# First Trump Transition The period from Donald Trump's election on November 8, 2016 to his inauguration on January 20, 2017, run through a private nonprofit, **Trump for America, Inc.** It is where the Russia contacts clustered: three of the episodes the [[Mueller Investigation]] examined most closely — the Kislyak sanctions calls, the Kushner–Gorkov meeting and the Seychelles back channel — happened during these ten weeks, before anyone involved held office. ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | Nov 11, 2016 | [[Mike Pence]] replaces [[Chris Christie]] as transition chair; the new executive committee includes Steven Mnuchin, [[Peter Thiel]], Reince Priebus, [[Steve Bannon]] and Trump's three eldest children | | Nov 15, 2016 | The "Stalinesque purge" of Christie loyalists pushes out national-security lead [[Mike Rogers (Michigan)]] and others | | Nov 30, 2016 | [[Jared Kushner]] and [[Michael Flynn]] meet Russian ambassador [[Sergey Kislyak]] at Trump Tower; Kislyak proposes secure communications for a briefing by Russian generals | | Dec 2016 | [[Mohammed bin Zayed]] makes an unannounced visit to New York and meets Flynn, Kushner and Bannon | | Dec 13, 2016 | Kushner meets Sergey Gorkov, head of the sanctioned state bank [[Vnesheconombank]] (VEB). Kushner called it diplomatic; VEB said it concerned Kushner's family business. Mueller did not resolve the discrepancy | | Dec 29, 2016 | Flynn, after consulting [[KT McFarland]] at Mar-a-Lago, asks Kislyak not to escalate over Obama's new sanctions. He later pleads guilty (Dec 1, 2017) to lying to the FBI about it | | Jan 2017 | In the Seychelles, [[Erik Prince]] meets [[Kirill Dmitriev]] of Russia's sovereign wealth fund in a meeting arranged by [[George Nader]] | | Dec 16, 2017 | Trump for America's general counsel, Kory Langhofer, complains that the [[GSA]] "unlawfully" gave Mueller thousands of transition emails; Mueller's office says it obtained them with "consent or appropriate criminal process" | ## Why it matters here A transition has no government authority but full access to foreign governments eager to shape the new administration. In 2016–17 that gap was filled with back channels to Moscow and Abu Dhabi, a sanctions promise to Russia, and a loyalty purge that set the pattern for staffing the government that followed. See [[First Trump Administration]] and [[Trump-Russia Arc Timeline]]. ## See Also - [[First Trump Administration]] · [[Mueller Investigation]] · [[Trump-Russia Arc Timeline]] - [[Michael Flynn]] · [[KT McFarland]] · [[Sergey Kislyak]] - [[Jared Kushner]] · [[Kirill Dmitriev]] · [[Erik Prince]] · [[Mohammed bin Zayed]] - [[GSA]]