A year’s worth of news seems to arrive every day. But we’re trying to keep up.

The most important development: We’ve added a “UKRAINE/WHISTLEBLOWER 2019” to the Timeline Name Filter. Click on that button to see only the entries on that thread.

Here is a list of the latest Trump-Russia Timeline update entries through Monday, Sept. 23. Another update is in the works.

AUG. 13, 2018: Trump Signs Bill Approving Military Aid For Ukraine

JUNE 2019: Giuliani Meets With Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office to Press Biden Investigation 

PRIOR TO JULY 18, 2019: Trump Orders Hold on Previously Authorized Military Aid to Ukraine

JULY 25, 2019: Trump Calls Zelensky

JULY 26, 2019: US Special Representative for Ukraine Meets With Zelensky 

EARLY AUGUST 2019: Giuliani Meets With Zelensky Aide To Press Biden Investigation

AUG. 12, 2019: Whistleblower Files Complaint Allegedly Involving Trump

AUG. 26, 2019: Inspector General for Intelligence Community Finds Whistleblower Claim ‘Credible’ and ‘Urgent’

PRIOR TO AUG. 28, 2019: Pentagon Recommends That Trump Release Hold On Military Aid to Ukraine.

SEPT. 9, 2019: House Probing Giuliani’s Ukrainian Efforts

SEPT. 9, 2019: Intelligence Community’s Inspector General Alerts House Intelligence Committee to Whistleblower Complaint

SEPT. 10, 2019: Schiff Demands Whistleblower Complaint

SEPT. 11-13, 2019: White House Releases Ukraine Military Aid and Adds More

SEPT. 11, 2019: Trump Retweets About Comey

SEPT. 12, 2019: Trump Tweets About Mueller Report

SEPT. 12, 2019: House Judiciary Committee Consider Impeachment Inquiry Procedures

SEPT. 12-13, 2019: Trump Tweets and Retweets About Comey, McCabe, Impeachment

SEPT. 13, 2019: After Consulting Justice Department, Acting DNI Refuses to Produce Whistleblower Complaint; House Intelligence Committee Issues Subpoena

SEPT. 14-16, 2019: Trump Tweets and Retweets About Forthcoming DOJ Report on FISA Warrants, Impeachment, ‘Witch Hunt’

SEPT. 16, 2019: Trump Directs Lewandowski to Limit Testimony; Directs Dearborn and Porter Not to Appear

SEPT. 17, 2019: Lewandowski Testifies to Accuracy of Mueller Report

SEPT. 17, 2019: Acting DNI and Inspector General at Impasse

SEPT. 17-18, 2019: Trump Tweets and Retweets About Lewandowski’s Testimony, Impeachment

SEPT. 19, 2019: Giuliani Admits He Asked Ukraine To Investigate Biden

SEPT. 19, 2019: Maguire Defies House Subpoena

SEPT. 19, 2019: McConnell Reverses Position On Election Security Funding

SEPT. 19-20, 2019: Trump Tweets About Whistleblower Reports

SEPT. 20, 2019: Ukraine Ready to Investigate Biden When Trump Makes Official Request

SEPT. 20, 2019: Trump Says Whistleblower is ‘Partisan’; Claims He Had ‘Beautiful Conversation’ With Foreign Leader Involved in Whistleblower Claim

SEPT. 21, 2019: Trump Tweets and Retweets About Whistleblower Story Involving Biden, Tweets About McCabe

SEPT. 22, 2019: Trump Admits Talking to Zelensky About Biden

This post first appeared on Sept. 24, 2019 on Dan Rather’s News & Guts.

On Thursday, Sept. 26, the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, is scheduled to testify publicly about his refusal to provide congressional intelligence committees with a whistleblower complaint.

The inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, has already found the complaint “urgent” and “credible.” He’s slated to testify in closed session on the same day.

By all accounts, the subject of the complaint is Donald Trump.

The Facts 

In a nationally televised interview on June 12, Trump said he’d take “dirt” on a political opponent from a foreign government to win an election. In fact, he was already using the power of the presidency to get that help. Now Trump is preventing Congress and the public from learning the truth about his potential use of American foreign policy for personal political gain. And he’s spinning the episode into attacks on his new targets: former Vice President Joe Biden and a whistleblower.

It’s that simple.

