russian hacking and social media fraud — often crossed during the election.

Meg Kelly (Washington Post): “The president’s misleading statements on Trump Tower Moscow: A timeline” — Because the president’s business and political worlds are intertwined, as a reader service, the Fact Checker compiled a timeline of what happened, what the president knew and what he said publicly about contact between his staff and Russia.

-Link collections and resources assembled by interested amateurs-

Amy Siskind's Weekly List -- "Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember." Includes Russia news as well as other worrying signs of democratic deconsolidation. A searchable index is available.

Chris LaMay-West: From Russia, With Love -- fairly comprehensive summary of what is known, infrequently updated

Raul Gutierrez: "Trump's Russian Connections, a Handy Timeline" -- in reverse chronological order

Thomas Wood: "RussiaGate" -- Very long Google Docs file with many links

A Timeline: Russia and President Trump -- Trump/Russia connections in chronological order starting in 1979

Trump, Russia, and the House of Representatives -- a PDF assembled to summarize the evidence for collusion linked from this site and the need for an investigation, and inform representatives in the House about what they can and should do to protect that investigation.