The Mueller investigation was a sham. Rosenstien kept Mueller from performing a full investigation. The fix was in in the beginning. I am going to thread here trumps connection to Putin and Russia starting in 1987. 36 years so this is going to be an epic thread.
1987
Roger Stone, up-and-coming Washington lobbyist, is working at Manafort, Stone and Kelly, a high profile lobbying firm.
January 1987

Trump is invited to Russia after being seated next to Ambassador Yuri Dubinin at a social event. Dubinin was part of group of Russian officials meeting American business leaders. This group included future UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
A few months later Trump and Ivana were flown to Russia by the Soviet agency for international tourism, Intourist. He talks of building a hotel next to the Kremlin.
Trump visits Moscow and Leningrad, his first trip to what was then the USSR, to explore expanding his hotel empire to those cities. Donald Trump meets with then-U.S.S.R. communist government officials in Moscow to discuss a joint partnership deal to build a hotel in the city.
This was Trump before the bankruptcies of the early 90s wiped him out—at the time he was a flashy, successful real estate developer who had just come off an under-budget renovation of Central Park’s Wollman Rink,
arguably his most successful project in New York. Putting buildings in Russia would have been a relatively logical move.
Trump advocates allying with Russia to team up against friendly countries like France to halt nuclear proliferation. (This is the same year President Reagan says his famous Cold War line at the foot of the Berlin Wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”)
Sep 1987

Trump pays $94K for anti-NATO full page newspaper ads in several major American newspapers.
1988
Inevitably, a photo of President Ronald Reagan touring Red Square with former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988 has resurfaced, showing Reagan greeting a Russian kid and with someone looking a lot like Vlad himself standing nearby.
Reagan White House photographer Pete Souza, who took the photo, recalled in a 2012 interview on NPR that “there were these differrent groups of quote- unquote tourists” in Red Square who kept asking Reagan about “human rights in the United States.”
Souza said he asked a Secret Service agent how “how these tourists in the Soviet Union are asking these pointed questions.” The agent answered: ” Oh, these are all KGB families.” Souza said he was told the “tourist” with the camera was Putin, ”
and it certainly does look like him.”
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev comes to New York, and eager to get himself involved in a major news story, Trump circulates a rumor that Gorbachev is going to visit Trump Tower.
That doesn’t happen. Instead, a Gorbachev impostor showed up and shook hands with Trump. Though the mogul later said he knew it wasn’t the real Gorbachev, a TV producer who helped out with the gag said he was fooled.
1990
The “Real” Donald Trump – A Fascinating Interview From 1990 – At age forty-three, Donald Trump’s ‘Playboy’ interview presaged what would be one of the most important elections since the end of the Cold War.
Here are a few prescient quotes that give some insight into his mindset about power and governance :
What were your other impressions of the Soviet Union? “I was very unimpressed. Their system is a disaster. What you will see there soon is a revolution;
The signs are all there with the demonstrations and picketing. Russia is out of control and the leadership knows it. That’s my problem with Gorbachev. Not a firm enough hand.“
You mean firm hand as in China? “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength.
Our country is right now perceived as weak… as being spit on by the rest of the world—”
Why is Gorbachev not firm enough? “I predict he will be overthrown, because he has shown extraordinary weakness.
Suddenly, for the first time ever, there are coal-miner strikes and brush fires everywhere—which will all ultimately lead to a violent revolution.
Yet Gorbachev is getting credit for being a wonderful leader and we should continue giving him credit, because he’s destroying the Soviet Union. But his giving an inch is going to end up costing him and all his friends what they most cherish—their jobs.”
1995
Donald Trump has employed a known Asian organized crime figure at his Taj Mahal casino for five years and is defending him against attempts to yank his license, law enforcement officials say.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission begins three days of hearings in Atlantic City today on the background and character of Danny Leung, a former Taj vice president who still runs junkets for the casino.
1996
Trump, recovered from his bout of embarrassing failure in the casino business, visits Moscow again in hopes of working with a tobacco company to build a hotel or a condominium project.
This never happens. Trump unsuccessfully applies for trademarks in Russia.
1997
Trump seeks to erect a huge statue within viewing distance of the Statue of Liberty; it would have stood forty-five-feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.
The gift would be from Russia by an artist Trump assured everyone was “major and legit” and would literally overshadow Lady Liberty,with an enormous likeness of Christopher Columbus with “$40 million worth of bronze in it” in the Hudson River. This never happens.
1999
Rex Tillerson meets Vladimir Putin for the first time as Exxon makes a deal with Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft.
2001
On the Howard Stern Show, a gossip columnist banters with Trump about Russian prostitutes.
January 28, 2001 Mark Burnett of “The Apprentice” notoriety is in talks with Putin. Burnett has been negotiating with Russian officials for months over “Destination Mir,” but recent reports on how the space station is about to fall out of the sky
May 22, 2001

