Journal Of The City Council Regular Session February 1, 2016: Fill & Download for Free

Thanks for A2A.“Hard work speaks.”- Sri Naveen Patnaik, Hon'ble CM of OdishaEducation in OdishaPreviously a neglected aspect of the state, which was not a focus of the Indian Central government, Education in Odisha is witnessing a rapid transformation. Its capital city, Bhubaneswar, is emerging as a knowledge hub in India with several new public and private universities, including the establishment of an Indian Institute of Technology after five decades of demand.Odisha has fared reasonably well in terms of literacy rates. The overall literacy rate according to Census 2011 is 73.5%, which is marginally behind of the national average of 74.04%.In Odisha there are also many schools and colleges, maintained by government.LiteracyAlthough 10 years of primary education is mandatory in Odisha, the literacy rate is only 73.5%, which is marginally behind of the national average of 74.04%. The government of India has undertaken steps to improve women's literacy in the tribal pockets in the state and elsewhere in India.Male literacy is 75.95% and female literacy is 50.97%. Among the districts, Malkangiri has the lowest literacy rate of 31.26%. Among the women, lowest literacy level is in Nabarangpur district, at 21.02%, and Malkangiri district at 21.28%. Khordha district which includes Bhubaneswar city, has the highest literacy of 80.19%. This district also has the highest female literacy of 71.06%. The high literacy figures of Khordha district is certainly influenced by the inclusion of the state capital in the statistics. Next to Khordha comes Jagatsinghpur district with 79.61% literates. The literacy level in Odisha at 63.61% is comparable with all-India average of 65.38%. However, there are considerable regional disparities between areas, and communities. Non-formal and adult literacy programs are run in various districts and are at different stages of implementation. Out of 30 districts, 9 are continuing literacy total Literacy campaign (TLC). 10 districts are either continuing or awaiting approval of Post literacy program (PLP). 11 districts have completed PLP, and some of them have received sanction for Continuing Education Program. The State Government is committed to the Universalisation of Elementary Education in the State with the aim of fulfilling the constitutional obligation with the assistance of Central Government.Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas (OAVs)One of the major innovation in recent years has been plans of Odisha State to setup one Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya(OAV) (literally Odisha Model School) at each of 314 block headquarters.100 Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas (OAVs) have already started functioning from academic session 2016-17. These Adarsha Vidyalayas would be CBSE affiliated fully residential schools, provide free of education, and target talented students through an annual entrance examination. These would have Class VI through Class XII and each class would have 80 number of students.Status of elementary education in the stateIn Odisha there are 35,928 Primary and 20,427 Upper Primary schools to provide education at elementary level. More 491 New Primary and 490 New Upper Primary schools opened under S.S.A. to provide schooling in unserved areas.66 lakh children of 6–14 years age group are in-school, out of which 12 lakh are SC and 17 lakh are ST.1.87 lakh children of 6–14 years age group are out-of-school from which 0.3 lakh are from SC and 0.9 lakh are from ST community. Out of them 56,995 Children were admitted to regular existing & New Schools under Enrolment Drive in districts.Further to improve access to Elementary Education and to achieve 100% enrolment, Government have relaxed the norm for opening of new Primary schoolsIn KBK districts and Tribal Sub Plan areas new primary schools will be opened in habitations having at least 25 children in the 6–14 years age group provided there is no primary school within one KM of such habitations.In all the districts the distance norm for opening of new primary and new upper primary schools is relaxed in case of natural barrier like river, hilly terrain, dense forest etc.There are 218 Minority and Mission Managed Primary Schools, wherein 599 teachers are receiving grant-in-aid from the Government. Besides, Oriya Medium Schools.Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya SangathanGram Vikas Residential School was established in 1982 at Kankia village in Ganjam district. Mahendra Tanaya Ashram School was established in Koinpur village in Gajapati District of Odisha in 1992. Two more schools, Gram Vikas Shiksa Niketan and Gram Vikas Vidya Vihar were established in 1998 and 2002 in Kalahandi district and Ganjam district respectively.Secondary EducationThere are 6193 Govt. and aided Secondary Schools, 849 Recognized High Schools and 151 permitted High Schools in the State.As per the GIA Rules, 2004, 1981 private High Schools have been notified to receive block grant.1375 number of Contract Teachers has been engaged against the 3210 posts advertised.Contract teachers of High Schools have been allowed the minimum basic pay of their respective regular scale in Revised Scale of Pay 2008.Government have approved 799 candidates as non-teaching staff under the Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme in the year 2010.Computer Literacy is being popularized in High Schools. Board of Secondary Education has included computer learning as an optional subject in the curriculum for Secondary schools.Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)RMSA is a national flagship programme initiated in 2009-10 to universalise Secondary Education by making good quality education available, accessible and affordable to all children within the age group of 14 – 18 years with strong focus on the elements of gender, equity & justice.ObjectivesTo provide secondary school within 5 km and higher secondary school within 7–10 km of every habitation.Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 75% for class-IX & X within five years (by 2013-14).Universal Access to Secondary Education (SE) by 2017.Universal Retention by 2020.Access to Secondary Education (SE) for all disadvantaged group of children.To improve quality of education resulting in enhanced intellectual, social and cultural learning.Action TakenAnnual Work Plan for 2010-11 and Perspective Plan for 5 years submitted to GOI.PAB approved for 2009–10 Rs.207.18 crores and for 2010-11 Rs. 507.92 crore.Rs. 3.00 crores released by GOI for "Preparatory Activities" such as Strengthening State and District offices.Strengthening manpower ganising training/workshop/SEMI Setc.Rs. 71.40 crores released by GOI for "Project Activities" such as; Civil works for new school.M.M.E.R. (Management Monitoring Evaluation & Research which is being released to all the 30 districts.Data collection, data entry and analysis of "Secondary Education Management Information System" (S.E.M.I.S.), 2009-10 is completed & is under verification by the Inspector of Schools.The 10+2 structureIn Odisha, as elsewhere in India, children are enrolled in school at the age of five. The core subjects taught in schools include Science (including Physics, Chemistry and Biology), Mathematics (Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Computer Science, and Set theory), Social Studies (Geography, History, Civics and Economics), and three languages, which are usually Odia, Hindi and English. Additionally, school children receive training in sports and physical education, as well as vocational training.After ten years of schooling, children at the end of class X must appear in one of the three school examinations; 1. All India Secondary School Examination (AISSE), which is conducted by the Central Government run Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), 2. Odisha High School Certificate Examination, which is conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha(BSE) and 3. Indian Certificate of Secondary Education(ICSE) examination, conducted annually by the New Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).Children who appear in either the All India Secondary School Examination or the Odisha High School Certificate Examination have a choice of using Odia or Hindi or English as the medium language. However, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations makes English the mandatory language.Two years of higher secondary education follow, which is optional. Students, usually in the 15 through 17 age group, have a choice of specializing in the following streams;ArtsScienceCommerceAt this stage, the students get exposed to a wide array of elective subjects. The CBSE conducts the All India Senior School Certificate Examination and the CISCE conducts the Indian School Certificate Examinations for students in class XII. There are also Junior colleges and Degree colleges in the state that offer secondary education for class XII children. The Council of Higher Secondary Education, Odisha (CHSE) conducts the higher secondary level examination for them.This educational structure in Odisha is referred to commonly as the 10+2 system. Students who undergo the 10+2 education system are eligible for admission into a college or university in Odisha, and can also opt for other professional training. However, admission into the few top institutions in Odisha, particularly in engineering and medicine, are highly competitive. Students graduating from class XII typically must qualify in an entrance examination in order to gain admission.Odisha Joint Entrance ExaminationThe Government of Odisha conducts a highly competitive Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) annually to select students for admission into the various engineering colleges operating under BPUT. In the year 2010, around 73,587 students appeared the OJEE against 76,000 students last year. Out of them 51,174 students sat for engineering, 19,663 in medical, 8,326 in MBA, 9,446 in pharmacy and 4,680 in MCA.National level public institutionsOdisha has become a hub for higher education and has numerous inistitutions which are nationally and internationally recognised.Biju Patnaik National Steel InstituteBiju Patnaik National Steel Institute (BPNSI), Puri is an autonomous Institute constituted by Ministry of Steel, Government of India was established on 1 January 2002 for the development of steel sector with an emphasis on the secondary steel sector. BPNSI is one of the few institutes in the country and the only institute in Odisha that offers a curriculum in Iron & Steel manufacturing & Plant Management. Currently the Institute is offering a one and half year “Advanced Certificate Course on Iron and Steel Manufacturing & Plant Management.” The Institute plans to offer Degree and P.G. Diploma courses in the future.Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and TechnologyCentral Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar established in 1986 is one of the 15 state-of-the-art centers spread across India devoted to academic, technology support & research (ATR) activities for the growth of plastics & allied industries in the country. CIPET, Bhubaneswarhas a track record of best performance centre consistently for last few years and rated to be the best centre. The institute offers B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD program on Plastics Engineering and Technology in affiliation with Biju Patnaik University of Technology.Central Rice Research InstituteThe Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) is located in the city of Cuttack. It is one of the premier institutions in Asia for rice research. It was established by the center in 1946 with an experimental farm land of 0.6 km² provided by the Odisha government. It is the second largest institution dedicated to rice research after the one at Manila. The Institute has two research stations- Central Rainfed Upland Rice Research Station (CRURRS), Hazaribagh, in Jharkhand, and the Regional Rainfed Lowland Rice Research Station (RRLRRS), Gerua, in Assam. These research stations were established to tackle the problems of rainfed uplands, and flood prone rainfed lowlands, respectively. Two Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) also function under the CRRI located at Santhapur, Cuttack and Jainagar, Koderma.Central Tool Room & Training CentreCentral Tool Room & Training Centre, Bhubaneswar is an autonomous institute under the Ministry of MSME, Government of India. Since 1991 imparting industry oriented long & short term training programmes on CAD/CAM, Tool Design & Manufacturing, Tool & Die Making, Diploma in Mechatronics, CNC Programming & Machining, Machine Maintenance, CCNA, Industrial Automation, VLSI, Hardware & Networking Management, ITI (Machinist/Welder) etc.Central University of OrissaThe Central University of Orissa has been established in Koraput by the Parliament under the Central Universities Act, 2009 (No. 3C of 2009). It is one of the 15 new Central Universities established by the Government of India during the UGC XI Plan period to address the concerns of “equity and access” and as per the policy of the Government of India to increase the access to quality higher education by people in less educationally developed districts which have a Graduate Enrollment Ratio of less than the national average of 11%.Institute of Dental SciencesInstitute of Dental Sciences, Bhubaneswarwas set up in 2005 on the recommendation of Dental Council of India, Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt. of India. It has been conducting B.D.S Course from the academic session 2006-07.Indian Institute of Handloom TechnologyI.I.H.T. Bargarh, the fifth central sector institute came into existence on June 2, 2008.Initially it started functioning in the panchayat college campus in Bargarhtownship which is a prominent place in western part of Odisha. The permanent campus is under construction on Bargarh-Bhatli road, 8 km from the district headquarters. It offers a diploma course in handloom and textile technology.Institute of Life SciencesThe Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), an autonomous institute has been brought under the fold of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India in August 2002. The institute is located in close proximity to other research institutions at Bhubaneswar. The institute was earlier established on February 11, 1989 and was under the administrative and financial control of Department of Science and Technology, Government of Odisha. Prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee dedicated the institute to the nation on July 15, 2003 with a declaration to develop the institute as a "National Centre for Excellence". The mandate of ILS is to undertake basic and translational research in frontier areas of life sciences. The research interests of the faculty are in three major areas: (a) Infectious Disease Biology, (b) Gene Function and Regulation and (c) Translation Research and Technology Development. In addition, new collaborations with industry have been established to tap commercial potential of laboratory science.Indian Institute of Mass CommunicationIIMC Dhenkanal, was set up in August 1993 as the first branch of IIMC New Delhi, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India.It imparts education and training in journalism and also undertakes media studies and research. The Institute conducts PG Diploma courses in Journalism in English and Oriya, besides short term courses and workshops.Institute of Physics, BhubaneswarThe Institute Of Physics, Bhubaneswar is an autonomous research institution funded jointly by the Department Of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Government of Odisha. It provides research facilities for postgraduate research.Indian Institute of Public HealthIndian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswaris one of the four institutes set up by PHFI as a part of its charter to build public health capacity in India. IIPH, Bhubaneswar, commenced its academic activities from August 2010. The institute offers a Post Graduate Diploma course in Public Health Management, launched on 2 August 2010. Government doctors from Odisha and Chhattisgarh and self-sponsored candidates are participating in this course. In addition to this, various short term training programmes, workshops and research activities are being undertaken by the institute.Indian Institute of TechnologyThe Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar is the third and one of the largest of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology established by the MHRD, Government of India in 2008–2009. A total of 935 acres (3.78 sq km) of land has been allocated at Arugul towards the self-contained campus for 10,000 students and 1,100 faculty, making it the second largest of all IITs after the one at Kharagpur, and largest IIT in any metropolitan location.As of 2009, there are undergraduate programs leading to B. Tech degrees in civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Postgraduate students are being admitted into the M. Tech and PhD programs.Indian Institute of Management, SambalpurThe Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur is the 14th Indian Institute of Management established by the MHRD, Government of India in 2015. A total of 237 acres (0.96 sq km) of land has been allocated at Basantpur towards the state of art permanent campus. The institute has started Post Graduation Program (PGP) in Management since 2015.International Institute of Information Technology, BhubaneswarInternational Institute of Information Technology, Bhubaneswar is an information technology higher education institute established in 2006 by the Government of Odisha. It has been converted to an unitary university on January 20, 2014. It offers Masters and Bachelors programme in Engineering. It is considered as an institute of national importance according to the AICTE.Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel ManagementIndian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), Bhubaneswar is one of the five premier autonomous institutes set by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. IITTM is engaged in teaching, training, research and consultancy and is the only institute in the country dedicated to the tourism learning. The institute at Bhubaneswar was in 1996 as Baji Rout Regional Center for Eastern India with the primary objective of expanding its activities to a part of the country that is full of tourism potential. It offers two years postgraduate diploma in management specializing in Tourism and Travel and International Business.Institute of Minerals and Materials TechnologyThe Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology IMMT, (formerly Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar) was set up as a premier establishment of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi in 1964 in the State of Odisha, in eastern India. The laboratory specializes in providing R&D support for process and product development with special emphasis on conservation and sustainable utilization of natural resources. Over the years, IMMT has developed S&T capabilities in a wide range of areas from mineralogy to materials engineering. The laboratory has expertise in conducting technology oriented programmes in mining and mineral/bio-mineral processing, metal extraction and materials characterization, process engineering, industrial waste management, pollution monitoring and control, marine and forest products development, utilization of medicinal and aromatic plants and appropriate technologies for societal development.National Institute of Fashion TechnologyNational Institute of Fashion Technology(NIFT), Bhubaneswar center is one of the latest additions to the existing countrywide gamut of NIFT. It started functioning from June 2010 from its transit campus situated in Centurion Institute of Technology, near HP Gas Plant, Bhubaneswar. The course being offered at the institute at present, include specialization in two disciplines, Bachelor of Design in Textile Design and Master of Fashion Management Studies. The institute boasts of eminent and experienced faculty to facilitate quality education from the very commencement of the center.A total of 35 acres (140 sq km) of land have been granted by the state government. The NIFT would be funded through the Indian Ministry of Commerce. It is admitting students from 2010.National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and ResearchThe National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (NIRTAR) is an autonomous body established in 1975 under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India. It is located in a beautiful rural area at Olatpur, 30 km from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. It conducts three bachelor's degree courses in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Prosthetics and Orthotics, two Postgraduate courses in Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy affiliated to Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. It also has an accreditation for DNB in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of National Board of Examination (NBE), New Delhi.National Institute of Science Education & ResearchThe National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) is a premier research institution in India along the lines of the internationally reputed IISc in Bangalore, and five sister institutions, the IISERs. Instead of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, NISER operates under the umbrella of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). It was established in 2007, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, when the first batch of students were admitted into its integrated postgraduate programs.NISER is dedicated to graduate education and research only. It offers M.S.,5 year integrated M.S. as well as PhD degrees in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biology. The Odisha government has provided 301 acres (1.2 sq km) of land free of cost for the upcoming campus at Jatani near Bhubaneswar.Keeping in view the paucity of central government institutions in the state, the Government of Odisha has mooted the idea of a National Institute for Technology Education and Research (NITER), a sister institution of NISER, in Bhubaneswar.National Institute of Technology, RourkelaEstablished in the year 1961, The National Institute of Technology (NIT) located at the steel city of Rourkela is the foremost engineering degree granting institutions in Odisha. It has consistently been ranked among the top engineering institutes in the country, most recently being placed as the 3rd best Engineering Institute in Eastern India, after IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwahati by DataQuest.National Law University, OrissaA national law university was established in 2009 at Naraj, in the outskirts of the city of Cuttack. The university offers integrated B.A. LL.B. and B.B.A. LL.B., integrated LL.M-PH.D and Ph.D. courses.National University (or World Class Central University)A national university of international standards for cutting-edge research is being set up in Bhubaneswar. The government plan views it as a unified centre of excellence in engineering, the sciences, humanities, management and medicine.The government of India will seek expertize from leading universities, such as Yale, MIT and Princeton, in setting up the national university at Bhubaneswar.All India Institute of Medical Sciences, BhubaneswarAll India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar (AIIMS) is being set up in the state under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone for the super-speciality hospital in 2003. The state AIIMS was then estimated to cost about Rs 820.49 crore. The institute has initiated the process of recruiting staff and is buying equipment simultaneously and the facility would be ready to take admissions in undergraduate medical courses by 2013. Work on the medical college and the hospital buildings would be complete by September 2012. The Union government recently selected three top medical institutes to mentor the six upcoming AIIMS prototypes. AIIMS New Delhi will mentor its clone in Bhubaneswar. The mentor will guide the upcoming institute in selecting faculty and setting up necessary infrastructure.Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (Deemed University), Shri Sadashiva CampusThis campus was established on 1971 and is situated at Puri in Odisha. The institution is more than 100 years old. The campus is pursuing research work leading to the degree of Vidyavaridhi (PhD) and imparting education in Sahitya, Dharma Shastra, Navya Vyakarana, Puranetihas, Jyotish, Advaita Vedanta, Navya Nyaya, Sarvadarshana and Sankhya Yoga at post–graduate and graduate level and Shiksha Shastri at graduate level.Regional Institute of EducationA premier centre of education research, the Regional Institute of Education is located near Acharya Vihar in Bhubaneswar. It is a regional centre of NCERT serving the eastern region. Apart from running training programmes for teachers of schools and colleges, the institute also has integrated courses of http://B.Sc and B.Ed. The institute also runs courses on B.Ed., M.Ed. and M.Phil (Education).Regional Medical Research CentreRegional Medical Research Centre(RMRC), Bhubaneswar, was established in 1981 by Indian Council of Medical Research. It conducts interdisciplinary research on locally prevailing communicable and non-communicable diseases. It provides training and research to post graduate students for Ph.D./ MD degree, MSc. dissertation and short term training to the doctors and technicians from state health departments and NVBDCP, Delhi.State level public institutionsBerhampur UniversityBerhampur University was established in southern Odisha in 1965, as the third oldest university in the state. The university has 25 affiliated colleges and covers the districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Rayagada.Biju Patnaik University of TechnologyThe Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), Rourkela, was created by an act of the Odisha state legislature in the year 2002. Almost all the engineering, pharmacy, architecture and most of the colleges offering MBA degree programmes are either constituent or affiliated colleges of BPUT. Today, the university has 110 colleges, both constituent and affiliated, with around 58,000 students. The disciplines include engineering and architecture, business management and hotel management, computer studies and pharmacy.College of Engineering and TechnologyThe College of Engineering and Technology (CET-B) was initially established within the preview of OUAT in Bhubaneswar. It got separated from OUAT since 2002, having its own vast campus of about 139 acres (0.56 sq km) in Ghatikia, Khandagiri. It is a primarily an undergraduate college, offering programs in Architecture, Computer science, Information Technology, Electrical, Civil, Instrumentation & Electronics, Bio-Technology, Mechanical engineering, Textile engineering and Fashion Technology. It is currently affiliated to BPUT (Biju Patnaik University of Technology). It places about 75% of its students every year and has a large number of students interning all over India .Government College of Engineering, KeonjharGovernment College of Engineering, Keonjhar is the only Government engineering college in North Odisha. The institute started under the Department of Industries, Government of Odisha in 1956 offering Diploma education in Mining Engineering and later in 1995 introduced degree curriculum. Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering branches were added in 1997. In 2006, the government of Odisha declared Orissa School of Mining Engineering (Degree Stream) as a constitute college of Biju Pattnaik University of Technology, Rourkela under self finance mode to develop it as a centre of excellence in the field of Engineering & Technology. In 2008, Mineral Engineering and in 2009, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering were added. In 2011, as per a government notification, it has been declared as a full-fledged government engineering college. In 2015, Computer Science & Engineering and Civil Engineering were added.Fakir Mohan UniversityFakir Mohan University, Vyasa Vihar, Balasorewas established by the Government of Odisha, in 1999.Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, SarangThe Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology (IGIT) is located at Sarang in the industrial belt of Talcher. It was established in 1982 by the government of Odisha. In addition to four year undergraduate degrees in electrical, mechanical, chemical and civil engineering, and metallurgical & materials science, it offers three year diplomas in a few technical disciplines.Institute of Mathematics and Applications, BhubaneswarThe Institute of Mathematics and Applications, (IMA) located in Bhubaneswar is an academic institution, established by the government of Odisha to conduct advanced research in pure and applied mathematics, and to conduct advanced postgraduate degree programs in the field. It was established in 1999.Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati Medical CollegeThe Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati (MKCG) Medical College is a medical college in Berhampur. It was originally started in 1976 as an extension of the SCB Medical College. It operates under Berhampur University. It offers MBBS and MD degrees and also provides training in medical related fields.North Orissa UniversityNorth Orissa University, Baripada is a public and open university established in 1998. The jurisdiction of the University extends over two districts, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar. There are 80 affiliated colleges, both general and professional, catering to the demand of higher education.Orissa University of Agriculture and TechnologyThe Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) was established in the city of Bhubaneswar in 1962. It is dedicated to agriculture related research and education, and has seven colleges as well as a centre for postgraduate studies.Parala Maharaja Engineering College (PMEC), BerhampurPMEC Berhampur was estd: 2009 by Govt. of Odisha, started functioning in its academic building at sitalapalli, berhampur with four branches. This college is a constituent college of BPUT, Odisha. College was inaugurated by Sri Naveen Patnaik, Hon'ble CM, Odisha.Ravenshaw UniversityRavenshaw Convention Centre, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, OdishaUpgraded from Ravenshaw College one of the oldest and largest colleges of India, the Ravenshaw University came into existence on 15 November 2006. Originally affiliated to University of Calcutta and thereafter to Patna University and then finally to Utkal University the institution finally got its own identity and became one of the most reputed universities of the Odisha state. Presently the university runs 23 Post-Graduate courses with research facilities and 27 Undergraduate honours courses.Sambalpur UniversitySambalpur University (Jyoti Vihar) in Burla, in western Odisha is another important university covering the districts of Bargarh, Bolangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Jharsugda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Sundargarh as well as the Athamallik Sub-Division of Angul district. It offers postgraduate education in twenty seven subjects. The university has been functioning since 1967.Shriram Chandra Bhanja Medical CollegeEstablished in 1944, The Shriram Chandra Bhanja Medical College (SCB Medical College) at Cuttack, is the premier medical institution in Odisha and one of the oldest in India. It offers postgraduate degrees in all broad areas of medicine. It also runs super speciality training facilities in several areas such as cardiology, neurosurgery, and radiotherapy. There also exists a dental wing under the SCB Medical college.Shri Jagannath Sanskrit VishvavidayalayaShri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishvavidayalaya was established in Puri by the erstwhile Chief Minister of Odisha Janaki Ballabh Pattanayak, an eminent scholar of Sanskrit, on 7 July 1981. It is the third Sanskrit university of the country next to Sampurnananda Sanskrit University of Banaras and Kameswar Singh Sanskrit University of Darabhanga .Utkal UniversityUtkal University (Vani Vihar) was the first university to be established in Odisha in 1943. It is also the seventeenth oldest in India. It is located in Bhubaneswar and has about 3,000 postgraduate and doctoral students enrolled. The university has jurisdiction over nine districts in Odisha, namely Angul, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puricatering to the needs of higher education of a population of over 11 million people.Main entrance to Utkal UniversityUtkal University of CultureThe Utkal University of Culture is a newly established institution located in Bhubaneswar.Veer Surendra Sai Medical CollegeThe Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Medical college and hospital has been in operation since 1959 in Burla. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate education in medicine and surgery, besides offering training courses in pharmacy and nursing.Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, BurlaEstablished in 1956 at Burla, the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla, formerly known as University College of Engineering (UCE) is Odisha's oldest, and one of the oldest and prestigious engineering institutions of East India. Initially an autonomous college since 1991, it was elevated as a university in the year 2009, as a result of a move by the Government of Odisha to accord it with the status of a unitary university. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees in several engineering disciplines. VSSUT receives financial grants from All India Council of Technical Education and University Grants Commission (India), two central government agencies, as well as from the state government. While other major engineering institutions (such as the IITs) only enjoy deemed university status, VSSUT is one of India's full scale university for engineering and technology. The campus covers an area of 203 acres (0.82 km2) with an expansion capacity up to 503 acres (2.04 km2), as per the land allotted to it. There is a proposal to upgrade this to NIT. In the year 2012 VSSUT was awarded 12B status by University Grants Commission (India).Private institutionsXavier Institute of Management, BhubaneswarThe Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) was established in 1987. It owes its origin to a contract between the government of Odisha and the Odisha Jesuit Society. XIMB is governed by a board consisting of representatives from the Odisha Jesuit Society, the government of India, the government of Odisha, and invited industrialists and academics.Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar is a premier business school in IndiaXIMB has been ranked among the top 10 business schools in India. The institution offers postgraduate programs, leading to Masters and PhD degrees in business management, rural management, human resource management, sustainability management as well several professional training programs.It has a few research centers in areas such as entrepreneurship, utility regulation, small and micro enterprise development, and healthcare management. XIMB grown up to become "Xavier University". Now XIMB is an autonomous business school under Xavier University.Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be UniversitySiksha 'O' Anusandhan gained Deemed to be University status from the UGC in 2007. SOA has the highest grade of 'A' from NAAC. Additionally, SUM Hospital (its affiliated hospital) has been awarded with the prestigious NABH accreditation.Link to SOA University's WebsiteCenturion UniversityCenturion University, Bhubaneswar is Odisha's first private state university.Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT University) Deemed to be UniversityKIIT School of TechnologyKalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) is established in Bhubaneswar in 1992. Academic programmes of KIIT University are conducted by its seven constituent schools – School of Technology, School of Computer Application, School of Management, School of Rural Management, School of Medicine, School of Biotechnology and KIIT Law School.ICFAI UniversityHyderabad based Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the chief minister of Odisha, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, to set up a university in the outskirts of the city of Bhubaneswar. ICFAI plan to buy 150 acres (0.6 sq km) of land from private parties in Jatni, near the Khurda Road station. The university is budgeted at Rs. 150 crores (1.5 billion). It will function primarily as a business school.Sri Sri UniversitySri Sri University has been established under the Sri Sri University Act, 2009. The Government of Odisha has leased out about 187 acres of land near Bidyadharpur, Cuttackfor the purpose of setting up the university. The total area of construction is expected to be 3,000,000 square feet and is slated to be completed in a phased manner in the next six years. On completion, the university campus will cater to the needs of 10000 students and around 2000 faculty staff. The university currently offers MBA programs in Agribusiness, General Management and Entrepreneurship.Institutions through public-private partnershipIndian Institute of Information Technology, BrahmapurIn June 2007, the UPA government in New Delhi decided to establish a central government funded IIITs in each state. The IIIT in Odisha would be established in Brahmapur, and unlike its sister institute in Bhubaneswar, would receive funding from the center.The IIIT at Berhampur is being established on a 100-acre (0.40 sq km) land and this is likely to be functional by end of 2009. This will help attracting more IT companies to South Odisha and the presence of STPI Brahmapur and IT Park at Brahmapur will also help. The Marine Bio-Technology Park is also planned for Brahmapur.Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology, SambalpurThanks to Prof. Arun Pujari, Sambalpur university will get an Indian Institutes of Information Technology like IT institution.Bhubaneswar as an emerging education hubNational institutes of excellence have been established recently in Bhubaneswar, while several more are planned, such as AIIMS, NISER, IIT, IIIT, and a National university. There are several prominent private universities, such as XIMB and ICFAI University. Other major upcoming prominent institutions, such as Sri Sri University, the National Law University of Orissa, as well as the world's biggest academic institution, Vedanta University, will be located in the neighboring cities of Cuttack and Puri.Institutions dedicated to research such as the Institute of Physics, and the Institute of Mathematics and Applications are also located here. The presence of so many quality institutions within close proximity of one another, is expected to stimulate academic excellence in and around Bhubaneswar, and serve as a catalyst for future growth. Additionally, the city also houses several Odisha government funded public universities, and over 70 technical institutions, which well above than any other city in eastern India. The city is also being promoted as an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) by the government.A total of 40 sq km of land has been allocated for the purpose, out of which about 60% will be devoted to research and development. The Chief Minister of the state has asserted that Bhubaneswar is poised to emerge as India's foremost education hub.Odisha Higher Education Vision 2020The Orissa Higher Education Vision 2020, an effort organized by leading national and international researchers, scientists, and academicians of Oriya origin, envisages a globally competitive higher education system in Orissa by 2020, with four tiered knowledge centers being developed throughout the state. An international level knowledge hub comparable to the San Francisco Bay Area or Boston metropolitan area in the USA is suggested in the rapidly expanding Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Khurda-Puri metropolitan region. This will consist of several world class universities, technical and medical institutions, and laboratories, including NISER, IIT, IIIT, National University, National Law University, AIIMS, Vedanta University, Sri Sri University, NIPER, and several other new institutions to be established by the central government or through public-private partnership, as well as private institutions. At the second tier would be five other metropolitan regions, Rourkela, Sambalpur-Jharsuguda (IIHT Bargarh, OUAT branch at Chiplima, XIMB campus at Sambalpur, CIFT Burla, plan to upgrade VSS medical college and GM college to university status),Berhampur, Balasore-Baripada, and Jeypore-Koraput-Sunabeda, each with two universities, multiple engineering and medical colleges, as well as one or more national level institutions. The third tier knowledge hubs, located in all urban areas throughout the state, would have a university, an autonomous college, as well as a medical and an engineering college. Lastly, the fourth tier would include smaller towns, which would have at least an autonomous college and a trade school.Under construction and planned medical and engineering collegesMedical college Bhawanipatna, Medical college Keonjhar by ahayog Healthcare and Research Foundation, Medical college Jagatpur, Cuttack by ahayog Healthcare and Research Foundation, Medical college Talcher by MCL, Hitech medical college Rourkela, Medical college Rourkela by SAILupgrading the IGH, Govt Medical college Bolangir and Balesore, Central university Koraput will establish a medical college at Koraput, ESIC medical college Bhubaneswar, AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Medical college at Angul, University in western Orissa with the partnership between govt and industries, Upgradation Jharsuguda engineering school to engineering college, A medical college between jharsuguda and Sundargarh by the mines operating there, A power management institute to be established at Jharsuguda and 2 branch of XIMB bhubaneswar at Sambalpur and Bolangir.State legislation pertaining to higher educationThe Odisha state legislative assembly (Vidhan Sabha) will be formulating a Private Universities Act to facilitate the growth of private universities such as Vedanta university, Sri Sri university. The higher education department of the state will draft the bill, which will be referred to the law department, before being placed in the assembly. This bill would guarantee the fiscal and administrative autonomy for private institutions.Vedanta University actThe Odisha legislature was going to consider a specific act to make Vedanta university a statutory body. After the passage of the act, the university would have established its own, independent governing board, where the Odisha government would not exercise any control. Later news reports suggested that the plan for the Vedanta University was a "closed chapter".Economy of OdishaThe Economy of Odisha is the fastest growing state economy in India . According to 2014-15 economic survey, Odisha's gross state domestic product (GSDP) was expected to grow at 8.78%.Odisha has an agriculture-based economy which is in transition towards an industry and service-based economy. According to recent estimates, the size of Odisha's economy has increased by 22.27 per cent during the last six years in terms of the gross state domestic product (GSDP). Thereby, Odisha achieved an annual average growth rate of 6.23 per cent during that period.Odisha is also the top FDI destination in India. In the fiscal year 2011-12, Odisha received investment proposals worth ₹49,527 crore (US$9.296 billion). According to the Reserve Bank of India, It received ₹53,000 crore (US$8.33 billion) worth of new FDI commitments in the 2012-13 fiscal year.Bhubaneswar, the capital city of OdishaIn 2013-14, the GSDP growth rate dropped to 2.21%. This slown down was attributed to the Phailin cyclone, which caused a negative growth of 9.78% in the agricultural sector and also affected several other sectors.According to the 2011 Census of India, Odisha has a working population of 17,541,589, among them 61% are main workers and rest are marginal workers. 33.9% of the total working female population are main workers. As of June 2014, Odisha has 10,95,151 people registered in various employment exchanges of the state. Of them, 10,42,826 reported themselves educated.Odisha had a rural unemployment rate of 8.7% and an urban unemployment rate 5.8% calculated based on the current daily status basis in the 68th National Sample Survey (2011-2012). The per capita income of the state was ₹98,983 (US$1,531) in 2013-14.The state has a public debt of ₹38,666 crore (US$6.34 billion), which is ₹8,909 per capita (US$146), at the end of 2013-14. According to ASSOCHAM, in the fiscal year 2011-12, Odisha received investment proposals worth ₹49,527 crore (US$9.296 billion).According to the Reserve Bank of India, Odisha received new FDI proposals worth Rs 53,000 crore (8.333 billion USD) in the 2012-13 fiscal year. In 2012-13, ₹125 crore (US$19.66 million) worth of foreign aidwas received by NGOs in the state.Agriculture and fishingAccording to the 2011 Census of India, 61.8% of the working population are engaged in agricultural activities. The agricultural contribution to the GSDP was 16.3% in the fiscal year 2013-14 and it was estimated to be 15.4% in 2014-15. The area under cultivation was 5,691 hectares in 2005-06 and it dropped to 5,424 hectares in 2013-14. Rice is the dominant crop in Odisha. It is grown on 77% of the area under cultivation. Odisha produced 8,360 metric tonnes of rice in 2013-14, a drop from 10,210 metric tonnes due the cyclone Phailin.During 2013-14, the state exported 4.13 lakhtonnes and ₹1,800 crore worth of seafood. In 2014-15, the value of exports rose by 26% to ₹2,300 crore with 4.67 tonnes being exported. Odisha is the fourth largest shrimp producing state in India.On 22 November 2017, Odisha government decided to launch "Nabakrushna Choudhury Seccha Unnayan Yojana" to provide irrigation facility to about 55,000 hectare of agricultural land across Odisha. The scheme would be implemented with an outlay of Rs 635 crore over a period of three years. Under the scheme, 46,296 hectare command area of 14 major and medium irrigations and 284 minor irrigation projects will be revived.IndustryThe primary industries in Odisha are manufacturing; mining and quarrying; electricity, gas and water supply and construction. The industrial sector's contribution to the state's GSDP was estimated at 33.45% in 2014-15. Most of Odisha's industries are mineral-based. Odisha has 25% of India's iron reserves. It has 10% of India's production capacity in steel. Odisha is the top aluminium producing state in India. Two of the largest aluminium plants in India are in Odisha, NALCO and Vedanta Resources. Mining contributed an estimated 6.31% to the GSDP.PowerOdisha has 9036.36 MW installed capacity of electricity production, out of which 6753.04 MW is coal-generated. 