Note to the Reader:
The special counsel’s report also includes a substantially different list of referenced persons which appears TK.
THE SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE
Zainab Ahmad: Previously at the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, Zainab Ahmad was well-known as a terrorism prosecutor.
Greg Andres: Joining Robert S. Mueller III’s team from the Davis Polk law firm, Greg Andres had previously worked as a Justice Department official and as chief of the criminal division at the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. He led the team that brought former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to trial in federal court in Virginia.
Rush Atkinson: Previously at the Justice Department’s fraud section, Rush Atkinson worked on economic crime cases.
Ryan Dickey: A veteran cyber prosecutor in the Justice Department’s computer-crime and intellectual-property section, Ryan Dickey was brought onto Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team late in 2017. At that time, he was the only attorney in the group known to specialize in cyber issues.
Michael Dreeben: Considered one of the Justice Department’s foremost experts on criminal law, Michael Dreeben has argued more than a hundred cases before the Supreme Court. His early inclusion in the special counsel’s office signaled that Robert S. Mueller III predicted from the start that his work might generate tough cases that would make their way through the highest levels of the US court system.
Kyle Freeny: Detailed from the Justice Department’s criminal division, Kyle Freeny was considered an expert in money-laundering cases.
Andrew Goldstein: Previously at the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, Andrew Goldstein was head of the public-corruption unit.
Adam Jed: Detailed from the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Adam Jed worked on appeals cases.
Scott Meisler: Previously at the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Scott Meisler worked as an appellate lawyer.
Robert S. Mueller III: A Vietnam veteran, former Justice Department official, and former FBI director, Robert S. Mueller III was tapped in May 2017 to lead the investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election. Mueller also explored whether Trump obstructed justice. Amid one of the highest-profile cases in history, Mueller kept an astoundingly low profile, never holding any press conferences and barely providing any public statements beyond what his team said in court.
Elizabeth Prelogar: A former Supreme Court clerk detailed from the Solicitor General’s Office, Elizabeth Prelogar specialized in appellate cases.
James Quarles: A former assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, James Quarles left the white-shoe law firm WilmerHale with Robert S. Mueller III to join the special counsel’s office. He was one of Mueller’s top deputies and often interacted with White House lawyers.
Jeannie Rhee: A former partner at the law firm WilmerHale, Jeannie Rhee, like Robert S. Mueller III and others, left the firm to join the special counsel’s office. She had previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Washington and as a Justice Department official.
Brian M. Richardson: A former Supreme Court clerk and clerk for a judge serving on the US Court of Appeals in New York City, Brian M. Richardson was a relatively junior member of Mueller’s team who worked on a variety of cases. He left the team and became a fellow at Columbia Law School.
Brandon Van Grack: A Justice Department lawyer, Brandon Van Grack had worked on Russia-related matters that preceded the creation of the special counsel’s office. He was part of the team that brought former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to trial and was also involved in the investigation into former Trump national security adviser Michael T. Flynn.
Andrew Weissmann: A lawyer who headed the Justice Department’s fraud section and a key player in the high-profile Enron prosecutions, Andrew Weissmann was considered one of Robert S. Mueller III’s top deputies and was deeply involved in the investigation of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Aaron Zebley: A former federal prosecutor and Robert S. Mueller III’s chief of staff at the FBI, Aaron Zebley left the law firm of WilmerHale with his former boss to join the special counsel’s office. He was considered one of Mueller’s closest advisers.
Aaron Zelinsky: Detailed from the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland, Aaron Zelinsky had worked with Rod J. Rosenstein, who had served as US attorney there before being named deputy attorney general.
THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Uzo Asonye: An assistant US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Uzo Asonye was part of the team that put former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on trial there.
William P. Barr:President Trump’s pick to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general, William Barr would come to supervise the special counsel probe as it approached its conclusion. Barr was friends with Robert S. Mueller III, both having worked together previously in the Justice Department. But before coming back into government, Barr had raised questions about Mueller’s case and his team—even sending a memo to Justice Department leaders criticizing what he viewed as the special counsel’s “fatally misconceived” theory of how the president might have obstructed justice.
Ed O’Callaghan: A top official in the deputy attorney general’s office, Ed O’Callaghan was one of only a few Justice Department leaders to receive regular briefings on Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s closely held investigation.
Rod J. Rosenstein: The No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Rod J. Rosenstein appointed Robert S. Mueller III to lead the special counsel investigation and supervised him. Rosenstein was a complicated figure. A Trump appointee, he authored a memo laying the groundwork for James B. Comey to be fired, but he soon came to be a focus of the president’s anger, and liberals came to view him as a protector of Mueller’s work.
