The White House’s announcement on Monday that it would call for the declassification of material related to the launch of the Russia investigation was widely and justifiably understood as the latest iteration of a long-standing Trump goal: Undercutting the legitimacy of the investigation by casting doubt on the motives of those involved in its launch.
President Trump’s argument relies on the complexity of the interactions between central figures — FBI agent Peter Strzok, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, former spy Christopher Steele, etc. — and the implication that their interactions are evidence of an anti-Trump conspiracy. Given how much more attention will likely be paid to these allegations as new material is declassified, we decided to outline what’s known about the genesis of the Russia investigation and about those actors in particular to serve as a guide to what’s known.
January 2013. Energy industry consultant Carter Page meets a man named Victor Podobnyy at a conference in New York and begins sharing with him “basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents” (in Page’s words). Podobnyy was an officer with Russia’s foreign intelligence service and is later charged with being an agent of the Russian government.
March. The FBI interviews lobbyist and consultant Paul Manafort, whose work included advising former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych who himself had links to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Manafort also spent years advocating on behalf of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
June. The FBI interviews Page after Podobnyy is recorded by U.S. intelligence officials identifying Page as a possible target for recruitment. “It’s obvious that he wants to earn lots of money,” Podobnyy says of Page.
Aug. 25. In a letter sent to a publisher making the case for his expertise on Russia, Page writes, “Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda.”
2014...
2015 ...
2016...
2017
January 2017. The Page surveillance warrant is renewed. It includes more than a dozen pages of material added after the first application.
Jan. 6. Trump is informed about the existence of the dossier during a meeting at Trump Tower.
Jan. 10. BuzzFeed releases the Steele dossier.
With the material made public, Strzok and Page discussed using it as a pretext to launch interviews about the allegations.
April. The Page surveillance warrant is renewed. It again includes additional material.
May 9. Comey is fired as director of the FBI.
May 17. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein appoints former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel to investigate Russian interference efforts in the 2016 election and any overlap with the Trump campaign. Strzok and Page are assigned to Mueller’s team.
May 18. After the Mueller appointment, Strzok texts Page about possibly working for the special counsel. “For me, and this case, I personally have a sense of unfinished business,” he wrote. “I unleashed it with [the Clinton investigation]. Now I need to fix it and finish it.” He adds, “you and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”
June. The Page surveillance warrant is renewed. By now, the application more than 30 pages longer than its original iteration. (The third section is mostly the Steele-provided information; Sections IV through the conclusion are mostly redacted.) This is the final renewal of the warrant.
(Philip Bump/The Washington Post)
July. Lisa Page leaves the Mueller team.
August. Strzok is removed from Mueller’s team shortly after his anti-Trump text messages with Page come to light.
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