2166.93 MW is generated by hydro power and 116.39 MW by other renewable sources.Odisha was the first state in India to reform its power sector. In 1996, it passed the Orissa Electricity Reform Act to restructure and privatize the sector. Before the Act, the single public-sector company Orissa State Electricity Board (OSEB) had been producing and supplying electricity in the state since its establishment in 1961. But by 1994-95, OSEB had run into heavy losses and there was a gap of 45% between consumption and production. The reforms unbundled power generation from transmission and distribution. Following the reforms, hydro power plants were handed over to Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) and the existing thermal power plants were transferred to Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC). Grid Corporation of Odisha (Gridco) was given the task of power supply. Initially, these were operated as state-owned farms, but later were corporatised.In August 2014, the government announced a plan to invest ₹54,000 crore in the power sector over the next 5 years, to provide 24-hours electricity to both the urban and rural regions. Odisha expects to reach a power surplus during its peak consumption months by 2015-16.ServiceThe service sector contributed an estimated 51% to the GSDP in 2014-15. The primary sub-sectors are: community, social and personal services, which contributed 13.45% to the GSDP; trade, hotels and restaurants, which contributed 13.09%; financial and insurance services, which contributed 13.64%; and transport, storage and communication, which contributed 10.99%.The state has a well-developed banking network compared to many states of India. There is one bank branch for every 12,000 people. 90% of the branches are in the rural region.Make in Odisha - CONCLAVEOdisha is recognized as the top state in the country in terms of live investments attracted by the manufacturing sector, as per a recent study by ASSOCHAM. The state has undertaken several initiatives over the past few months in terms of implementation of ease of doing business reforms, creating an enabling policy framework and development of state-of-the-art industrial infrastructure facilities to make it easy for companies to set up and do business in the state.At the back of these initiatives and developments, Odisha has been identified amongst one of the three states in India for organization of Make in India shows this year to attract investments. Government of Odisha, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Government of India and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) are organizing 'Make in Odisha Conclave' at Bhubaneswar during November 30 - December 02, 2016. The key objective of the conclave is to showcase the manufacturing prowess of the state and the investment opportunities across the focus sectors.FOCUS SECTORS:Chemicals, Petrochemicals and PlasticsAncillary and Downstream in Metal sectorTextiles and ApparelFood Processing including SeafoodElectronics Manufacturing and ITTourismATTRACTIONS:NetworkingOne-to-one meetings with policy makersB2B meetings among industries and entrepreneursOne-to-one meetings with senior government functionariesExhibitionLive product and technology demonstrations by Indian and international companiesSuccess stories of investors in OdishaBenefits to ParticipantsKnow the business ecosystem in the StateLearn about ready-to-invest projectsNetworking with government officials and industriesReferences:Education in Odisha - WikipediaEconomy of Odisha - WikipediaIndustrial development contributing faster growth of Odisha: NaveenMake in Odisha ConclaveIndustrial Development & Economic Growth in Odisha

Version:1.0 StartHTML:000000261 EndHTML:000235168 StartFragment:000067324 EndFragment:000235112 StartSelection:000067324 EndSelection:000235102 SourceURL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections2015[edit]June 16: Donald Trump announces his candidacy for president.[56]June 17: In an interview on the Fox News show Hannity, Sean Hannity asks Trump if he has talked to Putin. Trump replies, "I don't want to say. But I got to meet all of the leaders. I got to meet all — I mean, everybody was there. It was a massive event. And let me tell you, it was tremendous."[57]July onward: Thousands of fake Twitter accounts run by the Kremlin's Internet Research Agency begin to praise Trump over his political opponents by a wide margin, according to a later analysis by The Wall Street Journal.[58][59]July: George Papadopoulos contacts Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski about joining the campaign as a policy advisor.[60]July 11: Maria Butina attends FreedomFest in Las Vegas, where Trump is speaking and taking questions. She asks Trump his stance on continuing sanctions; he replies he knows Putin and doesn't think sanctions are needed.[61] Reviewing a video of the encounter, Steve Bannon points out that "Trump had a fully developed answer".[62]July 13: Maria Butina is present at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's presidential candidacy announcement.[61]July 24: Rob Goldstone emails Trump's assistant Rhona Graff, suggesting that Emin Agalarov could arrange a meeting between Putin and Trump.[63]Summer: Hackers linked to the Russian FSB gain access to the Democratic National Committee's computer network.[64] Dutch intelligence services alert their U.S. counterparts that a hacking group known as Cozy Bear has penetrated the DNC servers.[65]August: Papadopoulos emails Michael Glassner, the executive director of Trump's campaign committee, expressing further interest in joining the campaign as a policy advisor. He continues corresponding with Glassner and Lewandowski for months, but is repeatedly told no position is available for him.[60]August 8: Roger Stone leaves the Trump campaign. The campaign says it fired Stone, but Stone insists he quit. He subsequently gives the press a resignation letter that the campaign says it never received.[66]August 21: Sessions makes his first appearance at a Trump campaign rally.[67]September: An FBI special agent reports to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that at least one of its computer systems has been hacked by an espionage team linked to the Russian government. The agent is transferred to a tech-support contractor at the help desk, who makes a cursory check of DNC server logs and does not reply to the agent's follow-up calls, allegedly because of a belief that the call might have been a prank.[68]Jill Stein speaks briefly with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a Russia Today gala in New York City.[69]September–October: The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website primarily funded by billionaire Paul Singer, hires Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump. Initially a Marco Rubio supporter, Singer continues to fund the research after Rubio withdraws from the race.[70][71]September 4–5: At the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit, Obama confronts Putin about Russian cyber attacks, telling him to stop. Putin explains Russia's stance on the issue.[72]September 11: Trump speaks at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kiev via satellite. The organizer of the event, Victor Pinchuk, donates $150,000 to Trump's charity, the Trump Foundation.[73][74]September 21: On Hugh Hewitt's radio program, Trump says, "The oligarchs are under [Putin's] control, to a large extent. I mean, he can destroy them, and he has destroyed some of them... Two years ago, I was in Moscow... I was with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals, and top-of-the-government people. I can't go further than that, but I will tell you that I met the top people, and the relationship was extraordinary."[75]October: For his remarks during a cybersecurity forum in Washington, D.C., Flynn receives $11,250 from Kaspersky Government Security Solutions Inc., the American subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab, owned by Eugene Kaspersky.[76][77]October 28: Trump signs a letter of intent to construct a Trump-branded building in Moscow, a fact made public in August 2017.[78][79]November: Trump associate Felix Sater emails Trump lawyer Michael Cohen: "Michael, I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putin's private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin [...] Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this".[80][29] Sater also tells Cohen that the Kremlin's VTB Bank is ready to finance a Trump Tower project in Moscow.[22]November 19: The Russian Internet Research Agency creates the @TEN_GOP Twitter account. Purporting to be the “Unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans,” it peaks at over 100,000 followers.[81]December: Unable to find a position in the Trump campaign, Papadopoulos joins the Ben Carson campaign.[60]December 8–13: Outspoken Trump supporter Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, former NRA President David Keene, future NRA President Pete Brownell, NRA Golden Ring of Freedom Chair Joe Gregory, major NRA donor Arnold Goldschlager, and Paul Erickson travel to Moscow for the Right to Bear Arms convention. They meet Russian government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and a gun manufacturer. Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions. Clarke later files an ethics report showing that Maria Butina's organization, Right to Bear Arms, covered $6,000 of his expenses.[61][82][83]December 10: Flynn gives a paid speech on world affairs in Moscow, at a gala dinner organized by RT News.[84] Flynn had appeared on RT as an analyst after retiring from the U.S. Army. Putin is the dinner's guest of honor.[85] Flynn is seated next to Putin; also seated at the head table are Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and members of Putin's inner circle, including Sergei Ivanov, Dmitry Peskov, Victor Vekselberg, and Alexey Gromov.[86][87] For his speech, Flynn nets $33,500 of the $45,000 paid to his speakers’ bureau.[88] For all of 2015, Flynn receives more than $65,000 from companies linked to Russia.[89]December 21: John Podesta receives an email, which is later leaked by Wikileaks, advising the Hillary Campaign on how to approach the issue of Trump, recommending that the "best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin".[90]January–March 2016[edit]January: Cohen attempts to contact Putin's personal spokesman Dmitry Peskov to request assistance with construction of a Trump-branded building in Moscow. Cohen asks in an email what it will take to move the project forward because "the communication between our two sides has stalled".[91][92]Flynn applies to renew his security clearance for five years. In an interview with security investigators, he claims U.S. companies paid for his trip to the RT dinner in Moscow. Documents subsequently obtained by the House Oversight Committee show that RT paid for the trip.[93]January 19: Konstantin Sidorkov, executive at Vkontakte (VK, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook), emails Donald Trump Jr. and social media director Dan Scavino offering to help promote Trump’s campaign to its nearly 100 million users. Goldstone brokered the overture. Sidorkov emails again on November 5, 2016.[94]February: Paul Erickson and Maria Butina form Bridges LLC. Erickson later tells McClatchy the South Dakota-based company was created to provide financial assistance for Butina's graduate school tuition.[61] As of January 2018, McClatchy was unable to find any of the company's financial transactions.[95]February 28: Trump is formally endorsed by Jeff Sessions.[67]February 29: Paul Manafort submits a five-page proposal to Trump outlining his qualifications to help Trump secure enough convention delegates and win the Republican presidential nomination. Manafort describes how he assisted several business and political leaders, notably in Russia and Ukraine.[96]March: Carter Page begins working for the Trump campaign as an unpaid foreign policy adviser.[97][98][99]Early March: Papadopoulos contacts Michael Glassner saying he is free again to join Trump's campaign. Glassner connects Papadopoulos with campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis. Clovis tells Papadopoulos that improving Russia relations is a top foreign policy goal for the campaign.[60]March 3: Jeff Sessions is appointed to the Trump campaign's national security advisory committee.[67]March 6: Papadopoulos learns he will be a foreign policy advisor for the Trump Campaign.[100][101][102] The campaign hires Papadopoulos on Ben Carson's recommendation.[103]March 14: George Papadopoulos first meets Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud while traveling in Italy.[100][104]March 16: The FBI releases its Report of Investigation on Flynn's security clearance renewal application.[93]March 19: Clinton presidential campaign chairman John Podesta is asked to change his email password in an apparent phishing attempt, believed to be spearheaded by Russian hackers. They gain access to his account.[64]March 21: In a Washington Post interview,[105][106] Trump says Carter Page and George Papadopoulos are among his foreign policy advisers. Page had helped open the Moscow office of investment banking firm Merrill Lynch and advised Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, in which Page is an investor. He had blamed 2014 US sanctions relating to Russia’s annexation of Crimea for driving down Gazprom’s stock price.[107] Earlier in March 2016, Iowa tea party activist Sam Clovis had recommended Page to the Trump campaign.[108]March 24: In London, Papadopoulos meets Mifsud and Olga Polonskaya, who falsely claims to be Putin's niece.[109] Polonskaya is in regular email contact with Papadopolous, in one message writing, "We are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump".[104]March 29: On Roger Stone's recommendation,[110] Manafort joins the Trump campaign as convention manager, tasked with lining up delegates.[111]March 30: Alexandra Chalupa, who worked in the White House Office of Public Liaison during the Clinton administration, briefs the DNC's communications staff on Manafort's and Trump's ties to Russia.[112]March 31: At the first meeting of Trump's foreign policy team, which includes Trump and Sessions, Papadopoulos speaks of his connections with Russia, and offers to negotiate a meeting between Trump and Putin. Sessions later states he opposed the idea.[104][113][114][115] The meeting is held at the yet-to-open Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C..[60]Spring: U.S. intelligence officials’ suspicions of Russian meddling in the presidential election grow after their counterparts in Europe warn that Russian money might be flowing into the election.[49]Roger Stone tells associates he is in contact with Julian Assange.[116]April–June 2016[edit]April: Between April and November 2016, there are at least 18 further exchanges by telephone and email between Russian officials and the Trump team.[117][118]Hackers linked to the GRU gain access to the DNC computer network.[64]Russian social media company SocialPuncher releases an analysis showing that Trump has quoted or retweeted Twitter bots 150 times since the beginning of 2016.[119][120]Rohrabacher meets with Natalia Veselnitskaya in Moscow to discuss the Magnitsky Act. Vladimir Yakunin, under U.S. sanctions, is also present.[121] Rohrabacher later says he met Yakunin at the request of Kislyak.[122] He also meets with officials at the Russian Prosecutor General's office, where he receives a document full of accusations against Sergei Magnitsky. U.S. Embassy officials are worried Rohrabacher may be meeting with FSB agents. The meeting at the prosecutor's office is not on his itinerary.[121] The document is given to Rohrabacher by Deputy Prosecutor Viktor Grin, who is under U.S. sanctions authorized by the Magnitsky Act. Rohrabacher subsequently uses the document in efforts to undermine the Magnitsky Act.[122] His accepting the document from Grin, a sanctioned individual, and using it to influence U.S. government policy leads to a July 21, 2017, complaint being filed against Rohrabacher and his staff director, Paul Brends, for violating Magnitsky Act sanctions.[123]The Russian Internet Research Agency starts buying online ads on social media and other sites. The ads support Trump and attack Clinton.[39][40]Marc Elias, a lawyer at Perkins Coie and general counsel for the Clinton campaign, takes over funding of the Fusion GPS Trump investigation. He uses discretionary funds at his disposal and does not inform the campaign about the research.[124][125][71]April 4: A rally is held in Buffalo, New York, protesting the death of India Cummings. Cummings was a black woman who had recently died in police custody. The Russian Internet Research Agency's "Blacktivist" account on Facebook actively promotes the event, reaching out directly to local activists on Facebook Messenger asking them to circulate petitions and print posters for the event. Blacktivist supplies the petitions and poster artwork.[126]April 11: Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, his old lieutenant, exchange emails about whether recent press coverage of Manafort joining the Trump campaign can be used to make them "whole" with Russian oligarch Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska. Manafort is in debt to Deripaska for millions of dollars at the time.[127]April 16: A rally protesting the death of Freddie Gray attracts large crowds in Baltimore. The Russian Internet Research Agency's Blacktivist Facebook group promotes and organizes the event, including reaching out to local activists.[128]April 18: Mifsud introduces Papadopoulos to Ivan Timofeev, program director of the Kremlin-sponsored Valdai Discussion Club. Papadopoulos and Timofeev communicate for months about potential meetings between Russian government officials and members of the Trump campaign. Later records indicate that Timofeev discussed Papadopoulos with former Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov.[109][104][102]April 20: Manafort becomes Trump’s campaign manager. Reports surface about his 2007 to 2012 ties to former President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych, whom Manafort helped elect.[129]April 23: A small group of white-power demonstrators hold a rally they call "Rock Stone Mountain" at Stone Mountain Park near Stone Mountain, Georgia. They are confronted by a large group of protesters, and some violent clashes ensue. The counterprotest was heavily promoted by the Russian Internet Research Agency's accounts on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, and the IRA website http://blackmatters.com. The IRA uses its Blacktivist account on Facebook to reach out, to no avail, to activist and academic Barbara Williams Emerson, the daughter of Hosea Williams, to help promote the protests. Afterward, RT blames anti-racist protesters for violence and promotes two videos shot at the event.[126]April 26: Papadopoulos meets Mifsud in London again. Mifsud claims that he has learned that Russians are in possession of thousands of stolen emails that may be politically damaging to Clinton.[130][104][109]Before the second Mifsud meeting, Papadopoulos emails Stephen Miller, informing him that Putin has extended an "open invitation" to Trump. After the meeting, Papadopoulos tells Miller that he has "some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right."[109]April 27: Trump, Sessions and Jared Kushner greet Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. This contact is repeatedly omitted from testimony or denied.[106][131][132] Afterward, Kislyak reports the conversation with Sessions to Moscow.[133] Kushner is the first to publicly admit the Kislyak meeting took place in his prepared statement for Senate investigators on July 24, 2017.[134]Trump delivers a speech edited by Papadopoulos that calls for improved relations between the US and Russia. Papadopoulos brings the speech to the attention of Mifsud and Polonskaya, and tells Timofeev that it should be considered "the signal to meet".[104]Papadopoulos tells Lewandowski via email that Putin wants to meet Trump.[102]Late April: The DNC's IT department notices suspicious computer activity. Within 24 hours, the DNC contacts the FBI, and hires a private cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, to investigate.[135]May: CrowdStrike determines that sophisticated adversaries—denominated Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear—are responsible for the DNC hack. Fancy Bear, in particular, is suspected of affiliation with Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).[136]In London, during a night of heavy drinking, Papadopoulos tells the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alexander Downer, that the Russians have politically damaging material on Hillary Clinton. Two months later, Australian officials pass this information to American officials.[104]Paul Erickson, a member of the NRA, contacts Trump campaign advisor Rick Dearborn. In an email headed "Kremlin Connection", Erickson seeks the advice of Dearborn and Sessions about how to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Erickson suggests making contact at the N.R.A.’s annual convention in Kentucky. The communication refers to Alexander Torshin, who is under instructions to contact the Trump campaign.[137][138]Papadopoulos travels to Greece and meets with Greece's president, defense minister, foreign minister, and a former prime minister. Putin makes an official visit to Athens during Papadopoulos's trip.[139]May 2: A second rally is held in Buffalo, New York, protesting the death of India Cummings. Like the rally on April 4, the event is heavily promoted by the Russian Internet Research Agency's Blacktivist account on Facebook, including attempted outreach to local activists.[126]May 4: Papadopoulos forwards an email from his MFA connection to Lewandowski that offers a meeting between the MFA and Papadopoulos in Moscow. The next day, campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis replies, “[t]here are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen.”[102]Trump becomes the only remaining candidate for the Republican presidential nomination when John Kasich withdraws.