Jeff Sessions: The first US senator to endorse Trump for president and Trump’s handpicked nominee to lead the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions was a key player for what he did not do in the Russia probe. After The Washington Post reported that Sessions had contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign, contradicting what Sessions had told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing, Sessions recused himself from the investigation. That decision, which incensed Trump, ultimately led to Rod J. Rosenstein being put in charge of the probe.
THE FBI
James B. Comey: A veteran lawyer who was named FBI director by President Obama in 2013, James B. Comey was the face of the Russia probe until he was fired by President Trump from his ten-year position in May 2017. Comey’s firing—and public disclosures about his interactions with President Trump—helped initiate the special counsel investigation, which took over cases the FBI had opened months earlier examining possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.
Andrew McCabe: The No. 2 official in the FBI under James B. Comey, Andrew McCabe became a frequent target of criticism from President Trump, especially after McCabe took command of the FBI in the wake of Comey’s firing. McCabe, who was ultimately fired from the bureau amid allegations that he lied to investigators exploring a media disclosure, was in charge of the FBI when it opened a case into whether Trump had obstructed justice.
Lisa Page: An FBI lawyer and adviser to FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page worked briefly on the special counsel team. She left after just months on the job, and it was later revealed that she had exchanged anti-Trump texts with Peter Strzok, an FBI agent and fellow member of the special counsel investigation with whom Page had an affair.
Peter Strzok: A veteran FBI counterintelligence agent, Peter Strzok was a key leader on the Russia investigation before Robert S. Mueller III was appointed special counsel, and Strzok was briefly the lead FBI agent on Mueller’s team. Strzok was removed from the investigation and ultimately fired from the FBI after it was learned he had exchanged anti-Trump text messages with FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
THE DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN
Rick Gates: Deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump, Rick Gates was a longtime associate of Paul Manafort’s and worked with Manafort in Ukraine prior to joining the Trump campaign. Gates pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiring against the United States, agreeing that he evaded taxes, helped Manafort commit bank fraud, and failed to register as a foreign lobbyist for his Ukraine work.
Paul Manafort: A longtime Republican political consultant, Paul Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 and served as its chairman from June to August. Prior to joining the campaign, Manafort had spent nearly a decade as a political consultant in Ukraine and doing business deals with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Manafort was convicted by a Virginia jury in August 2018 of eight counts of bank and tax fraud. A month later, he pleaded guilty to additional charges, including having failed to register as a foreign lobbyist while working for pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Carter Page: An energy consultant with experience working in Moscow, Carter Page was named a national security adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign in March 2016. In July, he traveled to Moscow, where he delivered a speech critical of US foreign policy and greeted a top Russian official. The FBI received secret permission to conduct surveillance of Page starting in October 2016, after convincing a federal judge that evidence suggested he might be a foreign agent.
George Papadopoulos: An energy consultant, George Papadopoulos was named a national security adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign in March 2016. Papadopoulos said in his plea that he was told by a London-based professor that month that the Russians held damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. Papadopoulos then spent months unsuccessfully trying to arrange meetings between Trump or his campaign aides with top Russian officials, according to court documents and campaign emails read to The Washington Post. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and served fourteen days in prison.
Roger Stone: A longtime Republican campaign operative who has been friends with Donald Trump for thirty years, Roger Stone briefly worked for Trump’s campaign in 2015 and then served as an informal adviser in 2016. Known for reveling in provocative political tricks, Stone cheered on WikiLeaks as it published emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Stone also claimed before the election that he had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans. Later, he insisted he had no contact with WikiLeaks nor exact knowledge of the group’s plans. He was charged in January 2019 with false statements, witness tampering, and obstruction for trying to hide from Congress his efforts to learn about WikiLeaks’ releases of hacked Democratic Party emails. He vowed to fight the charges.
THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION
Michael Cohen: A lawyer who served as executive vice president of the Trump Organization starting in 2007, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in December 2018 to lying to Congress about the extent of efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the presidential campaign. Cohen also pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud related to his personal finances and said that Donald Trump, identified in court documents as “Individual 1,” instructed him to direct illegal payments to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump.
