77. Cohen and Pagliery, “Nine months.”
78. Glenn Kessler, “What you need to know about Christopher Steele, the FBI and the Trump ‘dossier,’ ” Washington Post, January 9, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/01/09/what-you-need-to-know-about-christopher-steele-the-fbi-and-the-dossier/?utm_term=.b25ccd6dbf01
79. Ibid.
80. Rosie Gray, “Trump Declines to Affirm NATO’s Article 5,” Atlantic, May 25, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/05/trump-declines-to-affirm-natos-article-5/528129/; David Leonhardt, “Trump Tries to Destroy the West,” New York Times, June 10, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/10/opinion/g7-trump-quebec-trudeau.html; Susan B. Glasser, “Trump National Security Team Blindsided by NATO Speech,” Politico, June 5. 2017, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/05/trump-nato-speech-national-security-team-215227; Eric Martin et al, “Trump Says U.S. to Pursue Mexico Trade Deal to Replace NAFTA,” Bloomberg, August 27, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-27/nafta-breakthrough-seems-imminent-after-year-of-fractious-talks.
81. Mikayla Bouchard and Emily Cochrane, “How We Got Here: A Timeline of Events Leading Up to the Charges,” New York Times, October 30, 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/timeline-charges-special-counsel-mueller.html.
82. Tom Hamburger et al., “Manafort offered to give Russian billionaire ‘private briefings’ on 2016 campaign,” Washington Post, September 20, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/manafort-offered-to-give-russian-billionaire-private-briefings-on-2016-campaign/2017/09/20/399bba1a-9d48-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.cc92bce52d4f.
83. Wood, “Trump Russia Dossier Key Claim ‘Verified.’ ”
84. David E. Sanger, “Putin Ordered ‘Influence Campaign’ Aimed at U.S. Election, Report Says,” New York Times, January 6, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/politics/russia-hack-report.html?login=email&auth=login-email.
85. David Voreacos and Chris Strohm, “Mueller Shows How Russians Sowed Discord with Dirty Tricks,” Bloomberg, February 16, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-16/mueller-shows-how-russians-sowed-discord-with-dirty-tricks.
86. BuzzFeed News, January 10, 2017, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html.
87. Ron Kampeas, “Know Your Oligarch: A Guide to the Jewish Billionaires in the Trump-Russia Probe,” Haaretz, May 23, 2018, https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/know-your-oligarch-a-guide-to-the-jewish-machers-in-the-russia-probe-1.6113189.
88. Peter Stone and Greg Gordon, “Sources: Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier,” McClatchy, April 13, 2018, https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html.
89. MSNBC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmuKwCfb8f0.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: TESTIMONY AND PLEA
1. Michelle Mark, “Meet the all-star team of lawyers Robert Mueller has working on the Trump-Russia investigation,” Business Insider, May 17, 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/lawyers-robert-mueller-hired-for-the-trump-russia-investigation-2017-6; Ken Dilanian, “Mueller subpoenas Trump campaign for Russia documents,” NBC News, November 17, 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mueller-subpoenas-trump-campaign-russia-documents-n821776; Stephanie Kirchgaessner, “Deutsche Bank hands bank records of Trump affiliates to Robert Mueller,” Guardian, December 5, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/donald-trump-bank-records-handed-over-robert-mueller.
2. James Risen, “The Absent Professor,” Intercept, April 12, 2018, https://theintercept.com/2018/04/12/trump-russia-intermediary-joseph-mifsud-missing-case-for-collusion/; U.S. v. George Papadopoulos, October 5, 2017, https://www.justice.gov/file/1007346/download.
3. Evan Perez et al, “Exclusive: Mueller’s team met with Russia dossier author,” CNN, October 25, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/05/politics/special-counsel-russia-dossier-christopher-steele/index.html.
4. Aaron Blake, “The 12-count Manafort and Gates indictment, annotated,” Washington Post, October 30, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/30/the-paul-manafort-and-rick-gates-indictment-annotated/?utm_term=.522f8aa729ce.