Rex Tillerson listed as the director of an offshore company, ExxonMobil Neftegas.
2003
Trump starts doing business with the Felix Sater/The Bayrock Group. The Bayrock group is based in Trump Tower. Bayrock is founded by Tevfik Arif
He is first introduced to Tevfik Arif and felon Felix Sater by a leasing agent for Trump Tower.
The Bayrock Group arranged for the Trump Organization to become involved in the Camelback, Ocean Club and Merrimac developments and to have these developments marketed under the Trump brand.
Trump began a series of Bayrock deals that culminate in the Trump Soho. The Trump Soho deal eventually becomes embroiled in a RICO lawsuit.
2003-2006 Donald Trump Jr. travels extensively to Russia.
2005
13 Feb Donald Trump Jr writes to Russian-born property developer Felix Satter. Satter, originally named Sater, is listed as Managing Director of company Bayrock Group LLC, headquartered in Trump Tower.
The letter states that Trump will partner with Sater/Satter on a proposed Trump hotel tower in Fort Lauderdale.
Trump partners with Bayrock Group to again attempt to build a hotel in Moscow.
This never happens. Trump’s image of ostentatious, almost retro, luxury appealed to Russians who probably both liked that aesthetic and saw a chance to invest in American real estate.
Aug 30, 2005

Trump bids for Denver’s Union Station with the Bayrock Group.
July, 2006

Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, is understood to have taken a large stake in Rosneft, the Russian oil giant, which floated in Moscow and London last week.
The high-profile billionaire is thought to have bought around $300m of shares in Rosneft, although full trading does not begin until this week and final stock allocations have not yet been revealed.
The news comes as Rosneft’s $10.4bn IPO faces an 11th-hour legal challenge due to be heard in the High Court in London tomorrow.
Abramovich joins the likes of BP and Malaysia’s Petronas among Rosneft’s bigger shareholders. A $300m investment would give him around 3 per cent of all shares now on the market, although his share of Rosneft’s total equity would be much smaller.
2007
Trump visits Russia again.
Trump and the Bayrock group actively bid for projects.
Trump hosts Tamir Sapir’s wedding at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

May 16, 2007

Russia is accused of launching a cyberattack on Estonia.
September 2007 Trump opens Trump SoHo, a new building in Manhattan that he developed with Bayrock and another company.
The idea is that buyers will live in condo units for part of the year (because of residential zoning restrictions) and rent them as hotel rooms the rest of the time.
One of the Bayrock partners is a Russian immigrant with ties to organized crime who was also an FBI informant; the project has investments from various entities with ties to the former Soviet Union. Trump is photographed w/ Felix Sater at a Trump SoHo launch party.
Sater changes the spelling of his name to Satter. Years later the Bayrock group is accused of being a front for an international money laundering scheme.
Oct. 15, 2007
Trump tells Larry King on CNN that Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing: “a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period.”
This is the first on-the-record praise of Putin from Trump, though it’s less political than it is one branding expert recognizing another. “Look at Putin — what he’s doing with Russia —
I mean, you know, what’s going on over there. I mean this guy has done — whether you like him or don’t like him — he’s doing a great job.”
2008
Lawsuits claim the Bayrock group is supported by Russian criminal interests.
During this period the Bayrock group financed the Trump Soho and many projects around the world.
June 1, 2008

Trump and Kushner attend the bris of son of Rotem Rosen (lieutenant of Putin pal Lev Leviev) investor in Trump SoHo
July 2008
Trump sold a mansion to a Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for 95M – a profit of roughly 50M.
This was a curious transaction in that the house was listed as unlivable and many say Dmitry Rybolovlev never set foot in the house.
September 2008
Donald Trump Jr. said: ““Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”… we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
Note this is not direct investment from Russia, but rather financing that originates in Russia or from Russian people.
My assumption is that Bayrock became one of Trump’s top financiers after his credit with traditional US banks dried up
2009
The Russians of Little Moscow help Trump stay afloat after the 2008 housing collapse.
Unrelated to Russia, but interesting. Trump tries to woo Muammar al-Qaddafi as an investor.
April 1, 2009