To follow the crisis, we’re adding a new name to the Trump-Russia Timeline filter: “UKRAINE/WHISTLEBLOWER 2019.” Here are the highlights so far:

• Aug. 13, 2018: Trump signs into law a bill authorizing $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, which requires US support to resist ongoing Russian aggression.
• May and June 2019: Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, meets with present and former Ukrainian officials. He’s looking for political “dirt” and wants them to pursue an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
• June 12: Trump tells ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he’d take foreign “dirt” on an opponent to help win an election.
• Days Prior to July 18: Trump orders a hold on the previously authorized military aid to Ukraine.
• July 25: Trump calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and pressures him to investigate Biden. He urges Zelensky to work with Giuliani.
• July 31: Trump calls Putin. The White House’s two-sentence readout says only that they discussed Siberian wildfires and trade.
• Aug. 12: A whistleblower from the intelligence community files a formal complaint that relates to Trump’s alleged commitment to another world leader and that, at least in part, concerns Ukraine.
• Aug. 21: Giuliani boasts that over the previous few weeks, he’s been meeting with Ukrainian officials and pushing them to investigate Biden’s son.
• Sept. 1-2: Vice President Mike Pence meets with Zelensky in Warsaw. The next day, reporters ask Pence whether he can assure Ukraine that Trump’s delay in military aid is unrelated to Giuliani’s efforts to get “dirt” on the Biden family. Rather than answer the question, Pence deflects: “[A]s President Trump had me make clear, we have great concerns about issues of corruption…”
• Sept. 9: Inspector General Atkinson informs House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) about the whistleblower complaint. After finding it “urgent” and “credible,” on Aug. 26, Atkinson sent it to acting DNI Maguire, who was required by law to transmit it to congressional intelligence committees within seven days. But he has failed to do so.
• Sept. 10: Schiff sends Maguire a letter asking for a copy of the complaint.
• Sept. 11: Trump releases the hold he’d placed on military aid to Ukraine.
• Sept. 13: Jason Klitenic, general counsel for the office of the director of national intelligence, tells Schiff that after consulting with Attorney General William Barr’s Department of Justice about how to handle the situation, Maguire will not produce the complaint. Klitenic’s stated legal justification would put Trump above the law. In a Sept. 17 letter to Schiff, Inspector General Atkinson disagrees with Klitenic’s argument, but is bound by Maguire’s decision to follow it.
• Sept. 15: Schiff tells CBS News that Maguire told him that he wasn’t providing the complaint “because he is being instructed not to. This involved a higher authority, someone above” the director of national intelligence, a cabinet position.
• Sept. 20: Sure enough, The Washington Post reports,“White House counsel Pat Cipollone has been engaged in the matter since shortly after the whistleblower action surfaced, officials said, helping to identify legal obstacles to the sharing of information that could be politically damaging to Trump.”

Trump Denies, Distracts, and Counterattacks

• Sept. 20: Trump asserts that he doesn’t know the whistleblower’s identity, but says that the person was “partisan.” He professes not to know what conversation the media were referring to, but claimed it was “beautiful” and “totally appropriate.”

• Sept. 21: In more than a dozen tweets and retweets, Trump attacks Biden and the whistleblower story.
• Sept. 22: Trump now admits that he spoke with Zelensky on July 25 about “all of the corruption taking place…the fact that we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption in the Ukraine [sic].”

• Sept. 23: Trump’s twitter attacks target the whistleblower:

• Sept. 24: Trump gives a new reason for having withheld military aid from Ukraine — “I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine” — and says he’d do it again.

This 30-second CNN video speaks for itself:

• Sept. 24: Trump promises to release a transcript of his July 25 phone call with Zelensky on Sept. 25.

Wholly apart from the White House track record of doctoring “official transcripts,” Trump’s offer is a distraction. By law, congressional intelligence committees must see the entire whistleblower report. The Timeline confirms that Trump’s dubious conduct involves far more than the Zelensky phone call. That’s the real story.

For a brief moment, obstruction of the Russia investigation was last week’s big Trump scandal. For five hours, Corey Lewandowski’s Sept. 17 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was tough to watch. But those who persevered to the end saw Lewandowski confirm facts proving that Trump had obstructed justice. The question now is what Congress, the media, and the country will do about it.

Here’s how it unfolded.

