The Alabama Senate race dominated the news. But important things were happening in the Trump-Russia story. For fun — and context — see how the newest entries fit into the overall saga.
Here’s a list of what we added with our Dec. 12 update:
- June 2005: Manafort Pitches Himself to Russian Oligarch
- Nov. 10, 2008: Trump Sues Deutsche Bank, But Bank Keeps Lending To Him Anyway
- June 9, 2016: Don Jr., Manafort, Kushner Meet With Russian Lawyer
- June 14, 2016: Goldstone Emails Emin Agalarov and Ike Kaveladz
- July 14, 2016: Trump Campaign Successfully Changes GOP Platform on Ukraine
- Nov. 5, 2016: Russian Social Media Exec Offers to Promote Trump
- Dec. 12, 2016: Former Trump Campaign Surrogate Discusses Sanctions With Russian Businessmen
- On or around Jan. 11, 2017: DeVos’ Brother Meets With Putin Associate
- Jan. 20, 2017: Flynn Says Trump Will ‘Rip Up’ Russian Sanctions
- Jan 26, 2017: DOJ Says Flynn Lied; McGahn Informs Trump
- February 2017: FBI Warns Hope Hicks About Russians
- April 9, 2017: McFarland Is Asked To Resign
- Sometime after May 31, 2017: Nunes and White House Contact Erik Prince
- July 8, 2017: Don Jr.’s June 9 Meeting Becomes Public
- Oct. 5, 2017: Papadopoulos Pleads Guilty
- Dec. 4, 2017: Trump Tweets
- Dec. 4, 2017: Trump’s Lawyer Says A President Cannot Be Guilty Of Obstruction Of Justice
- Dec. 4, 2017: Mueller Withdraws Support For Manafort’s Bail Agreement
- Dec. 5, 2017: Mueller Has Subpoenaed Deutsche Bank
- Dec. 7-8, 2017: Mueller Meets With Hope Hicks
The Belly of the Beast 
Do you seriously believe that vote totals in 21 states were altered in any way?
Do you believe that any American changed his vote because of Russian influence,real or imagined?
Your timeline goes back over 10 years. Isn’t that a bit ridiculous?
Answers to your questions:
1) I have no idea to what extent Russian hackers altered vote totals, and neither do you. But a mere 77,000 votes in three states tipped the election to Trump. (And he lost the popular vote by 3 million)
2) Yes, the whole point of the Russian influence campaign was to change votes before they were cast. That’s why Trump’s Team was so eager to embrace the dissemination of “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. (E.g., Don Jr’s June 2016 email: “If it’s what you say it is, I love it…”) Add WikiLeaks, Cambridge Analytica, Russian trolls on social media, etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile, Trump operatives were meeting with Russians and, when later asked, all of them lied about it — sometimes under oath. Don’t you wonder why?
3) Actually, the Timeline goes back over 30 years. Context is the only way to appreciate the depth of the Trump-Russia scandal and the motivations behind it. The interplay between Trump’s connections to Russia and Putin’s desire to eliminate US sanctions is obvious. Meanwhile, Trump’s “witch hunt” and “hoax” claims have earned him a new distinction: It’s PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year.”
Thanks for reading and enjoy the holidays.
1) you are an attorney. Isn’t there something called evidence required to prove an allegation?
2) exactly how did the Russians convince people to change votes? HRC ran the most incompetent campaign in history-and you think that somebody who lost a job in Youngstown or Wilkes-Barre cared about what somebody said about Hillary?
3) 30 years ago Trump was a real estate developer.
So far: 2 indictments; 2 guilty pleas. All are based on evidence. I look forward to hearing from you again when Mueller completes his work, assuming Trump has nothing to hide and allows him to conclude the investigation.