Richard Burt and five other Global Zero and American and Russian leaders: scrapping nuclear arms is now realpolitikThe Times
October 24, 2009
Mogilevich’s alleged brutality, financial savvy and international influence have earned him a slot on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, though he has lived and operated from Moscow, Russia, for years. Watch CNN report on Mogilevich
Nov. 17, 2009

Sergei Magnitsky had been arrested and detained in Moscow for nearly a year after exposing Russian government corruption.
The same man who uncovered the massive fraud at 20 Pine St. in Manhattan’s Financial District, died mysteriously in a Russian jail. He was beaten to death.
2010
Sept 2010

Bayrock founder Tevfik Arif was Turkey on suspicion of running prostitute ring on $60m luxury yacht. After the arrests, Turkey deported nine Russian and Ukrainian women, including two under the legal age of consent.
A reporter who looked at investigative materials claims the Arif’s organization provided escort services with girls as young as 13. The prostitution charges were later dropped and the records were changed to record that the women were above the age of 18.
October 2010

Assange told a major Moscow newspaper that “The Kremlin had better brace itself for a coming wave of WikiLeaks disclosures about Russia”.[246][247]Assange later clarified: “we have material on many businesses and governments, including in Russia.
It’s not right to say there’s going to be a particular focus on Russia”.[Forbes]
2011
Trump and his partners in Trump SoHo are sued by buyers who claim that Trump wildly exaggerated how many units had been sold, making the project seem more successful than it was.
(They would be refunded most of their money and the building is now a regular Trump-branded hotel.)
Also that year a former Bayrock employee sues the company (a suit Trump wasn’t involved in), claiming that there was all sorts of shady business going on,
including unexplained payments from Kazakhstan and Russia. Trump would later say that he barely knew the Eastern Europeans he partnered with, though one of them—the one with mob ties—worked for Trump as an adviser and dealmaker even after the SoHo mess.
In Time to Get Tough, Trump says that he “respects Putin and Russians” and blames Barack Obama for being soft on them.
June 10, 2011

Richard Burt discusses growing tensions inside NATO PBS
Aug 30, 2011

Rex Tillerson negotiates a multi-billion-dollar deal between ExxonMobil and the Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company.
Jan 2012

Bayrock announces units in the Trump Soho will be auctioned amid rumors of financial distress.
March 3, 2012,

In the Northern District of California and elsewhere, the defendant, NIKULIN knowingly caused the transmission of a program, information, code, and command,
and, as a result of such conduct, intentionally caused damage without authorization to a protected computer; that is, NIKULIN knowingly transmitted a program, information, code, and command to a computer belonging to Linkedln employee N.B.
and thereby caused damage without authorization
Apr 2012

Julian Assange begins broadcasting on Russia Today (RT), the state-run broadcasting network.
June, 2012 through May 2013

Nikulin was using login credentials of Formsrping employee “J.S.” in San Francisco, CA to breach the company’s database of user credentials.
LinkedIn employee “N.B.” in Mountain View, CA had their credentials similarly compromised by NIKULIN earlier,
in March 2012. Breaches occurred between May 14, 2012 and July 25, 2012
3 Co-conspirators are listed but not named.
July 2012

Flynn is named director of the Defense Intelligence Agency as a three-star general.
SEPTEMBER 2012
Paul Manafort, who had aided Ukraine’s pro-Putin president Viktor Yanukovych’s return to power, arranges for the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice to retain the US law firm Skadden Arps. Yanukovych faces international criticism for prosecuting Yulia Tymoshenko —
his leading political rival — after defeating her in the 2010 election. The United States views the treatment of Tyomoshenko as a major hurdle to normalizing relations with Ukraine.
Sept 8, 2012
2013
Donald Trump brags about an after-party that was held when he brought the Miss Universe contest to Moscow, saying: “The Russian market is attracted to me. Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.”
Aras Agalarov, a Russian oligarch, talks to Trump and gets him to bring the Miss Universe pageant, which he’s owned since 1996, to one of Agalarov’s venues in Moscow.
Trump brushes off criticisms about Russia’s recently passed landmark anti-gay law, and reportedly talks about building properties in Moscow, though no deal ever gets made.
Trump does tweet about wanting to be friends with Putin and appears in a music video with Agalarov’s son, a wannabe pop star.
Feb 2013
The Russian government seizes key buildings in Crimea.
This was part of a political crisis that several months earlier and would continue through 2014 when Russian troops entered Ukraine.
March 19, 2013
Paul Manafort meets with a senior member of a lobbying firm and a member of Congress who serves on a subcommittee that has Ukraine within its purview. The unnamed congressman is probably Rep.
April 16, 2013