Act #1: Obstructing the Investigation into Obstruction

Prior to his appearance, Lewandowski promised belligerence toward Democratic members questioning him. He got an important 11^th-hour assist from the White House counsel, who told Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) late on Sept. 16 that Trump had directed Lewandowski to limit his testimony to matters in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

Lewandowski’s combative opening statement prompted an immediate tweet from Trump:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1174017425068576769

When the Democrats started asking questions, Republican members interrupted with frivolous points of order, parliamentary inquiries, requests for roll call votes, and diversions to side issues. Their obstreperous conduct continued for the rest of the day.

During the first 10-minute break in the hearing, Lewandowski tweeted a link to a new Super PAC website that supports his increasingly likely candidacy for a US Senate seat in New Hampshire:

https://twitter.com/CLewandowski_/status/1174033997510381568

As the afternoon slipped away, many Democratic members of the committee used their allotted five minutes for self-satisfying speeches that no one wanted to hear. As Americans tuned out, cable news networks ended live coverage. The Lewandowski/Trump/GOP strategy — obstructing the investigation into Trump’s obstruction — seemed to be succeeding.

Act #2: The Truth Emerges

Viewers who watched C-Span for the final 30 minutes of the hearing observed a skilled trial attorney at work. He should have gone first. Barry Berke, a seasoned litigator on a leave of absence from his law firm, led Lewandowski through a cross-examination establishing that Trump obstructed justice.

Here’s the resulting narrative:

• Lewandowski testified — as he had repeatedly throughout the hearing — that everything in Mueller’s report was “accurate.” (Although he says he’s never read it.)
• Initially, Lewandowski invoked the White House letter to avoid answering questions about a late May 2017 meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. But his effort failed because Lewandowski had already disclosed the episode in his book, Let Trump Be Trump. (Among its notable lines about Trump world: “Loyalty is the currency of the realm.”)
• Around the time of that Oval Office meeting, senior members of the Trump administration dangled before Lewandowski the possibility that he would become a White House senior adviser equal to Jared Kushner. In that role, he would “run the Russia investigation.”
• Less than a month later, on June 19, 2017, Lewandowski was in the Oval Office again, where Trump dictated a message that he asked Lewandowski to deliver to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions was to give a speech announcing his “unrecusal” from the Russia investigation and limiting Mueller’s probe to future elections only.
• Lewandowski agreed to deliver the message, but he didn’t want a public log of his visit to Sessions at the Justice Department.
• Lewandowski then asked Trump’s deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn to deliver the message.
• On July 19, 2017, Trump asked Lewandowski if he had delivered the message.

All of that adds up to presidential obstruction of justice. In fact, Berke implied that before speaking with Mueller, Lewandowski demanded immunity for his own potential criminal exposure arising from the episode. Lewandowski refused to answer those questions.

If you cherish truth and the rule of law, spend 30 minutes watching Berke’s cross-examination here:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4817196/house-judiciary-counsel-berke-questions-lewandowski

Act #3: The Media Aftermath

In any previous administration, first-hand testimony confirming that the President of the United States had obstructed justice — especially by attempting to interfere with a federal investigation into his winning campaign for the presidency — would generate front-page headlines. That didn’t happen.

The Sept. 18 print edition of The New York Times relegated its report on the hearing to page A-16: “Testimony, but No Details, That It Wasn’t ‘Anything Illegal.’” It didn’t include Berke’s withering cross-examination. (An online article added “Key Moments From Corey Lewandowski’s Testimony Before Congress.”) The Wall Street Journal print edition contained a short article on page A4: “Trump Aide Rebuffs Panel.” The Washington Post report on the hearing appeared on page A8: “Ex-campaign manager’s testimony frustrates House Democrats, delights Trump.”

As for television, Berke also confronted Lewandowski with his previous lies on national TV relating to Trump, Sessions, and the Russia investigation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruKIfw5g55Y

Asked if he’d been a truth-teller in connection with one of the most important political scandals in American history, Lewandowski said, “I have no obligation to be honest with the media… I have no obligation to have a candid conversation with the media whatsoever.”

But Lewandowski — who wants to become the next US senator from New Hampshire — wasn’t just lying to the media. He was using the media as a vehicle for disseminating lies to the public. Yet only hours after his startling admission, CNN and Fox & Friends booked him to appear on their programs for the following morning.

Sometimes the purpose of a lie isn’t just to get an audience to believe it. The goal is to instill doubt about everything and render the truth elusive.