Donald J. Trump Jr.: The eldest son of President Trump, Donald J. Trump Jr. is an executive at the real estate company founded by his father and served as an informal adviser to his campaign. In June 2016, Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer who, Trump Jr. was told, would share damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “If it’s what you say, I love it,” Trump Jr. wrote in an email.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Steve Bannon: The White House’s former chief strategist until August 2017, Steve Bannon was a witness in the Mueller probe, about which he expressed mixed views. After he was ousted as a formal adviser to President Trump, Bannon publicly pitched a plan that Trump cripple the Russia probe by firing Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversaw it. Later, though, when news of his being interviewed by the special counsel became public, Bannon called Mueller’s team “very professional and courteous.”
Michael T. Flynn: A retired army lieutenant general, Michael T. Flynn briefly served as Donald Trump’s first national security adviser before resigning in February 2017 after lying to the public and Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. He pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about those contacts as well and cooperated extensively with the special counsel’s probe.
Jared Kushner: The husband of President Trump’s daughter Ivanka, Jared Kushner drew the attention of investigators for meetings he had with a Russian banker and diplomat between the time when his father-in-law was elected and was sworn into office. When former Trump national security adviser Michael T. Flynn admitted lying about his own dealings with a Russian diplomat, Flynn said the interactions were done in consultation with senior Trump transition officials, including Kushner. In particular, Kushner directed Flynn to talk with the Russian ambassador about a UN resolution on Israel, people familiar with the investigation have told The Washington Post. Kushner has not publicly addressed the episode detailed in Flynn’s plea.
K. T. McFarland: A deputy to former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, K. T. McFarland was a key player in Flynn’s fraught interactions with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Flynn admitted as part of a plea agreement that he spoke with McFarland at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort before talking to the diplomat so they could “discuss what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian ambassador about the US sanctions.” Flynn told FBI agents he did not discuss sanctions with the ambassador, though he would later admit that was a lie. McFarland was nominated to be the US ambassador to Singapore, though the nomination was later withdrawn amid the legal controversy surrounding her and Flynn.
Don McGahn: Don McGahn was the White House counsel from the start of Trump’s administration until October 2018, giving him a front-row seat to some of President Trump’s most problematic interactions with officials at his own Justice Department and to the turmoil induced by the special counsel’s work. McGahn, who had also served as legal adviser to Trump’s campaign, cooperated extensively with the special counsel investigation and frequently played the role of peacemaker when Trump bristled about the probe.
Mike Pence: The vice president of the United States, Mike Pence largely stayed away from the Russia probe, though he could not avoid it entirely. When Pence said on television in January 2017 that national security adviser Michael T. Flynn had not talked about sanctions with the Russian ambassador, that prompted alarm among federal law enforcement officials, who suspected Flynn might have lied to the vice president. Flynn would later admit that he did so.
Reince Priebus: The president’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus was a witness in the Mueller probe and shared valuable insights into Trump’s position on the Justice Department and the special counsel investigation. Priebus talked with FBI director James B. Comey in the harried early days of the Trump administration and notably asked Comey whether the bureau had a secret warrant to surveil national security adviser Michael T. Flynn. Priebus, who served until July 2017, was also involved in confronting Flynn after it had become clear he had lied about his interactions with the Russian ambassador.
Donald J. Trump: The forty-fifth president of the United States, Donald J. Trump was a celebrity business mogul who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. In March 2017, the FBI announced that it was investigating Russian interference in the election and whether anyone associated with the Trump campaign coordinated with those efforts. Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III took over the investigation in May 2017 with a mandate that included exploring whether Trump as president had attempted to obstruct the probe.
THE TRUMP LEGAL DEFENSE
Ty Cobb: A former partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, Ty Cobb joined the White House in July 2017 to serve as the administration’s point person in coordinating requests by the special counsel to interview White House staff or review official documents. Cobb advised the White House to cooperate with the effort and publicly offered inaccurate predictions that the investigation would soon be over. He resigned in May 2018.
John Dowd: A former marine and veteran white-collar-criminal defense attorney, John Dowd served as Donald Trump’s lead personal attorney in the Mueller matter from June 2017 to March 2018. Dowd advised that Trump’s White House and campaign should cooperate with the investigation, but Trump should avoid sitting for an interview, despite publicly promising to do so, The Washington Post has reported. Dowd quit after clashing with Trump over the issue.
Emmet T. Flood: A former partner at the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly, Emmet Flood was hired to serve in the White House counsel’s office in May 2018, where he replaced Ty Cobb as the administration’s point person in handling the Mueller probe. Flood steered clear of public attention but advised the White House to limit cooperation with the probe and researched ways to assert executive privilege to potentially prevent Mueller’s report from being shared with Congress, The Washington Post has reported.