5. U.S. v. George Papadopoulos.
6. Manuela Tobias, “A timeline of Donald Trump’s talk about nonexistent James Comey tapes,” PolitiFact, June 22, 2017, https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jun/22/timeline-donald-trumps-talk-about-nonexistent-jame/; Sean Illing, “President Trump says he can pardon himself. I asked 15 experts if that’s legal,” Vox, July 4, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/21/16007934/trump-president-pardon-himself-limits-power-constitution; Eileen Sullivan, “Trump Attacks Sessions Again, This Time Over the Acting F.B.I. Director,” New York Times, July 26, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/us/politics/jeff-sessions-trump-mccabe.html; Peter Baker et al., “Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions,” New York Times, July 26, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/trump-interview-sessions-russia.html; Zeeshan Aleem, “It’s official: Congress has handcuffed Donald Trump on Russia,” Vox, August 2, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/28/16055630/congress-trump-russia-sanctions-veto; Tom Embury-Dennis, “Trump refuses to impose new Russia sanctions despite law passed by US Congress over election hacking,” Independent, January 30, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-russia-sanctions-trump-no-new-congress-law-election-hacking-intervention-putin-kremlin-a8184866.html; Katherine Faulders et al., “Trump campaign has paid portions of Michael Cohen’s legal fees: Sources,” ABC News, April 30, 2018, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-campaign-paid-portions-michael-cohens-legal-fees/story?id=54831269; Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landy, “Trump thanks Putin for slashing US diplomatic staff,” Reuters, August 10, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-diplomats-idUSKBN1AQ2IW.
7. Scott Shane and Mike Isaac, “Facebook to Turn Over Russian-Linked Ads to Congress,” New York Times, September 21, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/technology/facebook-russian-ads.html.
8. Sari Horwitz et al, “DHS tells states about Russian hacking during 2016 election,” Washington Post, September 22, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dhs-tells-states-about-russian-hacking-during-2016-election/2017/09/22/fd263a2c-9fe2-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.0ea051789d7d; Michael Riley and Jordan Robertson, “Russian Hacks on U.S. Voting System Wider Than Previously Known,” Bloomberg, June 13, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/russian-breach-of-39-states-threatens-future-u-s-elections; Cynthia McFadden et al., “U.S. intel: Russia compromised seven states prior to 2016 election,” NBC News, February 28, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/u-s-intel-russia-compromised-seven-states-prior-2016-election-n850296.
9. Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Twitter finds hundreds of accounts tied to Russian operatives,” Washington Post, September 28, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/twitter-finds-hundreds-of-accounts-tied-to-russian-operatives/2017/09/28/6cf26f7e-a484-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?utm_term=.d8e068fb0f9d.
10. Time, YouTube account, June 9, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgR4SlEjFeQ; Trump Twitter Archive, http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com/archive.
11. Dara Lind, “Trump wants Robert Mueller gone. He needs to get rid of Jeff Sessions first,” Vox, July 28, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/28/16050148/trump-fire-sessions-recess-appointment; Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, “Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, but Backed Off When White House Counsel Threatened to Quit,” New York Times, January 25, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html.
12. Donald Trump verified account, Twitter, June 15, 2017, https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/875321478849363968.
13. David Alexander, “Trump says Sessions safe in job at least until November elections: Bloomberg,” Reuters, August 30,
2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-sessions/trump-says-sessions-safe-in-job-at-least-until-november-elections-bloomberg-idUSKCN1LF2JJ.
14. Kevin Whitelaw et al., “Trump Tower Meeting: Key Moments From the Senate Documents,” Bloomberg, May 16, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-16/trump-tower-meeting-key-moments-from-senate-probe-documents.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Jim Sciutto et al., “Exclusive: Previously undisclosed emails show follow-up after Trump Tower meeting,” CNN, December 7, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/07/politics/previously-undisclosed-emails-after-trump-tower-meeting/index.html.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Philip Ewing, “What You Need To Know About The New Documents On The 2016 Trump Tower Meeting,” NPR, May 16, 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/05/16/611678188/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-documents-on-the-2016-trump-tower-meeting.