[This is an updated version of yesterday’s post. It incorporates letters that White House counsel Pat Cipollone sent to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on the evening of Sept. 16, 2019. The updated version appeared on Dan Rather’s News & Guts on Sept. 17, 2019]

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. He says he’s happy to appear: “I want to explain that there was no collusion, there was no obstruction.”

That’s interesting because Lewandowski provided special counsel Robert Mueller with all of the evidence necessary to prove that Trump obstructed justice. (Vol. II, pp. 11-12, 92-93, 97-98) If Lewandowski lied to Mueller, he committed a felony. If he lies to Congress, that would be a crime too. And new House rules make it difficult for him to toe the party line without falling into one of those legal abysses.

Someone close to Trump must have seen the problem. On the eve of his testimony, White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote to the committee that “the White House has directed Mr. Lewandowski not to provide information about such communications [with Trump] beyond the information provided in the portions of the [Mueller] Report that have already been disclosed to the Committee.”

Trump’s last-minute invocation of “executive branch confidentiality interests” to limit Lewandowski’s congressional testimony won’t help Trump’s core problem: Lewandowski has already provided Mueller with an incriminating first-hand account of Trump’s obstruction. And even armed with the new White House letter, Lewandowski has no basis for refusing to repeat that story to the committee.

Lewandowski’s Foray Into Obstruction

The crime of obstructing justice requires: 1) corrupt intent; 2) an obstructive act; and 3) a connection to a pending or contemplated official proceeding. The law covers failed attempts as well as successful efforts. (Vol. II, pp. 9-12) Based on Lewandowski’s reported interviews with Mueller, Trump touched all the bases. (Vol. II, pp. 90-93, 97-98)

From the Trump-Russia Timeline:

June 19, 2017: Lewandowski — a private citizen — meets one-on-one with Trump in the Oval Office. He takes notes as Trump dictates a message to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he asks Lewandowski to deliver. It directs Sessions to give a speech declaring that Trump has done nothing wrong and that Mueller should forget about Russia’s 2016 election interference. Sessions is to limit the investigation to future elections only.

Lewandowski arranges a meeting with Sessions where he will deliver Trump’s message personally. But Sessions cancels at the last minute, so the message remains undelivered. Lewandowski leaves town and places his notes of Trump’s directive in a safe at home.

Later in June: Lewandowski asks Rick Dearborn, Trump’s deputy chief of staff (and Sessions’ former chief of staff), if he will pass a message on to Sessions. Not knowing what it says, Dearborn agrees to deliver it at a late July dinner with Sessions.

July 19: Trump meets again with Lewandowski alone in the Oval Office and asks if he has delivered the message yet. Lewandowski says that it soon will be. Trump tells Lewandowski to inform Sessions that if he refuses to meet, Sessions will be fired. After the meeting, Lewandowski gives Dearborn a typed copy of the message, which he’d asked Hope Hicks to type.

Dearborn later informs Lewandowski that he had handled the situation, even though Dearborn never actually delivered the message to Sessions. At least, that’s what Dearborn told Mueller.

At the same time that it directed Lewandowski not to answer certain questions from the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 17, 2019, it also directed Dearborn and Rob Porter — another former White House aide with first-hand knowledge of Trump’s obstruction — not to appear at all. 

New House Rules

Lewandowski will be the first witness to testify under new rules that the House Judiciary Committee adopted on Sept. 12. As before, individual members will have their usual five minutes each to pose questions and/or make self-serving speeches. But then the committee’s majority and minority counsel will each get an additional 30 uninterrupted minutes to examine the witness.

That means lawyers with actual trial experience in controlling belligerent witnesses will have a chance to elicit a clearer and more complete narrative for the public to see and hear. Uncooperative witnesses will have difficulty evading, obfuscating, and grandstanding.

Lewandowski’s Moment

While watching Lewandowski, keep a close eye on Trump too. After receiving his subpoena on Aug. 15, 2019, Lewandowski appeared with Trump at a rally in New Hampshire where he is considering a run for the US Senate. Trump told the crowd that Lewandowski “would be fantastic.”

Fantastic can mean “spectacular and sensational.” It can also mean “without adherence to truth or reality.” What will it be? Watch Lewandowski as he plays to an audience of one. Trump may not like what he sees.

[This post first appeared on Dan Rather’s News & Guts on Sept. 16, 2019]

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. He says he’s happy to appear: “I want to explain that there was no collusion, there was no obstruction.”

