Another eventful week—and many more to come. These are my latest additions to the Bill Moyers & Company overall Timeline relating to Trump and Russia. You can read the entire Timeline here. The Pence Timeline, Comey Firing Timeline, and Kushner Timeline have also been updated to include relevant entries. 

• Also on July 8, 2017: The New York Times prepares to report the story of the June 9, 2016 meeting that Donald Jr. had arranged with Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and a Kremlin-connected lawyer. Returning from Europe aboard Air Force One, a small group of Trump’s advisers huddle in a cabin helping to craft a response for Don Jr. to give the Times. Trump personally signs off on the following statement for his son: “It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up… I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.” [Revised July 31, 2017]

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• July 25, 2017: Trump tweets:

and

 and

 and

 [Added July 31, 2017]

Later in the day, Trump tells The Wall Street Journal, “I’m very disappointed in Jeff Sessions. When asked about Sessions in the Rose Garden, Trump says, “We will see what happens. Time will tell.” [Added July 31, 2017]

• July 26, 2017: Trump tweets:

and

[Added July 31, 2017] 

• July 27, 2017: Two days after the House of Representative had passed—by a margin of 418-3—a sweeping sanctions bill to limit Trump’s power to remove Russian sanctions, the Senate passes the bill by a margin of 98-2 and sends it to Trump’s desk. The bill has a veto-proof majority, and a White House spokesperson said the following day that Trump intends to sign it. [Added July 31, 2017]

• July 28, 2017: Russia retaliates for the recently passed (but not yet signed) US sanctions bill by seizing two US compounds in Russia and ordering the American diplomatic mission in Russia to reduce its staff by several hundred employees before Sept. 1. A Russian legislator and frequent commentator on international affairs tweets, “There is a high probability that this will not be the end of it.” Two days later, Putin confirms that the US will be forced to cut its staff of roughly 1,200 people by 755. It is unclear if this means any Americans would be expelled from the country. [Added July 31, 2017]

• July 29, 2017: Trump tweets:

[Added July 31, 2017]

• July 30, 2017: On ABC News’ This Week, host Martha Raddatz asks Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov about his Nov. 10, 2016 comment that, during the campaign, the Kremlin had continuing communications with Trump’s “immediate entourage.” Ryabkov replies, “You have to go through all the hearings and all the material which is available by now for the Congress and for the general public. You have all the names… If Ambassador Kislyak was not contacting some people on the other side—so to say—he wouldn’t perform his functions as he should. He was not spying and he was not recruiting. If he did so, I would be now a prima ballerina of the Bolshoi ballet, if you know what it means.” Pressed specifically about the June 9, 2016 meeting in which Russians had led Trump’s senior advisers to believe that they could help the Trump campaign with damaging information on Hillary Clinton, he says, “All the information which we provide to anyone can be easily found in open sources. We are not doing anything to the detriment of the domestic developments or internal affairs of any country, the US included.” [Added July 31, 2017]