[140]May 19–22: The N.R.A. annual conference is held in Louisville, Kentucky. Trump and Donald Trump Jr. attend. Trump Jr. speaks with Torshin.[141][142][143]May 21: Papadopoulos forwards a note from Timofeev to Paul Manafort stressing the Russian Foreign Ministry's desire to meet with Trump. Manafort shoots down the idea in an email to Rick Gates.[60][102]Two competing rallies are held in Houston to alternately protest against and defend the recently opened Library of Islamic Knowledge at the Islamic Da'wah Center. The "Stop Islamization of Texas" rally is organized by the Facebook group "Heart of Texas". The Facebook posting for the event encourages participants to bring guns. A spokesman for the group converses with the Houston Press via email but declines to give a name. The other rally, "Save Islamic Knowledge", is organized by the Facebook group "United Muslims of America" for the same time and location. Both Facebook groups are later revealed to be Russian Internet Research Agency accounts.[144][145]May 25: The Westboro Baptist Church holds its annual protest of Lawrence High School graduation ceremonies in Lawrence, Kansas. The "LGBT United" Facebook group organizes counterprotesters to confront the Westboro protest, including by placing an ad on Facebook and contacting local people. About a dozen people show up. Lawrence High School students do not participate because they are "skeptical" of the counterprotest organizers. LGBT United is a Russian Internet Research Agency account that appears to have been created specifically for this event.[146]May 26: The Associated Press reports that Trump has secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Republican nominee.[64]May 27–28: Putin makes an official visit to Greece and meets with Greek government leaders. His visit overlaps with a trip to Greece by Papadopoulos.[139][147]May 29: The Russian Internet Research Agency hires an American to pose in front of the White House holding a sign that says, “Happy 55th Birthday, Dear Boss.” "Boss" is a reference to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.[39][40]June: The FBI sends a warning to states about "bad actors" probing state voter-registration databases and systems to seek vulnerabilities; investigators believe Russia is responsible.[148]At Maria Butina's urging, Christian activist Rick Clay emails Dearborn with the subject "Kremlin connection" offering a meeting between Trump and Alexander Torshin.[95] Dearborn, then Sessions's Chief of Staff, sends an email mentioning a person from West Virginia seeking to connect Trump campaign members with Putin. Dearborn appears "skeptical" of the meeting request.[149] Jared Kushner rejects the request. Alexander Torshin and Donald Trump Jr. later meet at the N.R.A. convention.[95]Fusion GPS hires Christopher Steele to research Trump's activities in Russia. A resultant 35-page document, later known as the Trump–Russia dossier or Steele dossier, is published on January 10, 2017, by BuzzFeed News.[150]Early June: At a closed-door gathering of foreign policy experts visiting with the Prime Minister of India, Page hails Putin as stronger and more reliable than Obama and touts the positive effect a Trump presidency would have on U.S.-Russia relations.[151]June 1: Based upon a referral from Lewandowski, Papadopoulos emails Sam Clovis about more interest from the Russian government to set up a Trump meeting in Russia. He writes, "I have the Russian MFA asking me if Mr. Trump is interested in visiting Russia at some point."[152][153]The Russian Internet Research Agency plans a Manhattan rally called "March for Trump" and buys Facebook ads promoting the event.[39][40]June 3: Trump Jr. receives an e-mail from Goldstone offering, on behalf of Emin Agalarov, to meet an alleged Russian government official who “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father”, as "part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. responds, "I love it," and schedules the meeting. Goldstone also offers to relay the information to Trump through his assistant.[154]June 4: The Russian Internet Research Agency email account [email protected] sends news releases about the "March for Trump" rally to Space media outlets.[39][40]June 5: The Russian Internet Research Agency contacts a Trump campaign volunteer to provide signs for the "March for Trump" rally.[39][40]June 9: Kushner, Manafort and Trump Jr. meet in Trump Tower with Goldstone, Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya,[155] Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin,[156] Ike Kaveladze of Aras Agalarov's Crocus Group,[157] and a translator.[158] Veselnitskaya is best known for lobbying against the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers.[159] Trump Jr. later acknowledges that he asked Veselnitskaya for damaging information about the Clinton Foundation and says she had none.[160]June 11–12: The DNC expels Russian hackers from its servers. Some of the hackers had been accessing the DNC network for over a year.[161]June 12: Julian Assange appears on the ITV television show Peston on Sunday. He tells Robert Peston that emails related to Clinton are "pending publication" and says, "WikiLeaks has a very good year ahead."[162][163]June 14: The DNC publicly alleges that they have been hacked by Russian state-backed hackers.[162][161]June 15: Guccifer 2.0 claims credit for the DNC hacking and posts some of the stolen material to a website. CrowdStrike stands by their "findings identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016."[164]House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Speaker Paul Ryan meet separately with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman at the Capitol. Groysman describes to them how the Kremlin is financing populist politicians in Eastern Europe to damage democratic institutions. McCarthy and Ryan have a private meeting afterwards with GOP leaders that is secretly recorded. Toward the end of their conversation, after laughing at the DNC hacking, McCarthy says, "there's two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump...[laughter]...swear to God." Ryan then tells everyone to keep this conversation secret. A transcript of the recording becomes public a year later.[165][166]June 19: After communicating with the MFA via email and Skype, Papadopoulos emails Lewandowski saying that the MFA is interested in meeting with a "campaign rep" if Trump can't meet with them. Papadopoulos offers to go in an unofficial capacity.[152][153]June 20: Trump fires his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.[167]June 23: The Internet Research Agency persona "Matt Skiber" contacts an American to recruit for the "March for Trump" rally.[39][40]June 24: The Internet Research Agency Facebook group "United Muslims of America" buys Facebook ads for the "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally.[39][40]June 25: The Internet Research Agency's "March for Trump" rally occurs.[39][40]The Internet Research Agency Facebook group LGBT United organizes a candlelight vigil for the Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Orlando, Florida.[168][169]June 29: Goldstone emails Trump campaign social media director Dan Scavino about promoting Trump on the Russian social media site VK. He says the email is a follow-up to his recent conversation with Trump Jr. and Manafort.[94]Summer: Papadopoulos is approached via LinkedIn by American-Belarussian Sergei Millian of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. Papadopoulos and Millian meet repeatedly in Manhattan to discuss starting an energy business together, to be financed by Russian billionaires "who are not under sanctions". They also discuss the possibility of a Trump Tower in Moscow.[104]Internet Research Agency employees use the stolen identities of four Americans to open PayPal and bank accounts to act as conduits for funding their activities in the United States.[39][40]July 2016[edit]July: The Internet Research Agency translator project grows to over 80 employees.[39][40]Carter Page makes a five-day trip to Moscow.[170] The Trump–Russia dossier alleges that in July, Carter Page secretly met Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin in Moscow, together with a "senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, DIVYEKIN", that Sechin offered Trump a 19% stake in Rosneft (worth about $11 billion) in exchange for lifting the sanctions against Russia after his election,[171][172] and that Page confirmed, on Trump's "full authority", that he intended to lift the sanctions.[173][174][175]July 5: At Steele's London office, Steele reveals to an FBI agent from Rome some of his findings that indicate a wide-ranging Russian conspiracy to elect Trump.[104][176]"United Muslims of America", an Internet Research Agency group, orders posters with fake Clinton quotes promoting Sharia Law. The posters are ordered for the "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally they are organizing.[39][40]July 6: Guccifer 2.0 releases another cache of DNC documents and sends copies to The Hill.[177][178]July 6–10: The Internet Research Agency's "Don't Shoot" Facebook group and affiliated "Don't Shoot Us" website try to organize a protest outside the St. Paul, Minnesota police headquarters on July 10 in response to the July 6 fatal police shooting of Philando Castile. Some local activists become suspicious of the event because St. Paul police were not involved in the shooting: Castile was shot by a St. Anthony police officer in nearby Falcon Heights. Local activists contact Don't Shoot. After being pressed on who they are and who supports them, Don't Shoot agrees to move the protest to the St. Anthony police headquarters. The concerned local activists investigate further and urge protesters not to participate after deciding Don't Shoot is a "total troll job." Don't Shoot organizers eventually relinquish control of the event to local organizers, who subsequently decline to accept any money from Don't Shoot.[179][180]July 7: In a lecture at the New Economic School in Moscow,[181] Page criticizes American foreign policy, saying that many of the mistakes spoiling relations between the US and Russia “originated in my own country.”[182] Page had received permission from the Trump campaign to make the trip.[183] Page also meets Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich during the visit.[184]Paul Manafort exchanges emails with his former deputy Konstantin Kilimnik using his official Trump campaign email address. In the emails, he asks Kilimnik to forward an offer to provide "private briefings" to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.[185][186]July 8: Page emails Trump campaign officials about his presentation at the New Economic School in Moscow. He describes meeting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. He says Dvorkovich "expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems."[187]July 9: The Washington Post reports that Trump is considering Flynn as his running mate, with support from Senator Jeff Sessions.[188] Trump eventually selects Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana.The “Support Hillary, Save American Muslims” rally occurs in Washington, D.C. The rally is organized by the Internet Research Agency group “United Muslims of America."[39][40]July 10: A Black Lives Matter protest rally is held in Dallas. A "Blue Lives Matter" counterprotest is held across the street. The Blue Lives Matter protest is organized by the "Heart of Texas" Facebook group, controlled by the Internet Research Agency.[189][168][145]July 12: An Internet Research Agency group buys ads on Facebook for the "Down with Hillary" rally in New York City.[39][40]July 13: A hacker or group calling themselves Guccifer 2.0 releases over 10,000 names from the DNC in two spreadsheets and a list of objectionable quotes from Sarah Palin.[178]July 16: The Internet Research Agency's Blacktivist Facebook group organizes a rally in Chicago to honor Sandra Bland on the first anniversary of her death. The rally is held in front of the Chicago Police Department's Homan Square building. Participants pass around petitions calling for a Civilian Police Accountability Council ordinance.[190][191]July 18: Guccifer 2.0 dumps a new batch of documents from the DNC servers, including personal information of 20,000 Republican donors and opposition research on Trump.[192] Further information: 2016 Democratic National Committee email leakJuly 18–21: Republican Convention in Cleveland[193] July 18: Kislyak attends the convention, meeting Page and J. D. Gordon;[1] as Trump's foreign policy advisers, they stress that he would like to improve relations with Russia.[194] Sessions speaks with Kislyak at a Heritage Foundation event.[1][67]Gordon lobbies to remove arms sales to Ukraine from the Republican platform, citing concerns over conflict escalation in Donbass.[195][196] In December 2017, Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported the weapons sale, says that Trump directed Gordon to weaken that position.[197]July 21: Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination.[198]July 22: WikiLeaks publishes 20,000 emails from seven key DNC officials. The emails show them disparaging Bernie Sanders and favoring Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primaries.[199]July 23: The Internet Research Agency-organized "Down with Hillary" rally is held in New York City. The Agency sends 30 news releases to media outlets using the email address [email protected].[39][40]July 24: DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is forced to resign because of the WikiLeaks email publication.[200]Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Manafort denies there are any links between him, Trump, or the "campaign and Putin and his regime".[201]July 25–28: Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.[202]July 25: Based on assessments from cybersecurity firms, the DNC and the Clinton campaign say that Russian intelligence operators have hacked their e-mails and forwarded them to WikiLeaks.[203]July 27: Trump calls for Russia to give Clinton's missing emails to the FBI. His tweet is before his statements on the matter to the press.[204]Trump tells a CBS affiliate in Miami, “I have nothing to do with Russia. Nothing to do. I never met Putin. I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever.” This contradicts his many claims since 2013 to have met Putin and done business in Russia.[20]At a news conference, Trump says he "hopes" Russia can find Clinton's missing emails. The remark triggers a backlash from media and politicians who criticize Trump's "urging a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage" against his political opponent.[205][206] Trump responds that he was being "sarcastic".[207]July 28: Clinton formally accepts the Democratic nomination.[208]July 31: The FBI starts a counter-intelligence investigation into Russian interference, including possible coordination between Trump associates and Russia.[209][210]In an interview on This Week, Trump told George Stephanopoulos that people in his campaign were responsible for changing the GOP's platform stance on Ukraine, but that he was not personally involved.[211]End July: CIA Director John Brennan, alarmed at intelligence that Russia is trying to "hack" the election, forms a working group of officials from the CIA, FBI, and NSA.[212]August 2016[edit]August: Trump donor Rebekah Mercer asks the CEO of Cambridge Analytica whether the company could better organize the Clinton-related emails being released by WikiLeaks.[213]August 2–3: The Internet Research Agency's "Matt Skiber" persona contacts the real "Florida for Trump" Facebook account. The "T.W." persona contacts other grassroots groups.[39][40]August 4: Brennan calls his Russian counterpart Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), to warn him against meddling in the presidential election.[212]The Internet Research Agency Facebook account "Stop AI" accuses Clinton of voter fraud during the Iowa Caucuses. They buy ads promoting the post.[39][40]Internet Research Agency groups buy ads for the "Florida Goes Trump" rallies. The 8,300 people who click on the ads are sent to the Agency's "Being Patriotic" Facebook page.[39][40]August 5: Roger Stone writes an article published by Breitbart News in which he insists Guccifer 2.0 hacked the DNC, using statements by Guccifer 2.0 on Twitter and to The Hill as evidence for his claim. He tries to spin the DNC's Russia claim as a coverup for their supposed embarrassment over being penetrated by a single hacker.[214][215] The article leads to Guccifer 2.0 reaching out to and conversing with Stone via Twitter.[216]In response to questions about Carter Page's July 7 speech in Moscow, Hope Hicks describes Page as an “informal foreign policy adviser [who] does not speak for Mr. Trump or the campaign.”[151]The Internet Research Agency Twitter account @March_For_Trump hires an actress to play Hillary Clinton in prison garb and someone to build a cage to hold the actress. The actress and cage are to appear at the "Florida Goes Trump" rally in West Palm Beach, Florida on August 20.[39][40]August 6: By videolink, Julian Assange addresses the Green Party National Convention in Houston about the hacked DNC documents published by WikiLeaks.[217] Green candidate Jill Stein later states she does not know why or how this address was arranged.[69]August 8: Roger Stone, speaking in Florida to the Southwest Broward Republican Organization, claims he is in contact with Assange, saying, "I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe his next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation."[218][215] Stone later claims the communications were through an intermediary.[219]August 9: WikiLeaks denies having communicated with Roger Stone.[220]August 11: The Internet Research Agency Twitter account @TEN_GOP claims that voter fraud is being investigated in North Carolina.[39][40]August 12: In a #MAGA Podcast, Stone says Assange has all the emails deleted by Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills.[221]Journalist Emma Best has two simultaneous conversations by Twitter direct message with Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks. Best tries to negotiate the hosting of stolen DNC emails and documents on archive.org. WikiLeaks wants Best to act as an intermediary to funnel the material from Guccifer 2.0 to them. The conversation ends with Guccifer 2.0 saying he will send the material directly to WikiLeaks.[222]August 14: The New York Times reports that Manafort's name has been found in the Ukrainian "black ledger". The ledger, belonging to the Ukrainian Party of Regions, shows $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments to Manafort from 2007 to 2012. Manafort's lawyer, Richard A. Hibey, says Manafort never received "any such cash payments".[5] The Associated Press later verifies some of the entries against financial records.[223]August 15: After several weeks of communications between Papadopoulos and his campaign superiors about an unofficial trip to Russia to meet with the MFA, Sam Clovis tells Papadopoulos, "I would encourage you [and Walid Phares to] make the trip[], if it is feasible." The trip never occurs.[152][153]A Trump campaign county chair contacts the Internet Research Agency through their phony email accounts to suggest locations for rallies.[39][40]August 16: Stone tells Alex Jones that he is in contact with Assange, claiming he has "political dynamite" on Clinton.[224]The Internet Research Agency buys ads on Instagram for the "Florida Goes Trump" rallies.[39][40]August 17: Trump is warned in an FBI briefing that foreign adversaries including Russia would likely attempt to infiltrate his campaign. This is Trump's first classified briefing. Clinton receives a similar briefing in the same month.[225][226][227]Steve Bannon is named Trump campaign CEO.[228]Kellyanne Conway is named Trump campaign manager.[228]August 18: The FBI issues a nationwide "flash alert" warning state election officials about foreign infiltration of election systems in two states, later reported to be Arizona and Illinois. The alert includes technical evidence suggesting Russian responsibility, and urges states to boost their cyberdefenses. Although labeled for distribution only to "NEED TO KNOW recipients," a copy is leaked to the media.[229]The Internet Research Agency uses its [email protected] email account to contact a Trump campaign official in Florida. The email requests campaign support at the forthcoming "Florida Goes Trump" rallies. It is unknown whether the campaign official responded.[39][40]The Internet Research Agency pays the person they hired to build a cage for a "Florida Goes Trump" rally in West Palm Beach, Florida.[39][40]August 19: Manafort resigns as Trump's campaign manager.[230]A Trump supporter suggests to The Internet Research Agency Twitter account "March for Trump" that it contact a Trump campaign official. The official is emailed by the Agency's [email protected] account.The Internet Research Agency's "Matt Skiber" persona contacts another Trump campaign official on Facebook.[39][40]August 20: 17 "Florida Goes Trump" rallies are held across Florida. The rallies are organized by Russian trolls from the Internet Research Agency.[40][231]August 25: Trump names Sam Clovis as a campaign national co-chairman.[232]August 26: After Clinton claims that Russian intelligence was behind the leaks, Assange says she is causing "hysteria" about Russia, adding, "The Trump campaign has a lot of things wrong with it, but as far as we can see being Russian agents is not one of them."[233]August 27: The Internet Research Agency Facebook group "SecuredBorders" organizes a "Citizens before refugees" protest rally at the City Council Chambers in Twin Falls, Idaho. Only a small number of people show up for the three-hour event, most likely because it is Saturday and the Chambers are closed.[234]August 31: Guccifer 2.0 leaks campaign documents stolen from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's hacked personal computer.[235][236]An American contacts the Internet Research Agency's "Being Patriotic" account about a possible September 11 event in Miami.[39][40]The Internet Research Agency buys ads for a September 11 rally in New York City.[39][40]Late August: CIA director John Brennan gives individual briefings to the Gang of Eight on links between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election.[237]September 2016[edit]September The Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C., reaches out to Papadopoulos expressing Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's interest in meeting Trump. With Steve Bannon's approval, Papadopoulos arranges a meeting between Trump and el-Sisi at the Plaza Hotel in Space.[60] While the meeting does not appear to relate to campaign contacts with Russia, it highlights that Papadopoulos was more than a "coffee boy", as Trump campaign officials later claim.[104]The CIA gives a secret briefing to congressional leaders on Russian interference in the election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voices doubts about the intelligence.[238]September 2: Lisa Page writes in a text message to Peter Strzok that a meeting at the FBI was set up "because Obama wanted 'to know everything we are doing'."