That’s interesting because Lewandowski provided special counsel Robert Mueller with all of the evidence necessary to prove that Trump obstructed justice. (Vol. II, pp. 11-12, 92-93, 97-98) If Lewandowski lied to Mueller, he committed a felony. If he lies to Congress, that would be a crime too. And new House rules make it difficult for him to toe the party line without falling into one of those legal abysses. 

Lewandowski’s Foray Into Obstruction

The crime of obstructing justice requires: 1) corrupt intent; 2) an obstructive act; and 3) a connection to a pending or contemplated official proceeding. The law covers failed attempts as well as successful efforts. (Vol. II, pp. 9-12) Based on Lewandowski’s reported interviews with Mueller, Trump touched all the bases. (Vol. II, pp. 90-93, 97-98)

From the Trump-Russia Timeline:

June 19, 2017: Lewandowski — a private citizen — meets one-on-one with Trump in the Oval Office. He takes notes as Trump dictates a message to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he asks Lewandowski to deliver. It directs Sessions to give a speech declaring that Trump has done nothing wrong and that Mueller should forget about Russia’s 2016 election interference. Sessions is to limit the investigation to future elections only.

Lewandowski arranges a meeting with Sessions where he will deliver Trump’s message personally. But Sessions cancels at the last minute, so the message remains undelivered. Lewandowski leaves town and places his notes of Trump’s directive in a safe at home.

Later in June: Lewandowski asks Rick Dearborn, Trump’s deputy chief of staff (and Sessions’ former chief of staff), if he will pass a message on to Sessions. Not knowing what it says, Dearborn agrees to deliver it at a late July dinner with Sessions.

July 19: Trump meets again with Lewandowski alone in the Oval Office and asks if he has delivered the message yet. Lewandowski says that it soon will be. Trump tells Lewandowski to inform Sessions that if he refuses to meet, Sessions will be fired. After the meeting, Lewandowski gives Dearborn a typed copy of the message, which he’d asked Hope Hicks to type.

Dearborn later informs Lewandowski that he had handled the situation, even though Dearborn never actually delivered the message to Sessions. At least, that’s what Dearborn told Mueller.

New House Rules

Lewandowski will be the first witness to testify under new rules that the House Judiciary Committee adopted on Sept. 12. As before, individual members will have their usual five minutes each to pose questions and/or make self-serving speeches. But then the committee’s majority and minority counsel will each get an additional 30 uninterrupted minutes to examine the witness.

That means lawyers with actual trial experience in controlling belligerent witnesses will have a chance to elicit a clearer and more complete narrative for the public to see and hear. Uncooperative witnesses will have difficulty evading, obfuscating, and grandstanding.

Lewandowski’s Moment

While watching Lewandowski, keep a close eye on Trump too. After receiving his subpoena on Aug. 15, 2019, Lewandowski appeared with Trump at a rally in New Hampshire where he is considering a run for the US Senate. Trump told the crowd that Lewandowski “would be fantastic.”

Fantastic can mean “spectacular and sensational.” It can also mean “without adherence to truth or reality.” What will it be? Watch and see.

[This post first appeared at Dan Rather’s News & Guts on Sept. 8, 2019:]

In December 2016, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that Russia’s attack on the US presidential election amounted to an “act of war.” A recap of summer highlights from the Trump-Russia Timeline reveals that it’s happening again — with Trump and his congressional allies aiding the assault.

Trump Solicits Foreign Dirt

Trump encourages foreign interference in America’s upcoming election — provided he’s the beneficiary.

