Pence, Flynn and the Russia investigation: A timeline of key events

WASHINGTON — Former national security adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea this month for lying to FBI agents while he worked in the Trump administration raises the question of what incriminating information he gave special counsel Robert Mueller in exchange for his guilty plea.

Vice President Pence, who headed the Trump transition, says he is not one of the senior transition officials Flynn says were aware of his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Flynn was fired as national security adviser in February for lying to Pence, and others, about the nature of those conversations. 

Here's a timeline of key events about Flynn, and other aspects of the investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 elections, that have a connection to Pence. 

Feb. 26, 2016: Reuters reports that Flynn “has been informally advising Trump” on foreign policy during the presidential campaign.

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June 9, 2016: Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya meets with Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort in Trump Jr.'s office at Trump Tower in New York. Trump Jr. has said he went to the meeting to find out if Veselnitskaya had damaging information to share about the Clinton campaign. 

July 16, 2016: Trump announces he’s chosen Pence as his running mate.

Oct. 14, 2016: Pence says on Fox News that the national media is chasing after unsubstantiated allegations that the Trump campaign is in cahoots with WikiLeaks, a website that publishes documents from anonymous sources. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Pence says.

Nov. 8, 2016: Trump is elected president, and Pence is elected vice president

Nov. 10, 2016: During a meeting at the White House, President Obama reportedly warns Trump against hiring Flynn.

Nov. 11, 2016: Pence takes over the Trump transition team from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Flynn is vice chair. (Christie later says, on Dec. 6, 2017, that he believes his opposition to making Flynn national security adviser was a “significant reason” he was replaced.)

Nov. 17, 2016: Trump names Flynn his national security adviser.

Nov. 18, 2016: Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, writes Pence raising questions about Flynn’s lobbying work for Russia and Turkey. Cummings asks Pence, as head of the transition, for information Flynn has shared with the transition, and a signed assertion from Flynn that he does not have conflicts of interest.

Dec. 28, 2016: Obama signs an executive order announcing sanctions against Russia for interfering in the 2016 election. Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak contacts Flynn, according to Flynn’s plea agreement. Pence is in Indiana for his son's wedding.

Dec. 29, 2016: Flynn calls “a senior official of the Presidential Transition Team," according to the plea agreement, at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. for guidance on talking to Kislyak. (Other senior members of the transition were also at the resort.) Flynn then calls Kislyak and asks him not to “escalate the situation," and reports the conversation back to a transition official.

Dec. 30, 2016: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces Russia will not retaliate.

Jan. 12, 2016: The Washington Post reports Flynn and Kislyak spoke several times as the sanctions announcement was unfolding. 

Jan. 15, 2017: Pence discusses the calls between Flynn and Kislyak on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” saying “they did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”

Jan. 20, 2017: Trump and Pence are sworn into office.

Jan. 24, 2017: Flynn denies to FBI agents that he discussed the sanctions with Russian officials.

Jan. 26, 2017: Acting Attorney General Sally Yates tells the White House counsel that Pence, and other top officials, made statements about Flynn’s actions that were not true.

Feb. 9, 2017: Pence learns about Yates’ warning, according to NBC News. The Washington Post reports Flynn discussed sanctions with Kislyak.

Feb. 13, 2017: Flynn resigns, saying he had he had “inadvertently briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador.”

Feb. 14, 2017: Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said the vice president “became aware of incomplete information that he had received Feb. 9, last Thursday night, based on media accounts. He did an inquiry based on those media accounts.”

March 9, 2017: Pence tells Fox News that he was just learning about Flynn’s work for Turkey from news reports. 

May 8, 2017: Pence reportedly participates in an Oval Office meeting at which Trump reviewed the draft of a letter laying out reasons for firing FBI Director James Comey. The reasons reportedly included Trump’s displeasure that Comey wouldn’t publicly say Trump wasn’t being investigated.

May 9, 2017: Trump fires Comey, suggesting the reason was Comey’s handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

May 10, 2017: Pence repeated the initial White House explanation that Comey was dismissed based on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

But Trump later undercut that explanation, saying he was going to fire Comey regardless of the Justice Department's recommendation, and confirmed in a television interview the Russia investigation was indeed on his mind when he made the decision.

May 17, 2017: The Justice Department taps former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sources tell the New York Times that Trump’s team knew Flynn was under investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the presidential campaign.

May 18, 2017: Pence stands by his March claim that he did not know until then that Flynn had been lobbying for Turkey.

June 7, 2017: Comey testifies that Trump had pressed him to drop an FBI investigation into Flynn in an Oval Office meeting in February. Before making the request, Comey said, Trump asked Pence and other top officials present to leave the room.

July 11, 2017: After the revelation that Trump’s eldest son met during the campaign with a Russian attorney who promised dirt from the Russian government on Hillary Clinton, Pence’s spokesman said the vice president “was not aware of the meeting,” which happened before he joined the ticket.

Nov. 13, 2017: Donald Trump Jr. makes public several messages he exchanged during the 2016 campaign with WikiLeaks around the time it was publishing leaked and secret material from Democrats. Those messages were exchanged in the fall of 2016, leading up to Trump’s eldest son tweeting out a link to WikiLeaks’ documents on Oct. 14, 2016, the same day Pence dismissed suggestions “that your campaign is in cahoots with WikiLeaks.” After Trump Jr.’s email exchange becomes public, Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Pence “was never aware of anyone associated with the campaign being in contact with WikiLeaks.”

Nov. 30, 2017: Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, writes Pence – as head of the transition team – to ask what role Flynn played within the team on issues affecting Flynn’s lobbying clients.

Dec. 1, 2017: Mueller charges Flynn with lying about his conversations with Kislyak and Flynn pleads guilty. The court filing, which was made public Dec. 1, states Flynn “did willfully and knowingly make materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to FBI agents during a Jan. 24 interview.