Federal agents burst into an apartment at Trump Tower as part of a larger raid that rounded up 29 suspected members of two global gambling rings with operations allegedly overseen by a supposed Russian mob boss named Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov.
Later in Nov, Tokhtakhounov attends the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and is photographed w/ Trump.
The FBI raids were part of money laundering investigation run by Russian organized crime:Helly Nahmad, an art dealer who lives in Trump Tower was also arrested.
A letter between the FSB in Cuba and SENAIN in Quito held in a file marked ‘Assange’ in London, dated 4th April 2013, the day before Snowden sent his only email on legalities, April 5th 2013.
Jun 1, 2013

Michael T. Flynn gives an address to the Main Intelligence Agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (the GRU).
He later hosts GRU officers at the American embassy.
June 18, 2013

Trump tweeted: “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?”
While at the pageant, Trump said, “I have plans for the establishment of business in Russia. Now, I am in talks with several Russian companies to establish this skyscraper.
Jun 21, 2013

Rex Tillerson is awarded the Russian Order of Friendship by Vladimir Putin. Tillerson’s Russia ties are deep.
July 2013
The Trump Toronto opens with funding from Russian partners in the midst lawsuits from 38 investors.
Donald Trump’s chief White House strategist Steve Bannon said in July 2013 that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was right in his 1950s campaign claiming widespread Communist infiltration into the United States government. .
Bannon made his comments in July 2013 while interviewing conservative pundit Diane West about her book “American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character.”
“Today in modern pop culture, you know they call Ted Cruz the Joe McCarthy —
if you want to think of who devils are it’s Ronald Reagan and those who name-names at the House Un-American Activities, the Hollywood Ten are heroes right?” Bannon said. “Alger Hiss is a hero, right? Richard Nixon’s a villain? Joe McCarthy is a villain.
Your book makes very plain that these guys were right. The place was infested with either traitors that were on the direct payroll of Soviet military intelligence or fellow-travelers who were kind of compliant in helping these guys get along.
I mean, there’s absolutely no question of it. How has pop culture so changed it that white is black and black is white?”
Sept 11, 2013

Putin trashes the idea of American Exceptionalism in a NYTimes oped.
Trump calls the letter a masterpiece for Russia. He praises the letter again on CNBC.
Sept 13, 2013

Just days after billionaire Mayor Bloomberg said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here?” the feds announced they are seeking to seize four luxury downtown condos and two pricey commercial spaces
bought by Russian companies allegedly with illicit cash. “A Russian criminal enterprise sought to launder some of its billions in ill-gotten rubles through the purchase of pricey Manhattan real estate,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a blistering statement Tuesday.
The man who uncovered the massive fraud, Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer hired by a suspicious investor, died mysteriously in a Russian jail in 2009
October 2013
Trump tells Larry King that Putin is “outsmarting” the US. It’s worth noting that Trump isn’t the only right-winger praising the Russian leader.
October 17, 2013

On The Late Show, David Letterman asked Trump, “Have you had any dealings with the Russians?” Trump answered, “Well I’ve done a lot of business with the Russians…”
Letterman continued, “Vladmir Putin, have you ever met the guy?” Trump said, “He’s a tough guy. I met him once.”
November 2013
Trump: “I do have a relationship [with Putin] and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today [at the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow]… I do have a relationship with him…
He’s done a very brilliant job in terms of what he represents and who he’s represented.”
Nov. 9, 2013

Trump tells Tass news service that he plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow and was in negotiations with billionaire Aras Agarlov’s Crocus Group.
During his Moscow visit, Trump also meets with Herman Gref, CEO of state-controlled Sberbank PJSC, Russia’s biggest bank, which is under US sanctions. Sberbank and Crocus sponsor the beauty contest.
Nov. 11, 2013

Trump tweeted: “TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next.”
Nov 12, 2013

Trump tells Real Estate Weekly that the pageant was a good networking opportunity.“The Russian market is attracted to me. I have a great relationship with many Russians, and almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.”
December 2013
Richard Burt and Lee Feinstein assess the impact of a Ukraine-Russia agreementThe National Interest
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