[239] Lisa Page was referring to the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, not the Clinton emails investigation, which had concluded months earlier.[240][239]September 3: The Internet Research Agency Facebook group "United Muslims of America" organizes a "Safe Space for Muslim Neighborhood" rally outside the White House, attracting at least 57 people.[241]September 3–5: Wealthy Republican donor Peter W. Smith gathers a team to try to acquire the 30,000 deleted Clinton emails from hackers. He believes Clinton's private email server was hacked and copies of the emails were stolen.[242] Among the people recruited is Matt Tait, a former information-security specialist for the GCHQ.[243] The team creates "KLS Research", an LLC registered in Delaware, as a vehicle "to avoid campaign reporting."[244] The team finds five groups of hackers claiming to have the emails. Two of the groups are Russian. Flynn is in email contact with the team. Smith commits suicide on May 14, 2017, about ten days after telling the story to The Wall Street Journal but before the story is published in June.[242]September 8: Sessions meets with Kislyak a third time, in Sessions's office;[1] he later says they discussed Ukraine and terrorism.[245]September 9 Papadopoulos contacts deputy communications director Bryan Lanza about a request from Interfax for an interview with Ksenia Baygarova. Lanza approves the interview.[60]The Internet Research Agency sends money to its American groups to fund the September 11 rally in Miami, and to pay the actress who portrayed Clinton at the West Palm Beach, Florida, rally.[39][40]Mid-September: Papadopoulos approaches British government officials asking for a meeting with senior ministers. He is given a meeting with a mid-level Foreign Office official in London. Papadopoulos mentions he has senior contacts in the Russian government. British officials conclude he is not a major player and discontinue contact.[246]September 20: Flynn meets with Dana Rohrabacher. On November 10, 2017, the Mueller investigation is reported to have asked questions about this meeting.[247]September 20–26: BlackMattersUS, an Internet Research Agency website, recruits activists to participate in protests over the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina. The IRA pays for expenses such as microphones and speakers.[248]September 22 Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Adam Schiff issue a statement warning that Russia is trying to undermine the election. Their warning is based on what they learned from intelligence briefings as members of the Gang of Eight.[249]The Internet Research Agency buys ads on Facebook for "Miners for Trump" rallies in Pennsylvania.[39][40]September 23: Yahoo News reports that U.S. intelligence officials are investigating whether Carter Page has set up private communications between the Trump campaign and senior Russian officials, including talks on possibly lifting sanctions if Trump is elected.[250]September 25 When asked by CNN about allegations linking Page to Russia, Conway denies that Page is part of the Trump campaign.[251][252]Page sends Comey a letter asking that the FBI drop the reported investigation into his activities in Russia. He denies meeting with sanctioned Russian officials.[253]September 26: Carter Page tells Josh Rogin in an interview for The Washington Post that he is taking a leave of absence from the Trump campaign. He denies meeting with sanctioned individuals in Moscow.[254]September 29: Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee, confirming that federal investigators have detected suspicious activities in voter registration databases, as stated in the August 18 alert.[255]September 30: Ksenia Baygarova interviews Papadopoulos for Interfax on Trump's foreign policy positions in relation to Russia.[256] The interview was approved by Trump campaign deputy communications director Bryan Lanza. Baygarova later tells The Washington Post that she had been tasked to interview a representative from each campaign. She says Papadopoulos was the only person from the Trump campaign to respond. She describes him as not very experienced.[60]October–November 2016[edit]October: The FBI obtains a FISA warrant to monitor the communications of Carter Page as well as two Russian banks suspected of being part of the Russian interference in the election.[18][257]Early October: A team of FBI agents travel to Europe to speak with Steele about his dossier.[104] On or about the same date, Steele gives the FBI a dossier of allegations compiled by Cody Shearer, which corresponded "with what he had separately heard from his own independent sources." It includes the unverified allegation that Trump was sexually compromised by the Russian secret service at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow in 2013.[258][259]October 2: "Miners for Trump" rallies are held across Pennsylvania. The Internet Research Agency uses the same techniques to organize the rallies as they used for the "Florida Goes Trump" rallies, including hiring a person to wear a Clinton mask and a prison uniform.[39][40]October 7: The DHS and the ODNI issue a joint statement[260] accusing the Russian government of breaking into the computer systems of several political organizations and releasing the obtained material via DCLeaks, WikiLeaks, and Guccifer 2.0, with the intent "to interfere with the U.S. election process."[261]The Washington Post publishes a raw video tape from the television show Access Hollywood of Trump bragging about grabbing women by their genitals.[262] While the tape is not relevant to the Russian interference in the election, the distraction of its release lessens the public impact of the joint intelligence report released hours earlier and may have triggered WikiLeaks' Podesta emails release two hours later.[263][215]WikiLeaks begins publishing thousands of emails from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, revealing excerpts from Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street.[264][265]October 8: Kushner's company receives $370 million in new loans, including $285 million from Deutsche Bank, to refinance his portion of the former New York Times building. The size and timing of the Deutsche Bank loan draws scrutiny from the House Financial Services Committee, the Justice Department, and, later, the Mueller investigation. The concern is that the transaction may be related to Russian money laundering through Deutsche Bank.[266][267]October 11: Donald Trump Jr. travels to Paris to give a paid speech at the Ritz Hotel. The dinner event is sponsored by the Center of Political and Foreign Affairs, a group founded by Fabien Baussart and his business partner. Baussart is openly linked to Russian government officials. Randa Kassis, one of the hosts, travels to Moscow after the election and reports the details of the event to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.[268]October 12: WikiLeaks writes to Trump Jr., “Hey Donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications” and “Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us.”[269] Fifteen minutes later, Donald Trump tweets, "Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!"[270]October 13: Roger Stone and WikiLeaks communicate directly using private tweets.[271]October 14: Trump Jr. tweets a specific WikiLeaks link.[272]Pence denies that the Trump campaign is working with WikiLeaks, stating that "nothing could be further from the truth".[273]October 16: The Internet Research Agency Instagram account "Woke Blacks" makes a post aimed at suppressing black voter turnout.[39][40]October 19: Senator Harry Reid Letter to FBI Director James B. Comey[274]The FBI and the DoJ apply for a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Page.[275]During the third presidential debate, Clinton blames Russia for the DNC email leaks and accuses Trump of being a "puppet" of Putin.[276] Trump denies ever having met Putin and any connection to him.[277]A Financial Times probe finds evidence a Trump venture has links to alleged laundering network.[278]October 21: WikiLeaks sends Trump Jr. private tweets suggesting that the campaign give them Trump's tax returns to publish so that they seem less of a "‘pro-Trump’ ‘pro-Russia’" source.[270]October 22: A large rally is held in Charlotte, North Carolina, protesting the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. The Internet Research Agency website BlackMattersUS recruits unwitting local activists to organize the rally.[279] BlackMattersUS provides an activist with a bank card to pay for rally expenses.[248]October 24: Trump announces at a Florida campaign rally, "I have nothing to do with Russia, folks. I’ll give you a written statement."[280]October 27: At the Valdai Discussion Club yearly forum, Putin denounces American "hysteria" over accusations of Russian interference, saying “Does anyone seriously think that Russia can influence the choice of the American people?”[281]October 30: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sends FBI Director James Comey a letter, asking him to reveal Trump's ties to the Russian Federation.[282]October 31: Through the "red phone", Obama tells Putin to stop interfering or face consequences.[283]Mother Jones magazine's David Corn reports that a veteran spy, later publicly identified as Steele, gave the FBI information alleging a Russian operation to cultivate Trump, later known as the "Steele dossier".[284]Slate publishes an article by Franklin Foer alleging that a Trump server was in suspicious contact with Alfa-Bank in Russia.[285] Snopes examined the story and rated it "Unproven". Several cyber security experts saw nothing nefarious, while the FBI was still investigating the matter: "One U.S. official said investigators find the server relationship 'odd' and are not ignoring it. But the official said there is still more work for the FBI to do. Investigators have not yet determined whether a connection would be significant."[286]November 2: The Internet Research Agency Twitter account @TEN_GOP alleges “#VoterFraud by counting tens of thousands of ineligible mail in Hillary votes being reported in Broward County, Florida.”[citation needed] It is retweeted by Donald Trump Jr.[39][40]November 3: The Internet Research Agency Instagram account "Blacktivist" suggests people vote for Jill Stein instead of Hillary Clinton.[39][40]November 5: Konstantin Sidorkov again emails Trump Jr. and Trump campaign social media director Dan Scavino. He again offers to promote Trump to VK's 100 million users. His previous email was sent on January 19, 2016.[94]Anti-Hillary Clinton "Texit" rallies are held across Texas. The Internet Research Agency's "Heart of Texas" Facebook group organizes the rallies around the theme of Texas seceding from the United States if Clinton is elected. The group contacts the Texas Nationalist Movement, a secessionist organization, to help with organizing efforts, but they decline to help. Small rallies are held in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and other cities. No one attends the Lubbock rally.[287][288][289]Post-election transition[edit]November–December 2016[edit]November 8: Trump is elected President of the United States.[290]Rospatent, the Russian government agency responsible for intellectual property, grants 10-year extensions on four of Trump's trademarks.[291]Hours after the polls close, the hashtag #Calexit becomes one of the top trends on Twitter. Within a few hours of the initial tweet,[292] #Calexit is mentioned over 100,000 times, including thousands of retweets by Internet Research Agency accounts.[289]November–December: Michael Flynn serves as an advisor to SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.[293][294]November–January: During the transition period, the FBI warns Trump aide Hope Hicks at least twice that she may be approached by Russian government operatives using fake identities.[295][296]November 10: Kislyak states that Russia was not involved with U.S. election hacking.[297]In a private Oval Office meeting, Obama warns Trump against hiring Flynn.[298]Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov tells the Interfax news agency "there were contacts" with the Trump team during the campaign.[299]Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova tells Bloomberg News that it was "normal practice" for Russian Embassy staffers to meet with members of the Trump campaign. She says the Clinton campaign declined requests for meetings.[299]Mark Zuckerberg describes the idea that "fake news" on Facebook could have influenced the election as "crazy."[300][301]November 11: Hicks denies claims by the Kremlin that Trump officials met with its staff.[280]House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is named to the executive committee of the Trump transition team.[302]Mike Pence replaces Chris Christie as chairman of the Trump transition team. Christie later claims he was fired for opposing Michael Flynn becoming the National Security Advisor. Steve Bannon and Flynn celebrate Christie's firing by ceremonially throwing binders full of administration candidates into the trash.[303][304]November 12: Maria Butina holds a birthday party at Cafe Deluxe in Washington, D.C., attended by Paul Erickson and Trump campaign aides. Butina brags about being part of Russian communications with the Trump campaign, something she has bragged about for months.[305]A Trump protest called "Trump is NOT my President" attracts 5,000-10,000 protestors in Manhattan who march from Union Square to Trump Tower. The protest is organized by the Internet Research Agency using a Facebook account they control called BlackMattersUS.[39][40][306]November 13 Maria Zakharova, the Kremlin's official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, jokingly comments on the Rossiya 1 show Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov that our people in Brighton Beach won the election for Donald Trump.[307]November 15: Devin Nunes replaces former Representative Mike Rogers as a Trump transition team national security advisor.[308]November 18: Trump announces he will nominate Sessions as Attorney General[309] and Flynn as National Security Adviser.[310]Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, writes a letter to Pence warning that Flynn's connections to Russia and Turkey might create conflicts of interest. He asks the Trump administration's transition team for documents related to Flynn.[311] Receipt of the letter is acknowledged on November 28.[117]November 19: The Internet Research Agency organizes the "Charlotte Against Trump" rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.[39][40]Barack Obama has a private meeting with Mark Zuckerberg at a gathering of world leaders in Lima, Peru. Obama urges Zuckerberg to take the threats of political disinformation and "fake news" seriously. Obama warns Zuckerberg that doing nothing will cause problems in the next election. Zuckerberg responds that there were only a few messages and doing something about the problem would be difficult.[301]Late November: Senior members of Trump's transition team warn Flynn about the dangers of contacting Kislyak, including that Kislyak's conversations are probably being monitored by the FBI and the NSA. Flynn is recorded a month later discussing lifting sanctions with Kislyak.[312]November 30: On a recommendation from the GSA, Trump transition team members discuss installing Signal, an encrypted messaging app, on Flynn's phone to encrypt his communications.[313]December: Concerned that the incoming Trump administration will suppress the information collected in the Russia investigation, the White House spreads it across government agencies to leave a trail for future investigators.[314]December 1: According to an anonymous letter to The Washington Post citing leaked intercepts of Russian diplomatic communications, during a transition team meeting at Trump Tower, Kushner asks Kislyak about the potential to communicate directly with the Kremlin over a Russian-encrypted channel. Flynn also attends the meeting.[315][316]Early December: In Russia, FSB cyber chief Sergei Mikhailov, senior Kaspersky Lab researcher Ruslan Stoyanov, and hacker Dmitry Dokuchayev (known as “Forb”) are arrested for treason.[317][318]December 9: Republican Senator John McCain delivers the Steele dossier to Comey.[319]The Trump transition team dismisses reported intelligence assessments finding Russian interference in the election. Their statement says, "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’"[238]December 12: Kislyak meets with Kushner's assistant, Avi Berkowitz, to arrange a meeting between Kushner and the FSB-connected Sergey Gorkov of the Kremlin's Vnesheconombank.[22][320][321][322]December 13: Gorkov, the head of sanctioned Russian bank Vnesheconombank, arrives from Moscow to secretly meet Kushner in New York, before flying to Japan, where Putin is holding a summit. The meeting is first reported in March 2017, and attracts the interest of federal and congressional investigators in May. Kushner later characterizes the meeting as brief and meaningless. The White House later describes the meeting as a diplomatic encounter. The bank later says they discussed Kushner's real estate business.[22][321][323]Trump picks Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State; Russian officials praise the decision.[324]December 15: Clinton tells a group of donors in Manhattan that Russian hacking was ordered by Putin "because he has a personal beef against me" due to her accusation in 2011 that Russian parliamentary elections that year were rigged.[325][326] Clinton's comment is backed by U.S. Intelligence reports.[327]December 18: Speaking to CBS News, Conway says it is "false" and "dangerous" to suggest that members of the Trump campaign spoke to any Russians during the campaign.[280][328]December 22: At the direction of a very senior member of the transition team, Flynn asks Kislyak to delay or defeat a pending vote on a United Nations Security Council resolution. Flynn later pleads guilty to lying to the FBI about the effort to defeat the resolution.[329][330]December 23: Kislyak calls Flynn and tells him Russia will not vote against the United Nations Security Council resolution they spoke about the day before.December 26: Oleg Erovinkin, a former KGB official, is found dead in the back seat of his car in Moscow. He was suspected of assisting former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele in compiling Steele's dossier.[331]December 29: Following Executive Order 13757 signed the previous day, Obama's administration expels 35 Russian diplomats, locks down two Russian diplomatic compounds, and expands sanctions against Russia.[332][333][334][335] Flynn consults with the Trump transition team,[336][337] then speaks with Kislyak by telephone to request that Russia not escalate matters in response to Obama's actions.[338][339] Flynn later pleads guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak regarding the new sanctions.[330]Before Flynn's call to Kislyak, K. T. McFarland emails other Trump transition officials saying that Flynn will be speaking to Kislyak to try to prevent a cycle of retaliation over the newly imposed sanctions. The email is forwarded to Flynn, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer.[340]The NCCIC releases a joint analysis report titled "GRIZZLY STEPPE – Russian Malicious Cyber Activity" as a follow-up to the October 7, 2016, joint statement on election security. The report describes methods used by Russian intelligence groups APT29 and APT28 to penetrate election-related servers.[341]December 30: Putin announces he will not retaliate against the U.S. expulsions, contrary to recommendations from Lavrov.[342] In reply, Trump tweets "Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!"[343]December 31: Kislyak calls Flynn to tell him that Russia has decided not to retaliate based upon Flynn's request. Afterward, Flynn tells senior members of the transition team about his conversations with Kislyak and Russia's decision not to escalate.[330]January 2017[edit]Early January: At a meeting in Langley, Mossad agents are warned by a U.S. spy chief that Putin may have "leverages of pressure" over President-elect Trump and that intelligence should be shared cautiously with the coming White House and United States National Security Council for fear of leaks to the Russians and thereby Iran.[344][345][346]January 4: The FBI begins investigating Flynn's December phone calls with Kislyak.[347]January 5: Obama is briefed on the intelligence community’s findings.[348]Flynn, Kushner and Steve Bannon meet with the King of Jordan. According to BuzzFeed, they discuss a plan to deploy American nuclear power plants in Jordan with security support from a Russian company. "People close to the three Trump advisers" deny the allegations.[349][350]R. James Woolsey Jr., who became a senior adviser to Trump in September 2016, resigns amid Congressional hearings into cyber attacks and public statements by Trump critical of the United States Intelligence Community.[351]January 6: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) publishes an unclassified report[352] about Russian meddling in the 2016 election stating that "Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election".[353] While the report says Russian hackers did not change votes, it ignores the security of back-end election systems.[354] Putin was personally involved in the Russian interference, per a CIA stream of intelligence.[327]Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, NSA Director Michael Rogers, and FBI Director James Comey travel to Trump Tower in Space to brief Trump and senior members of the transition team on the classified version of the ODNI report on Russian interference in the election.[355][356] In addition to Trump, the other people present are incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, incoming CIA Director Mike Pompeo, incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. After the briefing, Comey stays behind to privately brief Trump on the salacious allegations in the Steele dossier. While cordial during the briefings, Trump still refuses to accept the intelligence on Russian interference.[327] The meeting unsettles Comey and prompts him to write a memo documenting the conversation.[357]January 9: Kushner is named Senior Advisor to the President.[358]Profexer, a Ukrainian hacker who is the author of a hacking tool described in the December 29, 2016, NCCIC report on Russian cyber attacks, goes dark. He turns himself in to the Ukrainian police and becomes a cooperating witness for the FBI. The Ukrainian police say he was not placed under arrest.[359]January 10: In a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sessions denies communicating with the Russian government during Trump's election campaign.[360]BuzzFeed publishes the unverified Steele dossier alleging various misdeeds by Trump and associates in Russia.[361] Trump dismisses the dossier as "fake news."[362]January 11: Trump tweets "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!".[363] USA Today says this is "not exactly true".[364]Erik Prince, a Trump campaign donor and brother of forthcoming Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, meets in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian government's $10bn Russian Direct Investment Fund. Prince will claim in August that he scarcely remembers Dmitriev. Dmitriev's identity is revealed in November 2017, and Prince confirms the meeting in an interview with House investigators on November 30.[365][366] The meeting was organized by the United Arab Emirates and reportedly includes talks of a "back channel" with Moscow to try to influence Russian policy in the Middle East.[367][368] George Nader, an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, is also in attendance.[369]January 13: President-elect Trump nominates U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein as Deputy Attorney General.[370]Sean Spicer claims in a press conference that Flynn had only one call with Kislyak, about setting up a call between Trump and Putin.[371] 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.[340]January 15: Interviewed on CBS's Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday, Vice President-elect Pence repeatedly denies any connection between the Trump campaign team and Russians.[117] He also denies Flynn discussed sanctions with Kislyak.[371]January 17: Sessions states in writing that he has not been "in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election."[372] Sessions had been accused of failing to disclose two meetings with Kislyak.[373]January 18: Jared Kushner files his security clearance application without listing his meetings with Russians.[374]January 18/19: McClatchy[375] and The New York Times report that Manafort, Page and Stone have been under investigation by the FBI, NSA, CIA, and FinCEN,[376] based on intercepted Russian communications and financial transactions.[377] Sources say "the investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing."[376]January 20: Barack Obama leaves office.[378]