Rudolph W. Giuliani: The former mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani was hired by President Trump to lead his personal legal team in April 2018. Giuliani waged an unrelenting public war on Mueller, seeming to believe that undermining public confidence in the investigation was the best way to make impeachment unpalatable to the American people.
Marc Kasowitz: A New York litigator who had helped Donald Trump handle business disputes, Marc Kasowitz served as President Trump’s personal attorney during the investigation’s earliest phases. He was minimized in his role in favor of John Dowd, who had far more Washington experience, after Robert S. Mueller III was appointed and the investigation picked up steam.
Jane and Marty Raskin: A husband-and-wife team who jointly ran a small Florida law firm and were hired to assist President Trump’s legal efforts after John Dowd quit and Trump struggled to find someone else to take his case. While Rudolph W. Giuliani dominated airwaves and Trump’s public message, the Raskins, particularly Jane, were credited with quietly devising his legal strategy.
Jay Sekulow: A conservative lawyer and activist with more experience dealing with religious-liberty and free-speech cases than criminal matters, Jay Sekulow was hired to serve as the public face of President Trump’s personal legal team in the summer of 2017. His role expanded over time, as other lawyers came and went and he became the team’s longest-serving member.
THE RUSSIANS
Aras Agalarov: An Azerbaijan-born billionaire and real estate developer based in Moscow, Aras Agalarov met Donald Trump in 2013, when Agalarov paid to sponsor the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Emails released by Donald Trump Jr. show that Agalarov asked his pop star son to get a meeting with members of the Trump campaign for Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016.
Emin Agalarov: A Moscow-based pop star who also works in real estate alongside his father, billionaire Aras Agalarov. Emin Agalarov was involved with bringing Donald Trump’s beauty pageant to Moscow in 2013, then Emin asked his publicist, Rob Goldstone, to get a meeting with the Trump campaign for lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016.
Maria Butina: A Russian gun-rights activist, Maria Butina pleaded guilty in December 2018 to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Russia for cozying up to American conservatives, notably leaders of the National Rifle Association. She asked Donald Trump a question about Russia at a public forum in 2015 and met Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA meeting in May 2016.
Oleg Deripaska: A Russian billionaire who is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin and has struggled to get visas to travel to the United States because of alleged ties to Russian organized crime, Oleg Deripaska employed Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as an investment consultant for years. At the time Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, Manafort owed Deripaska money and, through an aide, offered to give Deripaska “private briefings” about the campaign. Manafort and Deripaska have said the briefings never happened.
Kirill Dmitriev: The chief executive of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev met in the Seychelles in January 2017 with Erik Prince, a businessman and ally of Donald Trump’s.
Sergey Gorkov: The chairman of the Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank, better known as VEB, Sergey Gorkov met during the presidential transition with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The White House and the bank offered conflicting descriptions of the meeting, with the bank saying it was to discuss business strategy and the White House insisting it was unrelated to business, but instead was one of many diplomatic encounters Kushner had before Trump was sworn in as president.
Konstantin Kilimnik: A Russian army veteran who was hired by Paul Manafort to serve as his translator and manager of his political consulting business in Kiev. Konstantin Kilimnik served as Manafort’s liaison to top Ukrainian and Russian politicians and businessmen, including Oleg Deripaska, according to people familiar with the business arrangement. A Deripaska spokesman denies he ever interacted with Kilimnik. The FBI has assessed that Kilimnik had ties to Russian intelligence, and he was charged in 2018 with obstruction of justice. He was in contact with Manafort during his time with the Trump campaign, and Manafort was accused of passing Trump polling data to him. Kilimnik has denied having ties to Russian intelligence. As of April 2019, he was in Russia and had not addressed the obstruction charge, though court documents show that Manafort told prosecutors that Kilimnik didn’t think he had suborned perjury and thought it was “crazy” that he was indicted.
Sergey Kislyak: The Russian ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2017, Sergey Kislyak sat in the front row during a Donald Trump foreign policy speech in April 2016 and then interacted with several members of Trump’s campaign, including Senator Jeff Sessions, in the months before the election. In December 2016, as Trump prepared to take office, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, called Kislyak and asked that the Russians not respond to new sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama as a response to Russian election interference.
Viktor Netyksho: Viktor Netyksho is the Russian military intelligence officer US officials alleged in court documents was in command of Unit 26165, which is accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The special counsel’s office charged Netyksho, along with eleven other Russian nationals, in July 2018 with executing a hacking conspiracy to influence the 2016 election. Netyksho, who, as of April 2019, was in Russia and not expected to face the charges in a US courtroom, has not responded to the indictment.
