This is all prior to the dossier being put together:
DERP.
EARLY 2013: Carter Page, who years later would become an unpaid adviser to Trump’s campaign, shares information and research with a Russian national whom the FBI later accuses of being a Kremlin spy. According to the FBI, the spy is secretly recorded in April 2013 talking with another accused spy about efforts to “recruit” Page “as an intelligence source.” (Page cooperated with the investigation. He has since said his communications were innocent and has denied relaying any sensitive or private information to the accused spy.)
JUNE 2015: Donald Trump announces his candidacy for president.
SEPTEMBER 2015: Looking to boost one of the other Republicans running for the GOP nomination, the right-leaning Washington Free Beacon retains the Washington-based firm Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Trump.
DECEMBER 2015: Michael Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, attends a gala in Moscow celebrating the Kremlin-backed television network RT, which paid Flynn more than $45,000 to attend. Flynn, who does not join the Trump campaign as an adviser for another few months, is captured on camera sitting next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
PHOTO: 2016
ABC
ABC
2016
EARLY JAN. 2016: Carter Page meets with Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski about joining the Trump campaign, and he then becomes a “low-level junior” volunteer with an informal foreign policy committee tied to the campaign.
JANUARY 2016: Former British spy Christopher Steele sends a "happy new year" message to someone he’s known for some time, Bruce Ohr, the head of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Steele also mentions their mutual interest in a Russian oligarch they previously followed together and who may be visiting the United States soon. In his position at the Justice Department, Ohr not only coordinates the department's efforts to crack down on drug trafficking and foreign cartels, but he also serves as a top official inside the deputy attorney general’s office.
FEB. 2016: Steele and Ohr remain in contact, without Ohr’s bosses at the Justice Department knowing. They continue to discuss the Russian oligarch's visit to the United States. Meanwhile, Steele has been working for the FBI as a confidential informant, and the FBI advises him of his obligations as an informant, including his responsibility to keep his relationship with the FBI secret. He is working on undisclosed matters. (In documents since publicly released, the FBI says information previously provided by Steele, and unrelated to Trump or Russian election meddling, had been corroborated and used to prosecute cases. But the documents do not offer any more details about what was corroborated or used.)
EARLY MARCH 2016: George Papadopoulos becomes a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign.
MARCH 14, 2016: While traveling in Italy, Papadopoulos meets a London-based professor who claims to have connections with the Russian government.
AROUND MARCH 24, 2016: While in London, Papadopoulos sends an email to Carter Page and other campaign members, telling them the professor he met in Italy two weeks earlier has introduced him to the Russian ambassador to England and a Russian woman who is supposedly Putin’s niece. Papadopoulos says in the email that the two Russians might be able to help set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. (Page later tells congressional investigators he remembers that the email from Papadopoulos mentioned the professor had introduced Papadopoulos to Russian government officials.)
MARCH 2016: The FBI interviews Carter Page about his contacts in Russia.
MARCH 2016: Russian hackers launch an operation to break into computer systems associated with the DNC and email accounts of Clinton campaign staff, including campaign chairman John Podesta.
AROUND APRIL 2016: The Washington Free Beacon ends its research contract with Fusion GPS when it’s clear Trump is going to become the nominee.
APRIL 2016: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, meets in Moscow with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. In the summer of 2016, Rohrabacher also met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, months before the site released hacked Democratic emails received from Russian hackers.
MAY 2016: The DNC realizes it has been hacked and quietly hires a security company to investigate.
MAY 19, 2016: Paul Manafort, who initially joined the Trump campaign in March as a “campaign convention manager” becomes the campaign manager.
LATE MAY 2016: Acting on behalf of the DNC, the law firm Perkins Coie hires Fusion GPS to conduct research on Trump. Having known Steele for nearly seven years, Fusion GPS contracts with Steele to conduct the research. The head of Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, has also known Steele’s contact at the Justice Department, Ohr, for several years. Simpson hires Ohr’s wife, a Russian linguist named Nellie, to help with the research and analysis.
LATE MAY 2016: Papadopoulos tells the Greek Foreign Minister that the Russians have “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
JUNE 3, 2016: British publicist and Trump associate Rob Goldstone, who came into the Trump orbit when he helped promote and state manage the Miss Universe pageant, emails Donald Trump Jr., saying prominent Russians “offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary.” Goldstone says it is “very high level” and “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
JUNE 7, 2016: Goldstone emails Trump Jr. again, looking to set up a meeting between Trump Jr. and a “Russian government attorney.” Two days later, Trump Jr. and the attorney meet in Trump Tower, along with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
JUNE 14, 2016: News outlets widely report that Russian hackers working on behalf of Russian intelligence services have infiltrated the DNC and accessed a trove of emails.
JUNE 20, 2016: Steele compiles a report concluding the Kremlin had “cultivat

” and “compromised” Trump, and it was “feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence” on Hillary Clinton and others.
JULY 1, 2016: Steele writes Ohr an email, saying he wants to “informally” discuss something about “our favourite business tycoon!” (It's unclear whether Steele was referring to Trump or the Russian oligarch they have discussed previously.)
EARLY JULY 2016: Described by Simpson as worried that what he was finding could have national security implications, Steele contacts his handler at the FBI. Neither Steele nor Fusion GPS tells the DNC or law firm that Steele is reaching out to the FBI.
EARLY JULY 2016: Carter Page, then an adviser to Trump’s campaign, emails Corey Lewandowski and campaign advisers Hope Hicks and J.D. Gordon to tell them he is planning to go to Moscow to give the commencement speech at the New Economic School there.
JULY 7-8, 2016: Carter Page travels to Moscow for the commencement speech at the New Economic School. After the event, according to what he later tells congressional investigators, he “briefly” speaks to Arkadiy Dvorkovich, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, and they exchange “some nice pleasantries.” Shortly after the brief greeting, he sends an email to members of the Trump campaign stating: “In a private conversation, Dvorkovich expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems.” (That portion of the email is later quoted by congressional investigators during their interview with Page.)
JULY 8, 2016: Carter Page sends an email to campaign members Tera Dahl and J.D. Gordon, saying he “received” some “incredible insights and outreach” from “a few Russian legislators and senior members of presidential administration” in Russia. (Page later tells congressional investigators he was referring in that email to what he had heard in public speeches.) After speaking in Moscow, he stays in touch with as many as 10 Russian scholars and others he met there.
JULY 2016: An Australian diplomat alerts the FBI about Papadopoulos, who claimed to have been told that the Russian government obtained "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
MID-JULY 2016: Senior State Department official Victoria Nuland is shown portions of Steele’s reports. (It’s unclear who shows her the reports.)