LIES and GOSSIPING:February 10, 2011 – In 2011, Donald Trump stoked false claims that Barack Obama had lied about his education. During a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said, “Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: The people that went to school with him, they never saw him, they don’t know who he is. It’s crazy.” This is false. Numerous accounts from Obama’s college classmates refute Trump’s claim, including Obama’s Columbia roommate, Phil Doerner.August 6, 2012 – Over a year after the White House released Obama’s long-form birth certificate, Donald Trump again promoted the “birther” myth, tweeting, “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” President Trump has publicly attacked media outlets for citing anonymous sources, but has himself cited anonymous sources numerous times to support the claim that Barack Obama lied about his biography.October 7, 2016 – Donald Trump reiterated his false claim that the young men known as the “Central Park Five” were guilty of sexually assaulting a jogger in 1989, despite DNA evidence that exonerated them.November 27, 2016 – Without citing evidence to support his claim, Donald Trump tweeted, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”. This claim has been repeatedly debunked.January 10, 2017 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Donald Trump approached him about leading an investigation into “Vaccine Safety.” The prospect that vaccination can lead to autism has been repeatedly debunked by long-running, peer-reviewed studies. Trump had supported the anti-vaccination theory on stage at the 2015 presidential debates. In September 2015 he publicly stated, “We had so many instances, people that work for me, just the other day, two years old, a beautiful child, went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.”January 21, 2017 – In his first conference as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer stated emphatically that the gathering on the National Mall for Trump’s inaugural address, “was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” Photo evidence of Barack Obama’s first inauguration and subsequent crowd analyses of Trump’s crowd proved this was untrue.January 22, 2017 – Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said that Sean Spicer’s false statements about the crowd size at Donald Trump’s inauguration were not lies, but “alternative facts.”February 4, 2017 – Donald Trump posted a report to his Facebook page saying Kuwait would institute a travel ban on many Muslim-majority countries. The report was not truthful; Kuwait did no such thing. The Assistant Foreign Minister of Kuwait responded to Trump’s false Facebook post: “The State of Kuwait believes that granting of visa [sic] is a sovereign matter, and is not linked to terrorism or violence or nationality or faith.”February 7, 2017 – Donald Trump stated the murder rate in America had reached a 47-year peak. This was not true. While there had been a slight increase in murders from 2014 to 2015, the murder rate for both years was still more than 40 percent lower than it had been 47 years ago. In 1970, there were nearly 8 murders per 100,000 people in America; in 2015, the latest year with full data collected by the FBI, that number had fallen to 4.9 murders per 100,000 people.February 9, 2017 – Three times in one week, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer referred to “recent terrorist attacks” in Atlanta which never actually happened. The City of Atlanta has not had a terrorist attack in 21 years, in 1997, when Christian extremist Eric Robert Rudolph bombed Centennial Olympic Park. After misspeaking for the third time, Sean Spicer acknowledged his mistake and explained that he meant to reference the nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida in June 2016.February 11, 2017 – Donald Trump claimed without evidence that 3 million illegal votes went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Politifact and Snopes have both debunked the claim—with Snopes saying “the ‘3 million non-citizens’ may just as well have been plucked out of thin air.” The number appeared to originate from an InfoWars article which sought to explain why Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes.February 12, 2017 – In a televised interview with George Stephanopoulos, senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller reaffirmed Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated suspicion of voter fraud in the presidential election. When challenged for evidence by Stephanopoulos, Miller replied, “This morning on this show is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence. But I can tell you this, voter fraud is a serious problem in this country.” Miller never subsequently offered any evidence for his claim.February 15, 2017 – Vice President Mike Pence falsely stated that no member of the Trump campaign, including national security adviser Michael Flynn, had contact with Russian officials. Pence publicly defended Flynn’s phone calls to Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, claiming Flynn did not discuss sanctions against Russia (Flynn later confessed to the FBI that he had). Pence did not realize that Flynn had misled him until two weeks after he made his public assertion, well after Donald Trump had become aware of Flynn’s Russian contacts.March 4, 2017 – Without evidence, Donald Trump falsely accused Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower before the election. Trump levied the accusation in a Twitter storm that began at 6:30am. President Trump’s own Department of Justice released a statement in September in 2017 rebuking Trump’s claim and confirming the Obama administration had not wiretapped the Trump campaign.April 4, 2017 -Donald Trump implied that Barack Obama’s administration was to blame for a gas attack in a rebel-controlled area of Syria, saying the attack had been a “consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution.”April 16, 2017 – In response to marches around the nation demanding Donald Trump release his tax returns, Trump tweeted, “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!” No evidence exists to suggest that protesters were paid to march.April 29, 2017 – On Face the Nation, Donald Trump falsely suggested the new Republican healthcare bill, called the American Health Care Act, would protect health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions. The most recent draft of the legislation contained no such stipulation.May 12, 2017 – After Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sean Spicer, and President Trump each gave conflicting explanations for Trump’s decision to dismiss FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump tweeted, “As a very active President with many things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy.” Trump then added, “Maybe the best thing to do is cancel all future “press briefings” and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy????”May 28, 2017 – Despite releasing a budget that proposed cutting Medicaid by $800 billion only days earlier, Donald Trump tweeted, “I suggest that we add more dollars to Healthcare and make it the best anywhere!”June 6, 2017 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt claimed 50,000 jobs had been added to the coal mining industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the number was closer to 1,400.June 22, 2017 – At a rally with supporters, Donald Trump asserted that a law should exist which requires all immigrants to support themselves financially for five years before receiving welfare aid. This exact law has existed since 1996. Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act restricting new immigrants to the U.S. from accessing federal benefits for a period of five years.June 25, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic Party in order to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders. Is she allowed to so collude? Unfair to Bernie!” At the time, Trump was under investigation for colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 election.June 27, 2017 – The Trump Organization framed a March 1, 2009 cover of Time magazine and hung it on the walls of at least five Trump resorts. The cover features Trump with his arms crossed beside the headlines “Donald Trump: The Apprentice is a television smash!” and “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS…EVEN ON TV!” Time magazine has confirmed the cover is fake.July 1, 2017 – After Trump requested state officials forfeit private voter information in his quest to substantiate claims of illegal voting during the 2016 election, 44 states and the District of Columbia refused to divulge citizens’ records. He tweeted, “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?” Trump has never offered credible evidence to support illegal votes swaying the 2016 popular vote, and the claims have been repeatedly debunked.August 2, 2017 – Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted during her daily press briefing that the Boy Scouts of America never called the president to say his speech to their organization was the “greatest speech ever made to them.” This is contrary to claims Donald Trump had made to the Wall Street Journal.August 15, 2017 – After more CEOs resigned from his American Manufacturing Council, Trump claimed he had a line of executives waiting to join in their place. He tweeted, “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!”August 18, 2017 – Donald Trump fired chief strategist Steve Bannon. Trump later claimed that Bannon had been a “staffer” and “had very little to do with our historic victory,” despite the fact that Bannon was a top aide through the presidential campaign and key influencer in the White House.August 30, 2017 – After Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, Donald Trump visited Corpus Christi and told a small crowd the recovery from the hurricane’s devastation would be “better than ever before.” His proposed budget slashed FEMA programs aimed at helping Americans get back on their feet after natural disasters.September 15, 2017 – Following a terrorist attack on the London subway, Donald Trump responded to the event by propping up his travel ban. He also falsely suggested in a series of tweets that authorities had identified those responsible, and that those people had recruited others online. British Prime Minister Theresa May rebuked Trump’s speculative claims.September 21, 2017 – During a speech at the UN, Donald Trump cited the exemplary healthcare system of a place called Nambia. Trump applauded the nonexistent African nation, saying, “Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient.”October 10, 2017 – According to fact-checkers at the Washington Post, Donald Trump made 1,318 false claims in his first 263 days as president. That equates to around 5 falsehoods per day since his inauguration.October 16, 2017 – Donald Trump asserted Barack Obama did not call the families of fallen soldiers. This was untrue. Obama had long meetings with the families of fallen soldiers, as confirmed by both Obama’s staff and the families themselves.October 18, 2017 – Donald Trump offered the father of a fallen soldier a gift of $25,000. At first, Trump did not keep his promise. Then three months later, on the publication day of the Washington Post’s article reporting Trump never sent his promised gift, a check for $25,000 was mailed to the grieving father.October 19, 2017 – During a security conference, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said, “The intelligence community’s assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election.” This was false. The report Pompeo referenced concluded that Russian meddling had occurred, but did not speculate on whether that interference had altered the course of the election or not.October 20, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Just out report: ‘United Kingdom crime rises 13 percent annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.’ not good, we must keep America safe!” The UK’s Office for National Statistics did report a 13 percent increase in police-reported crime in its quarterly report, but gave only one reference to terror attacks in the whole report and did not attribute the rise in crime to Islam in any way.QUARRELSOME and SLANDEROUS TREATMENT of OTHERS:July 18, 2015 – Donald Trump insulted the military service of Senator John McCain, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who endured torture and solitary confinement as a POW in Hanoi. Trump said in a speech at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, "He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Trump’s comments drew boos from his audience in Iowa, as well as widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike. Donald Trump himself was exempted from military service after receiving four student deferments between 1964 and 1968, and a medical deferment for a “bone spur in his foot” after graduating from college.August 7, 2015 – During the first Republican primary debate in 2015, Donald Trump clashed with moderator Megyn Kelly regarding his many controversial statements against women. In one exchange, Trump claimed his disparaging remarks about women were limited to comments about Rosie O’Donnell, to which Kelly responded, “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” The next day, Trump told a CNN interviewer that Kelly had been “off-base” in the way she treated him. “She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions,” Trump said. “You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”July 30, 2016 – Donald Trump belittled Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim American soldier who had been killed while serving in the Army, for their speech at the Democratic National Convention. In his speech at the DNC, Khizr Khan had addressed Trump’s stringent anti-Muslim immigration policies, saying, “Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words liberty and equal protection of law.” In response to the speech, Trump suggested that Khan had “no right” to criticize him.January 17, 2017 – After accusing him of sexual misconduct, Summer Zervos also filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump. Zervos claimed Trump had tarnished her reputation when he issued false statements against her and others who had accused him of sexual harassment, calling them “liars” who were telling their stories for “ten minutes of fame.”February 4, 2017 – Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the federal judge who had blocked his travel ban, calling Judge James Robart a “so-called judge” whose dissenting opinion had taken “law-enforcement away from our country.” Justice Robart had received a unanimous endorsement of “well-qualified” from the American Bar Association before his appointment to the bench by George W. Bush.February 7, 2017 – Donald Trump told a sheriff in Rockwell County, Texas, to “destroy” the career of a state senator who had opposed civil asset forfeiture. This controversial law enforcement practice allows police officers to seize cash and assets they believe may be related to a crime, even if the property owners were never arrested or convicted of that crime.February 8, 2017 – President Trump used Twitter to lash out at Nordstrom for its decision to stop carrying his daughter’s retail brand. He tweeted about the company, “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly.”February 9, 2017 – Donald Trump attacked Senator John McCain on Twitter. McCain had raised objections to the Yemen raid wherein one American soldier was killed and five others were wounded. Trump tweeted about McCain, “Only emboldens the enemy! He’s been losing so long he doesn’t know how to win anymore.” McCain was a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, enduring torture and solitary confinement after his plane was shot down in North Vietnam.February 9, 2017 – When meeting with senators, Donald Trump addressed Democrats by saying that “Pocahontas is now the face of your party.” The racial epithet referenced Elizabeth Warren, who has claimed Native American ancestry.February 17, 2017 – In what has become a regular attack on free press, Donald Trump tweeted, “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”February 24, 2017 – After Donald Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he declared certain media outlets to be “FAKE NEWS,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer temporarily barred the New York Times, CNN, and Politico from the daily White House press briefing. While reporters from these publications were not permitted into the briefing, the Trump administration allowed entrance for correspondents from Fox News and Breitbart News.March 4, 2017 – In March of 2017, President Donald Trump engaged in a Twitter-based squabble with Arnold Schwarzenegger over ratings of “The Apprentice,” the television show—on which Trump was still listed as a producer. Trump tweeted, “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show.” Schwarzenegger responded to Trump’s insult with a video on Twitter chiding Trump for defunding inner-city school programs. “When you take away after school programs for children and meals on wheels for the poor people,” said Schwarzenegger, “that’s not what you call ‘making America great again’.” Schwarzenegger then invited Trump to tour a middle with him to see the benefits of the after-school programs the president planned to eliminate. Trump did not respond.March 29, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!” Published the same month as the above tweet, the Times’s financial report announced the newspaper had just enjoyed its strongest quarter for subscriber growth in the publication’s 126-year history.April 23, 2017 – Approaching the hundredth day of his presidency, Donald Trump took to Twitter to blame low approval ratings and the loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton on “fake news.” The president tweeted, “New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in popular vote.” Trump was referring to new polls from ABC News/Washington Post and NBC/Wall Street Journal that showed he had the lowest approval rating of any president since 1945.April 26, 2017 – Donald Trump publicly slammed the 9th circuit court after they blocked his administration’s attempt to deny federal funding for “sanctuary cities.” In response to the ruling, Trump said he was considering proposals to break up the three-judge panel.May 12, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” After the tweet, Comey was quoted saying, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”May 25, 2017 – During the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, Donald Trump visibly pushed Montenegro’s Prime Minister out of the way so he could to stand in front for a picture with other world leaders.June 6, 2017 – In more than 50 cases nationwide, children were heard bullying classmates with calls for deportation, references to Donald Trump’s name, and blatantly racist language. One eight-year-old girl in California said to a black classmate, “Now that Trump won, you’re going to have to go back to Africa, where you belong.”June 13, 2017 – On Twitter, Donald Trump’s account blocked a veterans group that had been critical of him. The group, VoteVets, represents 500,000 U.S. military veterans.June 16, 2017 – Responding to special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Donald Trump tweeted, “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt”. “The man” referenced here is Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller to lead the Russia investigation and also issued a memo recommending former FBI Director James Comey’s firing.June 29, 2017 – Donald Trump attacked TV news host Mika Brzezinski on Twitter, saying he had once seen her when she was “badly bleeding from a face-lift.”June 30, 2017 – MSNBC news anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski alleged the White House tried to blackmail them with an article about their relationship in the National Enquirer. The newly engaged co-anchors claimed they had texts and phone records from Trump advisers threatening to publish the Enquirer article if the pair did not contact Trump directly. The president apparently sought an apology for the couple’s unfavorable news coverage. Trump is a long-time friend and ally of David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer, and had leveraged the relationship before. The Enquirer then published a hit piece on Scarborough and Brzezinski’s relationship.June 2017 – Two anonymous White House officials told the New York Times that Donald Trump said Haitians “all have AIDS” and Nigerian immigrants wouldn’t ever “go back to their huts.” Newly released immigration statistics, which reported 15,000 Haitian immigrants had entered the U.S. since he took office, reportedly ignited President Trump’s tirade. While the White House subsequently denied Trump had used the words “AIDS” and “huts,” it did not deny the “overall description of the meeting.”July 1, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!”July 24, 2017 – Donald Trump took aim at Attorney General Jeff Sessions again, calling him “beleaguered” in a tweet about the Russia investigation.July 24, 2017 – Donald Trump insulted the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff, by calling him “sleazy” and “totally biased” on Twitter.July 25, 2017 – Donald Trump targeted both Jeff Sessions, the U.S. attorney general and a member of his own administration, as well as his campaign opponent Hillary Clinton, by tweeting, “Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!”August 8, 2017 – Donald Trump promised to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if North Korea threatened the United States with nuclear action. Trump delivered his warning of catastrophic nuclear action after Kim Jong-un’s regime successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range capable of reaching the continental United States. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attempted to downplay Trump’s bellicosity, saying, “I think Americans should sleep well at night, and have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days.”August 10, 2017 – Frustrated by Congress’s failed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump lashed out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump doled out his critique in two tweets directed at the senator: “Mitch, get back to work and put Repeal & Replace, Tax Reform & Cuts and a great Infrastructure Bill on my desk for signing. You can do it!” and “Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn’t get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!”August 14, 2017 – After Donald Trump hesitated to condemn the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck Pharmaceuticals, chose to resign from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council. Frazier, an African American and one of the most powerful executives in the United States, explained his decision to leave in a public statement: “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal. As CEO of Merck and as a matter of public conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.” Trump took to Twitter, firing back, “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”September 19, 2017 – During a speech at the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump Kim Jong-un “Rocket Man” and threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.”September 22, 2017 – Continuing to use aggressive language towards North Korea and Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump tweeted, “Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!”October 4, 2017 – On October 4, 2017, four soldiers in the United States Armed Forces were killed in Niger by ISIS-affiliated combatants. When asked at a press conference on October 16 why he still hadn’t spoken about the fallen soldiers, Trump said he had written the families personal letters, which would “go out either today or tomorrow.” He also insinuated at the press conference that President Obama had not called the families of fallen soldiers. This was untrue. Obama had called Gold Star families throughout his presidency, as confirmed by both Obama’s staff and the families themselves. The night after the press conference, Donald Trump placed a condolence call to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of fallen serviceman Sgt. La David Johnson. The following week, Mrs. Johnson appeared on Good Morning America to discuss her husband’s life and her call with the president. Mrs. Johnson said Trump forgot her husband’s name during the call, and that she “heard him stumbling” as he tried to remember. Less than an hour after the interview aired, President Trump suggested the Gold Star widow had been lying, writing on Twitter, “I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”October 5, 2017 – In either a misunderstanding of the duties of the Senate Intelligence Committee or an attempt to deflect attention from the Russia investigation, Donald Trump tweeted, “Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!”October 10, 2017 – In response to rumors earlier in the month that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called the president a “moron,” Donald Trump said, “I think it’s fake news. But if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”October 25, 2017 – As part of an ongoing online feud, Donald Trump tweeted at Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker: “The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of the Senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected. Now act so hurt & wounded!”TREATMENT of STRANGERS based on GROUP MEMBERSHIP instead of WELCOMING THEM based on THEIR INDIVIDUALITY:June 16, 2015 – In his speech announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, Donald Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”May 31, 2016 – Donald Trump attacked Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge who presided over the Trump University fraud case, saying that Curiel’s assignment to the case represented "an absolute conflict because the judge was “of Mexican heritage.” “I’m building a wall,” said Trump, “It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”October 7, 2016 – In the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, Donald Trump bragged to Billy Bush about grabbing women by their genitals without consent. In the video published by the Washington Post, Trump said, “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything… grab them by the pussy.” Trump said his statements were “locker room banter” and apologized “if anyone was offended.” He later issued a further response to the tape’s release, saying, “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person.”January 27, 2017 – Donald Trump signed what would become known as the ”travel ban,” an executive order which imposed a 90-day ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, while also indefinitely halting incoming refugees from Syria. Trump’s travel ban still allowed travelers from other Muslim-majority countries where he held extensive business interests, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey.February 9 , 2017 – Before a day of golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Donald Trump tweeted that refugees were flooding in from the seven “suspect” countries his travel ban had outlawed, and that these refugees were “SO DANGEROUS.” In January, Fox News reported that no terrorist attacks had been perpetrated by refugees from countries on Trump’s list.February 12, 2017 – In the wake of Donald Trump’s travel ban, some international travelers faced increased scrutiny at airports, and in some cases were asked to deliver digital information to Border Protection. Sidd Bikkannavar, a natural-born U.S. citizen and scientist at NASA, was detained at an airport in Texas upon his return from Chile and pressured into unlocking his cell phone for search. Haisam Elsharkawi, an American citizen and electronics salesman from Anaheim, California, surrendered his cell phone after persistent pressure from border control. He said in an interview that border control told him they would confiscate the phone if he did not comply. Elsharkawi said, “I opened the doors of hell when I asked for a lawyer. They just started attacking me verbally. ‘Why do you need a lawyer? Are you a criminal? What are you hiding?’”February 16, 2017 – Donald Trump asked April Ryan, an African American reporter and White House correspondent, if she would arrange a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. After Ryan asked a question about Trump meeting with the Caucus, he said, “Do you want to set up the meeting? Are they friends of yours?”February 18, 2017 – The Department of Homeland Security drafted a proposal to mobilize the National Guard in an effort to arrest undocumented immigrants. While the DHS never implemented the proposal, and the White House denied it had existed in the first place (despite the 11-page memo leaking to the Associated Press), Washington lawmakers saw the draft as an indication that the Trump administration was willing to consider military force as a means of rounding up undocumented immigrants.Feburary 22, 2017 – Donald Trump signed an executive order halting an Obama-era directive that allowed transgender students to use the school bathroom corresponding to their gender identity. Civil rights groups said the executive order would reinforce a culture of discrimination and could further endanger transgender students.March 6, 2017 – Six weeks after issuing his first failed executive order blocking citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, Donald Trump issued a new travel ban. Trump’s first order met objections in several state courts, and was blocked on appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. To improve the second ban’s chances of passing, the Trump administration amended the executive order, excluding Iraq from the list of banned countries and altering the permanent ban on Syrian refugee admissions. About a week later, on March 15, a Hawaiian judge blocked this second draft of the ban.July 26, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow… Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming… victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.” Two judges later blocked Trump’s discriminatory memorandum.August 25, 2017 – Following up on tweets he wrote in July, Donald Trump signed a directive to prevent transgender individuals from joining the military. The order gave Defense Secretary James Mattis the ability to decide if transgender members currently in the military could continue to serve.October 12, 2017 – While Puerto Rico was still reeling a month after Hurricane Maria made landfall—with 90 percent of the island still without electricity and 40 percent without clean drinking water—Donald Trump responded to critics on Twitter by saying, “We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” Five months after the hurricane, 400,000 Puerto Ricans still did not have power.October 23, 2017 – When asked about gay rights while in the company of Mike Pence, Donald Trump joked, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”MAKING EXCUSES for SIN:August 19, 2015 – In August of 2015, just three months after Trump announced his candidacy for president, two of his supporters in Boston beat a homeless Latino man with a metal pipe, and then urinated on him. Asked by the arresting officer why they had done it, one of the attackers said, “Trump was right—all these illegals need to be deported.” During a press conference shortly thereafter, Trump said he hadn’t heard about the assault. “It would be a shame,” he told the crowd of reporters, before continuing, “I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”February 1, 2017 In a rollback of an Obama-era protection, Donald Trump’s White House withdrew the Mercury Effluent Rule, which regulated the safe use and disposal of mercury in American dental offices. The Natural Resource Defense Council estimated the repeal would discharge five tons of the neurotoxic substance into water supplies each year. Even trace amounts of mercury can harm brain function and damage the human nervous system, particularly in pregnant women and infants.February 16, 2017 – Using the Congressional Review Act, Donald Trump repealed the so-called “stream protection rule,” which kept coal companies from dumping mining debris into rivers. Barack Obama first implemented the regulation after a growing body of evidence suggested the debris could contain toxic materials, such as selenium, mercury, and arsenic. Trump’s repeal has been on the wish list for the coal industry since the rule’s publication in December of 2016.March 28, 2017 – Donald Trump signed a bill that killed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulation. Signed by Barack Obama, the legislation protected workers against serious safety hazards and labor law violations in any government contract above $500,000.April 2, 2017 – In regard to an ongoing lawsuit, a federal judge in Kentucky ruled Donald Trump may have incited violence against protesters during his 2016 campaign rally in Kentucky. While the judge’s ruling did not constitute a formal conviction, it did reject arguments from Trump’s lawyers to throw out the suit, finding the protestors’ injuries were the “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s statements. Donald Trump yelled “Get ‘em out of here!” to his supporters, who subsequently shoved and punched the protesters.April 3, 2017 – Donald Trump praised Egypt’s authoritarian leader President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, saying, “I just want to let everybody know in case there was any doubt that we are very much behind President el-Sisi.” Just before meeting with Trump, el-Sisi sentenced 17 Egyptians to jail for taking part in protests against his regime. Due to his human rights offenses, the Egyptian leader had been barred from the White House for four years prior to meeting Trump.April 17, 2017 – Donald Trump called and congratulated Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the Turkish leader’s victory in a public referendum that majorly expanded his executive powers. Contradicting Trump, the U.S. State Department released a statement questioning the democratic legitimacy of the referendum, pointing out irregularities in the election results and bias in media coverage.April 30, 2017 – Donald Trump invited Rodrigo Duterte, the authoritarian leader of the Philippines, to visit the White House. Duterte’s regime had carried out extrajudicial killings of drug users and drug dealers, garnering global condemnation. As of January 2018, Human Rights Watch had counted over 12,000 such murders’. Two senior officials in the White House said they expected significant pushback internally, should Duterte accept Trump’s invitation. The two leaders met in November, during which time Trump reported the pair had a “great relationship.”May 1, 2017 – In an interview on Sirius Radio, Donald Trump praised Andrew Jackson as having “a big heart.” Andrew Jackson infamously enacted the Trail of Tears, which forced 17,000 Cherokees to walk across the country and resulted in thousands of deaths. Trump also claimed, “had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War.” He continued, “But why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”May 31, 2017 – The White House granted ethics waivers to 17 senior officials, including Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. The waivers allowed Bannon to interact with Breitbart News, and Conway to interact with lobbyists and private clients.August 12, 2017 – During the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, neo-Nazis and former Ku Klux Klan members carried tiki torches and shouted slogans including “The Jews Will Not Replace Us.” A white nationalist named James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others in the process. After the attack and Heyer’s death, Trump he refused to explicitly rebuke the white nationalists. The president placed partial blame for the attack on the counter-protesters, condemning, “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”August 15, 2017 – At a news conference about the “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia, Donald Trump said, “There were very fine people on both sides” of the violence in Charlottesville.August 17, 2017 – Donald Trump lamented the removal of Confederate monuments, stating that such actions were “so foolish” and “sad.” He called these statues “beautiful” and spoke to the “history and culture of our great country being ripped apart.” He did not mention slavery in any of his tweets on the Confederacy.August 25, 2017 – Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. An Arizona judge had convicted Arpaio of criminal contempt-of-court for “flagrant disregard” of a court order to cease and desist his practice of racially profiling Latinos. U.S District Judge G. Murray Snow noted Arpaio made “multiple intentional misstatements of fact under oath,” and also told local news stations he would ignore the injunction and “continue ‘doing what he had always been doing.’”September 12, 2017 – Donald Trump hosted Najib Razak, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, at the White House, despite the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation of a corruption scandal in Razak’s administration. Razak stood accused of funneling $3.5 billion dollars in public money from the Malaysian government to finance the purchase of jewelry, real estate, and Hollywood film rights. Razak has responded to accusations of corruption in his own country by firing investigators and referring to journalistic exposés on his spending as “Fake News.” Razak and his entourage stayed in the Trump International Hotel during his trip to D.C.ACTIVELY PROMOTING the LOVE of MONEY:November 13, 2016 – Ivanka Trump accompanied her father on his presidential interview with 60 Minutes. Ivanka’s upscale jewelry brand used her father’s political appearance to promote a $10,800 bracelet she had worn during the broadcast.November 18, 2016 – Even though he said he would not settle the case, Donald Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle his Trump University fraud lawsuits. The real estate seminar program was not an accredited university and used misleading marketing tactics to recruit students.January 11, 2016 – Donald Trump refused to divest from his real estate companies or place his assets in a blind trust, as encouraged by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The United States Government designates a “Qualified Blind Trust:” for executive branch employees as one where the trustee has no relation whatsoever to the government official. Contrary to this, President Trump opted to entrust business operations of his companies to his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. According to the Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Trump’s arrangement “doesn’t meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every President in the past four decades has met.” By continuing to maintain a direct connection with his businesses, Trump may have violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. This clause forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”January 20, 2017 – During Inauguration Day, Melania Trump’s biography on the White House’s official website, The White House, included a paragraph that promoted her jewelry line, “Melania™ Timepieces & Jewelry.”January 25, 2017 – After Donald Trump won the presidential election, his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, doubled its initiation fee to $200,000.January 2017 – At least two foreign government-owned entities rented space in Trump Tower, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority. Donald Trump has announced he would not sell his ownership stake in Trump Hotels, and has argued, through his lawyer Sheri Dillon, that they didn’t think “paying your hotel bill was an emolument”. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” A lawsuit brought against Trump for maintaining his ownership stake rebutted Dillon’s argument, saying, “As the Framers were aware, private financial interests can subtly sway even the most virtuous leaders, and entanglements between American officials and foreign powers could pose a creeping, insidious threat to the Republic.”February 9, 2017 – Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway promoted Ivanka Trump’s retail brand while speaking on television in her official capacity as an aide to President Trump. “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would tell you,” Conway said, on Fox and Friends, “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody.” Sales for Ivanka’s brand skyrocketed that day, almost tripling after Conway’s appearance. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, joined ranking Democrats in jointly issuing a letter to the Office of Government Ethics calling for a review of Conway’s comments. In response to inquiries on disciplinary action for Conway, Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s stated she had been “counseled” on her behavior.February 19, 2017 – The Trump administration asked the Council of Economic Advisers to predict a 3.5% surge in economic production over the next decade. Compared to the 1.8% projected by the Federal Reserve, this calculation could be dangerously optimistic. “The risk,” explained the president of the Committee Responsible for Federal Budget, “is that rosy economic scenarios allow us to borrow trillions of additional dollars in the next couple of years, doing real damage.”February 22, 2017 – The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. received an estimated $40,000-$60,000 for hosting an event held by the Embassy of Kuwait. This violates the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Trump never divested from his companies, and thus has continued to benefit from payments to the Trump Organization.February 23, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Justice Department would renew its contracts with for-profit prisons. This reversed an Obama-era decision to phase out federal use of private correctional facilities. In decades past, privately-run facilities were used to address the U.S.’s overflowing public prisons, which saw the number of incarcerated people skyrocket 800 percent between 1980 and 2013. After Barack Obama introduced a series of significant prison reforms in 2013 (most significantly a directive to lower sentences for non-violent offenders), the Justice Department anticipated less demand for corporate-run prisons as the number of prisoners was expected to dwindle significantly. Because the Trump administration announced a new “crackdown” on crime, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department would need to renew contracts with the private institutions in order “to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.”February 26, 2017 – The Trump Organization claimed it had made good on its promise to donate all profits earned from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury. However, it provided no evidence of how much it donated or how that amount was calculated. Since his company has accepted payments from foreign governments (see numbers 41, 42, 63, 102, 135, 210, 277, 319), Donald Trump may have violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits any U.S. official from receiving gifts or compensation from another nation’s government. By all recent evidence, Trump has neither divested from his companies nor set up a blind trust for his assets.March 9, 2017 – The Office of Government Ethics urged the White House to reprimand senior counselor Kellyanne Conway for publicly endorsing Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. The OGE called the White House’s view of ethics “incorrect.” In response, White House deputy counsel Stefan Passantino said in a statement, “Many regulations promulgated by the Office of Government Ethics do not apply to employees of the Executive Office of the President.” Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings said Passantino’s argument was “troubling,” and wondered how it had been determined which ethical regulations were “inapplicable to employees of the Executive Office of the President.”March 14, 2017 – Donald Trump wrote off $100 million dollars in losses on his leaked 2005 return. He paid $38 million in taxes on a reported $150 million income. This is an effective tax rate of around 25%. This is the same rate as, or even less than, that of individuals making between $30,000 and $100,000 per year. During the 2016 debates, Trump had bragged about not paying taxes, saying, “That makes me smart.”March 16, 2017 – In southern Florida, 63 Russian investors have purchased about $100 million of Trump-branded real estate. According to a disclosure made in 2016, Trump reaped between $100,000 and $1 million during election year 2016 from property sales in southern Florida. Although the exact origin of the payments remains a mystery, the new owners’ identities are a matter of public record. One such buyer was Alexander Yuzvik, who purchased Unit 3901 in Trump’s Sunny Isles development for $1.3 million. In the three years leading up to the transaction, Yuzvik served as a senior executive for Spetsroi—a state-owned Russian construction company which has built new structures for the FSB (the modern descendant of Russia’s KGB). Trump dealt with Russian purchasers as recently as 2016, and has offered no record of full divestiture after his inauguration. Contrary to calls from the American public and ethics experts, Trump has declined to release comprehensive financial records.April 24, 2017 – Donald Trump ordered White House aides to draft a tax plan that slashed the corporate tax rate to 15 percent. Trump told his aides cutting taxes for businesses should take priority over decreasing the federal deficit.May 1, 2017 – The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. received $30,000 from groups promoting Turkish-American relations as part of a convention at the Trump property. Among the attendees were the Turkish Ambassador and a high-level U.S. official. This could violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Donald Trump has retained an ownership interest in his businesses, and thus could receive payments from foreign states.May 6, 2017 – Nicole Kushner Meyer, the sister of White House adviser and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, solicited investments from Chinese business owners by promising American visas in return. An ad for her event in China read, “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States.”June 13, 2017 – Since the election, 70 percent of the properties purchased from the Trump Organization have reportedly sold to anonymous LLCs rather than identified people. Before the election, only 2% of Trump properties went to anonymous companies.June 20, 2017 – Donald Trump’s budget cuts to address homelessness and low-income housing did not cut funding for one New York City housing development—the subsidized Starrett City housing complex. It happened that Trump held a stake in Starrett City, and made about $5 million dollars off the property in three months during 2016. (June 20, 2017) Trump Business Dealings PolicyJune 26, 2017 – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke flew on a charter plane from Las Vegas to his hometown in Montana, which cost taxpayers $12,375. Zinke and his staff used private and military aircraft multiple times.June 2017 – The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. received $270,000 in payments from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for rooms, catering, and parking as part of a lobbying effort. This violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Donald Trump has retained an ownership interest in his businesses and thus could receive payments from foreign states.July 18, 2017 – The United States military rented space in Trump Tower, amounting to a $2.4 million yearly expense. The stated reason for the payment was to retain space in the hotel should Donald Trump decide to sleep there. As of July, Trump hadn’t spent a night in the Tower.August 21, 2017 – The U.S. Secret Service spent substantial sums with Donald Trump’s businesses, including at least $137,000 on golf cart rentals at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster. Based on a Government Accountability Office report, each trip to Mar-a-Lago costs the taxpayer $3 million in total.September 6, 2017 – Among the members of Donald Trump’s private golf clubs are 21 lobbyists from prominent trade groups and 50 executives from companies with federal contracts. Citizen watchdog groups said club membership could influence Trump’s decision making, allowing certain individuals potentially lucrative access to the president. On his hundredth day in office, Trump visited The Ames Company’s factory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to sign two new executive orders. Robert Mehmel, president of the Ames Company and a member of Trump’s New Jersey golf course, stood just behind the president’s shoulder as Trump signed the orders for the press. During another White House meeting with Trump, a lobbyist for North American airport companies was overheard on C-Span saying to the president, “I’m a member of your golf club by the way.”September 29, 2017 – Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned from his position after public outrage mounted about his inappropriate spending on private jets for travel. According to Politico, Price had spent over $300,000 on private flights before resigning from Trump’s cabinet.October 5, 2017 – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spent $811,797.81 to make seven trips using military aircraft. While the Office of the Inspector General said this did not break any laws explicitly, Mnuchin failed to provide justification for his spending. Earlier in the year, he had placed a formal request for a military plane to escort he and his new wife on their honeymoon. While his request was denied, he has had other lavish requests granted, including one flight to Miami which cost taxpayers $40,000. Typically, government employees are encouraged to book commercial travel and file for reimbursement. Had he followed protocol, that same flight to Miami would have cost taxpayers about $700.October 23, 2017 – To repair Puerto Rico’s electric power infrastructure, the Trump administration awarded a $300 million contract to Whitefish Energy—a small Montana-based company with only two employees. When confusion spread over why Whitefish had earned the lucrative contract, it was revealed that Whitefish Energy’s CEO, Andy Techmanski, was from the same hometown as Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Both Zinke and Techmanski confirmed they knew each other before the $300 million deal; Zinke’s son had even worked a summer job for Whitefish. When Techmanski was asked about how had gotten the multimillion-dollar federal contract, he replied, “We called each other.” According to the contract itself, the US government could not “audit or review the cost and profit elements” of Whitefish’s work—allowing Whitefish to spend the $300 million with virtually no oversight. Days later, the governor of Puerto Rico canceled the contract.ACTIVELY PROMOTING the LOVE of AUTHORITY OTHER THAN GOD’SJanuary 24, 2017 – Donald Trump barred all employees of the Environmental Protection Agency from posting on social media or speaking with reporters about their work.January 27, 2017 – At a private dinner, Donald Trump allegedly demanded loyalty from FBI Director James Comey. Comey claimed Trump said to him, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” Comey had replied that he would always be honest with [Trump], but that he was not ‘reliable’ in the conventional political sense. Comey went on to explain why the Department of Justice and FBI should remain independent of each other. Director Comey was dismissed from office four months later.January 30, 2017 – Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to defend the travel ban. In a repudiation of the president, Yates had instructed Justice Department lawyers not to defend the executive order from any legal challenges.February 14, 2017 – The day after Michael Flynn resigned, FBI Director James Comey reported Donald Trump requested a private meeting] [BP2] to “talk about Mike Flynn.” Trump told Comey that Flynn had misled Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian representatives, but that Flynn was “a good guy.” Trump said he hoped Comey could “let this go.”February 14, 2017 – In the wake of Michael Flynn’s resignation for lying to senior officials and interacting with Russian representatives after the election, Donald Trump tweeted, “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal with N.Korea etc?”February 16, 2017 – Staff at the United States Department of Agriculture were given a list of “blacklisted” terms which the agency would no longer use in their scientific research. The memo instructed scientists to replace “climate change” with “weather extremes,” and “reduce greenhouse gases” with “build soil organic matter, increase nutrient use efficiency.” Explaining the decision in an email, the Deputy Chief of Programs wrote, “It has become clear one of the previous administration’s priority is not consistent with that of the incoming administration. Namely, that priority is climate change. Please visit with your staff and make them aware of this shift in perspective within the executive branch.”February 24, 2017 – After Donald Trump’s election, Republican lawmakers in 18 states proposed new legislation intended to curb mass protests. Among these were increased consequences for protests blocking roadways, new punishments for any demonstrators wearing a mask, and, in Arizona, a law which would allow the state to seize the assets of any person attending a protest which later turned violent.February 28, 2017 – To stop a long string of press leaks, Donald Trump approved a rule allowing White House senior staff to examine the cell phones of anyone working in the White House. According to Politico, senior staffers invited aides to an “emergency meeting” wherein the junior staffers had to relinquish all mobile devices for search. Press Secretary Sean Spicer led the charge on the operation, informing junior staffers that apps such as Signal and Confide—encrypted messaging apps—would violate the Presidential Records Act. Spicer warned staffers against speaking to the press about the “emergency meetings”; the story was almost immediately leaked to the press.March 10, 2017 – Donald Trump abruptly ordered 46 Obama-era prosecutors to tender their resignations. Among the dismissed prosecutors was Preet Bharara, an attorney renowned for his work uprooting government corruption. Bharara served as the U.S. attorney in New York City and, at the time of his removal, had jurisdiction over Trump Tower in New York. When he was fired, Bharara was reportedly building a case against Rupert Murdoch and Fox News executives for a variety of indiscretions related to violations of privacy.March 13, 2017 – Donald Trump expanded the CIA’s power to allow the agency to conduct drone strikes on suspected terrorists. Under Obama, the CIA’s directive was to gather intelligence on locations of potential terrorists and then allow the military to call the drone strike. With the new powers endowed by Trump, the CIA has expanded military abilities, further opening the door to unreviewed military action abroad. According to figures released in December 2017 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, drone strikes in numerous middle-eastern countries nearly doubled from 2016 to 2017.March 17, 2017 – Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had been investigating potentially illegal investments from Tom Price, Donald Trump’s head of the Department of Health and Human Services, when Trump abruptly fired Bharara on March 10, 2017. The investigation reviewed Price’s investments in the healthcare industry over the past four years, when Price had purchased more than $300,000 in healthcare stock while holding a governmental position which could influence their performance.March 28, 2017 – In response to the defamation suit brought against Donald Trump by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, Trump’s lawyers invoked the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. This clause, argued the Trump’s personal legal team, prevented civil lawsuits against the president while he held office. In another case reminiscent of the Zervos accusations, President Bill Clinton tried to use the Supremacy Clausein 1997 to evade allegations of sexual assault from Paula Jones. The Supreme Court rejected Clinton’s claim, and the former president was forced to settle the lawsuit out of court.March 29, 2017 – Politico reported a supervisor at the Energy Department’s Climate Office banned the phrases “Climate Change,” “Emissions Reduction,” and “Paris Agreement” from all communications. Instead, workers were told to more frequently reference “jobs” and “infrastructure.”March 30, 2017 – According to FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump called him to ask the director to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation. Trump said the investigation was impeding his ability to make deals for the country.April 4, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the Justice Department to review consent decrees, a legal tool which allows federal officials to institute criminal justice reform in cases of police misconduct. A consent decree represents a legally enforceable pact between police departments and the courts, both agreeing on the need for reform and the method of its implementation. Following the police shooting of 18-year old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Justice Department’s investigation resulted in a consent decree! that outlined the specific terms of reform for the Missouri city. Among the terms were required body cameras for police officers, new police training on racial bias, and establishment of a Civilian Review Board that could independently review claims of excessive force. As of April 2017, police misconduct investigations were underway in the cities of Baltimore and Chicago after the shootings of Freddie Gray and Laquan McDonald. In reviewing consent decrees, Jeff Sessions had the power to place these investigations—and any resultant police reforms—on a permanent hold.April 7, 2017 – The United States Department of Homeland Security ordered Twitter to reveal the private information of a Twitter user, because the anonymous user had been critical of Donald Trump and may have worked for the U.S. government. Twitter refused to reveal the account’s identity, and then filed a lawsuit to counter the order. Following this, the DHS dropped their request for information.April 11, 2017 – Donald Trump allegedly asked that FBI Director James Comey “get out”—that is, release publicly—the idea that the FBI was not investigating Trump. Trump added, “Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.”April 14, 2017 – Donald Trump’s administration announced the White House would no longer disclose visitor logs. Without the logs, Trump and White House officials could hold private meetings without oversight on visitor identity or affiliation.April 18, 2017 – In the wake of controversy about Donald Trump’s travel ban, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the president’s critics in Congress should “shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.”April 20, 2017 – A full month after dismissing 93 U.S. attorneys, Attorney General Jeff Sessions had not hired any to replace them. The vacancies in the federal prosecutors’ office came as a surprise, given that Sessions has prioritized a crack-down on crime.April 20, 2017 – Donald Trump’s lawyers claimed in a court filing that protesters at Trump rallies had “no rights” to “express dissenting views” because doing so violated Trump’s First Amendment rights. Trump’s lawyers argued that the protesters’ right to free speech, which is protected by the First Amendment, actually did not apply “as part of the campaign rally of the political candidates they oppose.”May 2, 2017 – Donald Trump referred to the system of checks and balances between the legislative and executive branches as an “archaic” system. He followed this statement by claiming, “Maybe at some point we’ll have to take those rules on, because, for the good of the nation, things are going to have to be different.”May 2, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted that the country “needs a good ‘shutdown’,” and argued that Senate rules should be changed in order to lower the number of votes needed to break a filibuster.May 8, 2017 – In a legal brief defending Donald Trump’s travel ban, the Justice Department cited Palmer v. Thompson, a segregation-era court case which restricted judges from considering “government purpose” when assessing a law’s constitutionality. The “government purpose” in the original Palmer v. Thompson case referenced Jackson, Mississippi’s racially motivated decision to close five segregated pools rather than open them to African American citizens. The Supreme Court at the time ruled in favor of Jackson closing the pools, saying the city’s racial motive in doing so should not affect the court’s assessment of the action’s constitutionality. The Trump administration cited the case to justify its argument that religious bias ought not to affect the constitutionality of the travel ban.May 9, 2017 – Dan Heyman, a West Virginian journalist, was arrested after questioning Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price about how the proposed health care bill would affect victims of domestic violence. In the aftermath of the healthcare bill’s introduction, Secretary Price had barred press access whenever questions about health care might be raised. On the day in question, Heyman approached Price while the secretary walked toward the capital in the morning. After the reporter held out his phone to record Price, Heyman was arrested for “breaching Secret Service agents.” Heyman spent seven hours in jail before he was released with a charge of willful disruption of governmental processes. Almost three months later, a state prosecutor found Heyman had broken no laws and would not be prosecuted for his actions.May 11, 2017 – In a televised interview, Donald Trump admitted that he had the Russia investigation in mind when he fired FBI Director Comey. He said, “And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, said to myself, I said: This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”June 2, 2017 – White House lawyers met with the leaders of several federal agencies to order them not to comply with Democrats’ requests for oversight of agency activities. A White House spokesperson said the Trump administration’s policy regarding oversight is to “accommodate requests of the chairmen, regardless of political party.” At the time, there were no Democratic chairmen because Republicans controlled Congress.June 11, 2017 – Breaking with a longstanding custom, Donald Trump tried to cultivate a personal relationship with a federal prosecutor, Preet Bharara, after the 2016 election. Months after his firing, Bharara reported a sense of déjà vu listening to James Comey’s testimony regarding Trump’s bizarre interactions. Trump’s final call to Bharara, on March 9, 2017, was ostensibly to “shoot the breeze,” which Bharara found unethical and immediately reported to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He was fired the following day.June 22, 2017 – Two senior intelligence officials told Robert Mueller that Donald Trump had approached them separately and requested they use their position to publicly announce the Trump campaign had not colluded with Russian operatives.July 19, 2017 – In an interview with The New York Times, Donald Trump said he would not have chosen Jeff Sessions to be the attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. This admission underscored his expectation of loyalty from his administration, and further suggested a simmering conflict between Trump and Sessions.September 23, 2017 – Donald Trump suggested that team owners in the National Football League should fire players who kneel during the national anthem. He said owners should respond by saying, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired. He’s fired!” Trump also said that “when somebody disrespects the flag,” fans should leave in protest.September 24, 2017 – Donald Trump repeated his rebuke of National Football League players who kneel during the national anthem. He tweeted, “Great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!”September 25, 2017 – Congressional investigators reported the White House and Justice Department had missed deadlines to submit documents requested for the ongoing Russia investigation, including information on Jared Kushner’s security clearance and Donald Trump’s conversations with James Comey. In an email, Representative Adam Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee said, “The White House’s refusal to answer Congress in full and truthfully raises serious questions about the White House’s intent, including the potential that it is misleading Congress.”October 9, 2017 – After more National Football League players began kneeling for the national anthem Donald Trump told Vice President Mike Pence to attend a Colts vs. 49ers game, specifically to leave the stadium as a public rebuke to the protests. Pence dutifully carried the plan to fruition, arriving at the stadium to great fanfare, and then conspicuously leaving the game before kickoff. After the stunt, the president tweeted, “I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen.” Pence’s trip to Indiana in order to walk out of the stadium cost taxpayers around $250,000.October 10, 2017 – In response to the National Football League’s national anthem protests, Donald Trump threatened the NFL with re-evaluation of its tax-exempt status.October 11, 2017 – Donald Trump threatened the broadcasting licenses of NBC and other media stations, stating on Twitter, “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”October 11, 2017 – After Congress repeatedly blocked its efforts to overhaul immigration policy, the Department of Homeland Security began to explore smaller policy tweaks it could legally enact without the approval of Congress. Though smaller in scope than the more ambitious calls for border walls and billions spent on border security, the DHS looked into ways it could limit protections for unaccompanied minors, tighten visa restrictions, and accelerate pending deportations.October 11, 2017 – Donald Trump told his military advisors he wanted a tenfold increase in nuclear firepower. Every president since Ronald Reagan has signed international disarmament agreements, which still legally restricts the U.S. from increasing nuclear stockpiles. Trump denied he had asked for the expansion, and some military officials said they did not believe he was speaking “literally” when discussing the United States nuclear arsenal.October 13, 2017 – In the fallout from Hurricane Maria, the Pentagon accidentally sent emails to a Bloomberg reporter discussing how they would spin the natural disaster for media coverage. The emails to Bloomberg continued for five days despite the Bloomberg reporter “repeatedly alerting officials” to the mistake. Among the bits of strategy gleaned from the emails were agency-wide requests to ignore the mayor of San Juan, who had been critical of Trump, and to “avoid instructions about waiting for FEMA.”