Dmitry Peskov: Press secretary to Russian president Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov is considered one of Putin’s closest advisers. In January 2016, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen emailed Peskov to ask for his help advancing plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen later lied to Congress and said he received no response. In fact, a Peskov assistant responded and the two spoke by phone about the proposed project, according to Cohen’s plea agreement.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin: A Russian businessman known as “Putin’s chef” because he owned a catering business favored by the Russian president, Yevgeniy Prigozhin was accused by the special counsel’s office of funding the St. Petersburg troll farm called the Internet Research Agency and its elaborate social media campaign to influence Americans prior to the 2016 election. He was charged in February 2018 along with twelve other Russian nationals with conspiring to defraud the United States for the social media plot. After his indictment, Prigozhin told a Russian state news agency that he was not upset to be charged. “Americans see what they want to see,” he said.
Vladimir Putin: The president of Russia, a position he has held since 2012 and previously from 2000 to 2008. The US intelligence agencies announced in January 2017 that they had assessed that Vladimir Putin had personally ordered a multipronged operation during the 2016 presidential campaign intended to divide Americans, hurt the electoral prospects of Democrat Hillary Clinton, and elect Donald Trump.
Ivan Timofeev: Director of programs at the Moscow-based think tank the Russian International Affairs Council, Ivan Timofeev communicated with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in the spring of 2016 about arranging a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Timofeev was referred to in Papadopoulos’s plea deal as a “Russian national connected to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Timofeev has not addressed that description but has said his think tank’s interactions with Papadopoulos were routine academic outreach.
Alexander Torshin: A former Russian senator and deputy governor of the Russian central bank, Alexander Torshin is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and interacted with American conservatives, as did his assistant Maria Butina. In May 2016, a Republican operative asked Donald Trump’s campaign to have the candidate meet with Torshin at an NRA meeting, referring to the banker as “Putin’s emissary.” The meeting did not take place, but Torshin has said he met Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.
Natalia Veselnitskaya: A Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya has lobbied against the Magnitsky Act, a law passed in 2012 that imposed sanctions against top Russians for human rights abuses. The law has particularly vexed Vladimir Putin, and in retaliation for its passage Russia halted the adoption of Russian children by US families. Donald Trump Jr. agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya in June 2016 after being told she would provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Veselnitskaya was indicted in 2019 for obstruction of justice in connection with her work in an unrelated civil case. She denied the charges, telling Yahoo News that she would use “all methods” to defend herself from Russia but would not come to the United States to fight the charges in court.
OTHER RELEVANT INDIVIDUALS
Julian Assange: The founder of the antisecrecy organization known as WikiLeaks, which published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Julian Assange and his group were of great interest to special counsel investigators. Prosecutors mistakenly revealed in a court filing in late 2018 that Assange had been charged under seal, though it is unclear whether the charges relate to the special counsel investigation or the publication of other classified material. Assange was granted asylum by Ecuador and lived in the country’s embassy in London for years. On April 11, 2019, Ecuador rescinded Assange’s asylum and he was expelled from the embassy and arrested by British police on a US hacking charge. The legal battle over his extradition to the United States will likely take years.
John O. Brennan: The director of the CIA from March 2013 to January 2017, John Brennan’s agency made critical assessments on the motive of the Russian election-influence operation, including that one of its goals was to help Donald Trump get elected president. Brennan was among the intelligence-community leaders to brief Trump on the Russian plot in January 2017. Since leaving government, Brennan has become a television commentator and is frequently critical of Trump.
James Clapper: The director of national intelligence from August 2010 to January 2017, James Clapper led intelligence-community efforts to determine the extent of Russian intervention during the 2016 US presidential election campaign. He was among the officials who briefed Donald Trump in January 2017 on the intelligence-community assessment of Russia’s actions. In a book published after he left office, Clapper wrote that he had “no doubt” that Russia swung the election to Trump.
Jerome Corsi: A conservative writer and conspiracy theorist who helped popularize the false accusation that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, Jerome Corsi corresponded with Trump associate Roger Stone about WikiLeaks before the election. Corsi announced in November 2018 that he had rejected a plea deal proposed by the special counsel’s office in which he would have agreed he lied to investigators about some of his Stone contacts. Stone was charged in January 2019 with lying to Congress and witness tampering related to his dealings with Corsi over WikiLeaks. He vowed to fight the charges.