• May 7-10, 2019: Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is planning to visit Ukraine with the intention of persuading its incoming government to pursue investigations that could help Trump’s re-election campaign. After advisers urge Ukraine’s new president not to meet with Giuliani, he abandons the trip.
• During the week of May 20: Giuliani instead meets in New York with a former Ukrainian diplomat as part of an aggressive effort to get dirt on Trump’s US political opponents.
• June 12: Trump declares publicly that he’s willing to accept a foreign government’s offer of dirt on a political opponent. He adds that FBI Director Christopher Wray is wrong in stating that a candidate receiving such an overture should call the FBI. The chair of the Federal Election Commission reminds all candidates that accepting foreign help is a crime.
• June 14: Trump tweets praise for Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) after she blocks legislation that would have required all federal candidates to report a foreign government’s offer of election assistance.
• June 28: At the G-20 summit in Osaka, a reporter asks Trump if he will tell Putin not to meddle in the US election. “Of course, I will,” Trump says. He turns to Putin, who is sitting next to him, and says with a smile, “Don’t meddle in the election.” Playfully, he wags his finger in the air and repeats, “Don’t meddle in the election.” Putin chuckles.
• July 23: Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies, “The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections….”
• July 28: In a tweet, Trump announces the departure of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who has been outspoken in warning about Russia’s past and ongoing election interference.
• Aug. 1: A reporter asks Trump about his July 31 phone call with Putin: “Mr. President, Robert Mueller said last week that Russia is interfering in the U.S. elections right now. Is that —
  Trump interrupts, “Oh you don’t really believe this. Do you believe this? Ok, fine. We didn’t talk about it.”
• Aug. 20-22: Guiliani confirms that “over the past few weeks,” he has been pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s family and the DNC — and he asserts that the US State Department has been helping him.
• Aug. 24-26, 2019: At the G-7 summit in France, Trump advocates on Putin’s behalf and says that he will invite him to the 2020 summit in the US. Other G-7 leaders object because Putin’s ongoing exclusion from the group has been retribution for Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
• Aug. 26 2019: As Giuliani pressures the Ukrainian government to develop dirt on Biden and the DNC, Trump delays the release of US military aid that Congress has appropriated to help Ukraine’s ongoing battle against Russian aggression.
• Sept. 2, 2019: After Mike Pence meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw, a reporter asks Pence whether he can assure Ukraine that Trump’s delay in military aid to that country is unrelated to Giuliani’s efforts to get dirt on Biden’s family from the Ukrainian government. Pence deflects: “[Zelensky and I] discussed America’s support for Ukraine and the upcoming decision the President will make on the latest tranche of financial support in great detail… As President Trump had me make clear, we have great concerns about issues of [Ukrainian] corruption.”

Senate Republicans Follow Trump’s Lead

Trump and his congressional allies — most notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — are blocking efforts to defend against attacks on US elections.

• May 14: Ron DeSantis (R-FL) acknowledges that Russian hackers had gained access to voter databases in two Florida counties prior to the 2016 election, per a new briefing from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
• June 7: McConnell continues to block Senate consideration of bipartisan legislation aimed at better securing American elections.
• July 24: Special counsel Robert Mueller testifies that Russia is continuing its efforts to interfere with US elections. Later that evening, Senate Republicans block two election security bills and a cybersecurity measure, earning McConnell the Twitter moniker #MoscowMitch.
• July 25: The Senate Intelligence Committee issues findings on Russia’s 2016 election attacks and the nation’s vulnerability to future attacks. The report observes that Russia targeted all 50 states and, in Illinois, “Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data” in the voter database. It concludes, “Cybersecurity for electoral infrastructure at the state and local level was sorely lacking in 2016. Despite increased focus over the last three years, some of these vulnerabilities, including aging voting equipment, remain.”

A Founder’s’ Foresight

As Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a citizen of the new nation asked him, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?”

“A republic,” Franklin replied, “if you can keep it.”

He was speaking to all of us.

Here’s a complete list of the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline at Dan Rather’s News & Guts and at Just Security:

JUNE 19, 2017: Trump Gives Lewandowski Message for Sessions: Limit Mueller

JULY 19, 2017: Trump Follows Up With Lewandowski About Message to Sessions

AUG. 26, 2019: Trump Says He’ll Defy Previous Preconditions and Invite Putin to 2020 G-7 Summit

AUG. 26, 2019: House Subpoenas Porter

AUG. 26, 2019: House Moves to Expedite Subpoena Enforcement Action Against McGahn

AUG. 28-29, 2019: Trump Delays Military Assistance to Ukraine

AUG 29, 2019: Inspector General Issues Report on Comey; DOJ Declines to Prosecute; Trump Tweets

AUG. 30-SEPT. 1, 2019: Trump Continues Attacking Comey

SEPT. 2, 2019: Pence Parrots Trump Equivocating on Ukraine

SEPT. 3-4, 2019: Trump Tweets About IG Report on Comey and Mueller Report, Attacks FBI

SEPT. 6, 2019: Trump Tweets About ‘Witch Hunt’ and ‘Spygate’

SEPT. 7, 2019: Trump Tweets: ‘Lyin’ Leakin’ James Comey!’