24. Kevin Whitelaw et al., “Trump Tower Meeting.”
25. Ibid.
26. Sonam Sheth, “Another key Trump campaign official is stonewalling the House Intelligence Committee amid the Trump-Russia investigation,” Business Insider, January 18, 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/corey-lewandowski-stonewalls-house-intel-committee-in-russia-testimony-2018-1.
27. Dylan Matthews, “A brief guide to executive privilege, and why it won’t save the Trump administration,” Vox, June 19, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/19/15795986/executive-privilege-explained.
28. Manu Raju et al., “Bannon stonewalls House panel after WH advised him to invoke executive privilege,” CNN, February 15, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/14/politics/bannon-contempt-hearing/index.html.
29. Michael S. Schmidt, “Bannon Is Subpoenaed in Mueller’s Russia Investigation,” New York Times, January 16, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/steve-bannon-mueller-russia-subpoena.html; Kyle Cheney, “Schiff: Bannon, Lewandowski defy committee’s requests in Russia probe,” Politico, February 7, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/07/bannon-lewandowski-russia-probe-testimony-397412.
30. Adam K. Raymond, “Robert Mueller’s Team Has Interviewed the Guy Behind the Infamous ‘Pee Tape’ Dossier,” New York, October 6, 2017, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/muellers-team-spoke-to-the-guy-behind-the-pee-tape-dossier.html.
31. Alan Yuhas et al., “Source inside Trump campaign reported concerns to FBI, new transcript suggests,” Guardian, January 9, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/09/trump-russia-dossier-senator-dianne-feinstein-glenn-simpson.
32. Ibid.
33. Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers, “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia,” New York Times, October 31, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html.
34. Yuhas et al., “Source inside Trump campaign.”
35. Byron York, “What Glenn Simpson said about that ‘human source’ inside the Trump campaign,” Washington Examiner, May 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/what-glenn-simpson-said-about-that-human-source-inside-the-trump-campaign.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch, “The Republicans’ Fake Investigations,” New York Times, January 2, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html.
39. York, “What Glenn Simpson said.”
40. Yuhas et al., “Source inside Trump campaign.”
41. Grassley letter, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, January 11, 2018, https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2018-01-11%20CEG%20to%20Fusion%20GPS%20(accuracy%20of%20interview)%20(003).pdf.
42. Amber Phillips, “4 surprising facts about Stefan Halper, a professor and top-secret informant on Russia,” Washington Post, May 22, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/22/4-surprising-facts-about-stefan-halper-the-professor-and-top-secret-informant-on-russia/?utm_term=.cb0c322b3590.
43. Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg, “Kremlin Sources Go Quiet, Leaving C.I.A. in the Dark About Putin’s Plans for Midterms,” New York Times, August 24, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/us/politics/cia-russia-midterm-elections.html.
44. Ibid.
45. Mike McIntire et al., “Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to Michael Cohen,”New York Times, May 8, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/us/politics/michael-cohen-shell-company-payments.html; Ben Mathis-Lilley, “We’re Supposed to Believe Michael Cohen’s One-Person Shell Company Provided ‘Consulting’ Services Worth Millions of Dollars,” Slate, May 9, 2018, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/michael-cohen-essential-consultants-corporate-explanations-fail-laugh-test.html.
46. Mathis-Lilley, “We’re Supposed to Believe.”
47. Ibid.
48. McIntire et al., “Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch”; Republican National Committee, April 3, 2017, https://gop.com/rnc-announces-additions-to-rnc-finance-leadership-team/.
49. Elliot Hannon, “Trump Fundraiser Reportedly Secured $1 Billion in Contracts from Saudi Arabia and UAE to Push Anti-Qatar Policies With Trump,” Slate, May 21, 2018, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/top-trump-fundraiser-broidy-reportedly-secured-usd1-billion-in-contracts-from-saudi-arabia-and-uae-in-return-for-pushing-anti-qatar-policies-to-administration.html.
50. Paul Campos, “Hey, Look: More Evidence That Broidy May Have Been Covering for Trump in That Playmate Affair,” New York, May 8, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/more-evidence-that-broidy-was-covering-for-trump-in-affair.html.