Randy Credico: A New York comedian and radio host, Randy Credico befriended Trump associate Roger Stone before the 2016 election. Stone told Congress that when he announced before the election that he had a back channel to WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, he was referencing Credico, who had interviewed Assange on his radio show. Credico denied serving as a back channel for Stone to Assange. Stone was charged in January 2019 with lying to Congress and witness tampering related to his dealings with Credico over WikiLeaks. He vowed to fight the charges.
Rob Goldstone: A British music promoter, Rob Goldstone had met Donald Trump when his Russian pop star client Emin Agalarov had helped bring Trump’s Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013. At Agalarov’s request, Goldstone emailed Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and asked if he would meet with a Russian lawyer who, Goldstone said, had information to share about Democrat Hillary Clinton. Goldstone attended the June 2016 meeting, along with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
Joseph Mifsud: A Maltese academic who worked at the London Centre of International Law Practice, where Trump adviser George Papadopoulos was also employed when he was named to the campaign. Prosecutors said that Joseph Mifsud befriended Papadopoulos after he joined the campaign, introducing him to a Russian woman who said she was a niece of the Russian president and a Russian think tank director with ties to the Kremlin. According to Papadopoulos’s plea, a London-based professor—later reported to be Mifsud—told the Trump adviser in April 2016 that the Russians held dirt about Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, a revelation that would later help spark the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia. Mifsud has told The Washington Post he had no ties to Russia outside of academia and no contact with the Russian government. After Papadopoulos’s plea, Mifsud denied wrongdoing and said he had had no knowledge of Clinton emails held by Russia. “I have a clear conscience,” he told the Telegraph.
George Nader: A Lebanese American businessman who has acted as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, George Nader cooperated with the special counsel’s investigation as investigators sought to determine the purpose of a secret meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of a Russian government-controlled wealth fund. Investigators gathered evidence that the meeting, which was brokered by Nader, was part of an effort to establish a back channel of communication between the Trump administration and the Kremlin, which Prince has denied. Nader’s lawyer has declined to address the matter publicly. Nader has a checkered past, having been convicted years ago of transporting child pornography.
W. Samuel Patten: A Republican political consultant who pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a foreign lobbyist while working for a Ukrainian political party from 2014 to 2018. He also acknowledged in his plea that he worked with a foreigner, who The Washington Post has identified as Paul Manafort’s longtime aide Konstantin Kilimnik, to route an illegal foreign donation from a Ukrainian politician to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.
Richard Pinedo: A California man who pleaded guilty in October 2018 to identity theft for a scheme in which he sold bank account numbers online. Prosecutors said Russian nationals used the numbers to open PayPal accounts and fund a social media campaign to influence the American electorate.
Erik Prince: The founder of the now disbanded private security company Blackwater, Erik Prince participated in a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before Trump’s inauguration with a Russian official close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Investigators have explored whether the gathering was part of an effort to establish a back channel between the Kremlin and the incoming administration, though Prince has said it was an unplanned encounter when he was at a luxury hotel in the Indian Ocean island nation with officials from the United Arab Emirates.
Felix Sater: A New York real estate developer who emigrated from Russia as a child, Felix Sater was a former business associate of Donald Trump’s. Sater worked during the presidential campaign with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to try to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. As an executive at the Bayrock Group, Sater had licensed Trump’s name to build towers around the world. In emails, Sater told Cohen that the ultimately unsuccessful building project could boost Trump’s electoral chances and improve his relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Christopher Steele: A former officer with the British intelligence service MI6, Christopher Steele was hired by the private US political-intelligence firm Fusion GPS to research Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. From June to December 2016, he submitted a series of reports that came to be known collectively as the “Steele Dossier,” which alleged the Russians held compromising information about Trump and that Trump’s campaign was conspiring with a Russian government effort to win him the election. The research, which was rejected by Trump, was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Alex van der Zwaan: A Dutch lawyer based in London, Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to the FBI about his work for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he helped produce a report regarding the jailing of a Ukrainian politician. Van der Zwaan lied during interviews about his contacts with Trump campaign aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, who had also worked in Ukraine. He served thirty days in prison.
Viktor Yanukovych: The former president of Ukraine, he was Paul Manafort’s main client while Manafort was a political consultant in Kiev prior to joining the Trump campaign. Manafort was credited with professionalizing Yanukovych’s political operation and helping him win his country’s presidency in 2010. Manafort continued to advise Yanukovych and his party after his victory, earning millions of dollars. In 2014, Yanukovych was ousted from office by public protests and fled to Russia.