51. Ibid.
52. Adam Goldman et al., “Viktor Vekselberg, Russian Billionaire, Was Questioned by Mueller’s Investigators,” New York Times, May 4, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/us/politics/viktor-vekselberg-mueller-investigation.html; Sonam Sheth, “ ‘It was Moscow’s victory, after all’: At least 6 Putin-allied Russians reportedly attended Trump’s inaugural celebrations,” Business Insider, January 20, 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/veselnitskaya-akhmetshin-russians-attended-trump-inauguration-2018-1.
53. Goldman et al., “Viktor Vekselberg, Russian Billionaire.”
54. Sonam Sheth, “ ‘It was Moscow’s victory, after all.’ ”
55. Linley Sanders, “Trump’s Inauguration money is still missing one year later after his administration took control of the White House,” Newsweek, January 18, 2018, https://www.newsweek.com/trump-inauguration-money-still-missing-783934.
56. Ibid.; Isaac Arnsdorf, “White House May Share Nuclear Power Technology With Saudi Arabia,” ProPublica, November 29, 2017, https://www.propublica.org/article/white-house-may-share-nuclear-power-technology-with-saudi-arabia.
57. Goldman et al., “Viktor Vekselberg, Russian Billionaire.”
58. Ibid.; Philip Bump, “We may soon learn a lot more about that $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels,” Washington Post, April 10, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/04/10/we-may-soon-learn-a-lot-more-about-that-130000-payment-to-stormy-daniels/?utm_term=.dfdc949dd5f7.
59. Jared C. Kushner’s Statement to Congressional Committee, New York Times, July 24, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/24/us/politics/document-Read-Jared-Kushner-s-Statement-to-Congressional.html.
60. Kara Scannell, “Background check chief has ‘never seen’ mistakes and omissions at level of Jared Kushner forms,” CNN, October 12, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/12/politics/jared-kushner-background-check-form/index.html.
61. Ibid.
62. Jared C. Kushner’s statement to Congressional committee.
63. Ibid.
64. Ned Parker and Jonathan Landay, “Exclusive: Trump son-in-law had undisclosed contacts with Russian envoy - sources,” Reuters, May 26, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-fbi-kushner-exclusive/exclusive-trump-son-in-law-had-undisclosed-contacts-with-russ
ian-envoy-sources-idUSKBN18N018.
65. Ibid.
66. Josh Barro, “Why are Russians so bothered by Mike Flynn’s departure?” Business Insider, February 14, 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-flynn-russia-resignation-2017-2; Summer Meza, “Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump pushed to put Flynn in office, ignored warnings,” Newsweek, December 2, 2017, https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-wanted-michael-flynn-white-house-729379; Adam Entous,“Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati Officials Privately Pushed for Trump to Strike a ‘Grand Bargain’ with Putin,” New Yorker, July 9, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/israeli-saudi-and-emirati-officials-privately-pushed-for-trump-to-strike-a-grand-bargain-with-putin.
67. Jared C. Kushner’s statement to Congressional committee.
68. Jonathan Schieber, “Senate investigators learned about Jared Kushner’s private email server from the news,” TechCrunch, September 28, 2017, https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/28/senate-investigators-learned-about-jared-kushners-private-email-server-from-the-news/.
69. Ibid.
70. Mary Clare Jalonick, “Senators press Kushner for more documents in Russia investigation,” PBS NewsHour, November 16, 2017, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senators-press-kushner-for-more-documents-in-russia-investigation.
71. Ibid.
72. Ryan Bort, “Newly Released Documents Only Raise More Questions About Don Jr. and Russia,” Rolling Stone, May 16, 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/newly-released-documents-only-raise-more-questions-about-don-jr-and-russia-628277/.
73. Ibid.
74. Katrina Manson, “Russian lobbyist testifies to Mueller grand jury,” Financial Times, August 30, 2017, https://www.ft.com/content/eb36aed6-8d87-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d.
75. Allan Smith, “Russian-American lobbyist says Russian lawyer presented documents in Trump Jr. meeting,” Business Insider, July 14, 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/rinat-akhmetshin-trump-jr-meeting-russia-documents-2017-7.
Proof of Collusion Page 49