Here is the timeline of the plot in real life.
Friday January 27
Sally Yates informed White House that Flynn could be open to blackmail by Russia.
Trump had dinner with James Comey and asked for his loyalty. Comey promised only honesty. (Reported on May 10. Denied by White House.)
Monday January 30
Sally Yates was fired for not defending Trump’s travel ban.
Monday February 13
Trump fired Flynn hours after Washington Post reported that Sally Yates had warned the White House in January.
Tuesday February 14
Trump pressed Comey to let Flynn go. (According to James Comey’s memo, reported by NY Times on May 16).
Saturday March 4
Trump accused Obama of wire taping him.
Sunday March 5
Comey pushed the department of justice to reject the accusation.
Wednesday March 8
Comey confirmed FBI’s investigation into links between Trump campaign and Russia government.
Thursday March 30
Michael Flynn asked for immunity to testify.
Tuesday May 2
Putin asked Trump to meet Russia foreign minister and U.S. ambassador.
Wednesday May 3
Comey testified about Hilary’s email investigation. His saying that he felt “mildly nauseates” to think that the FBI might had some impact on the election. This statement had reportedly made Trump angry.
Monday May 8
Comey told head of Senate intelligence committee he asked for more resources for the Russia investigation from the justice department.
Tuesday May 9
Sean Spicer admitted that Sally Yates had warned the White House about Michael Flynn, but said she had not made it cleared.
Trump fired FBI director James Comey, which Comey found out on TV. The excuse provided for firing was that Comey was doing a lousy job in Hilary’s email investigation and was losing support. (Source: NYTimes) White House denied any suspicion that Trump fired Comey because of the Russia investigation.
Trump met Russia foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak in the oval office. The meeting was only known to the U.S. media yet, because the U.S. reporters were not allowed in.
Wednesday May 10
The US media learned about Trump’s meeting with Russia through the photos from the Russia news agency.
Thursday May 11
Trump admitted in a CBS interview that he fired Comey because of the Russian investigation.
Friday May 12
Trump threatened Comey to be careful when he spoke to the media, hinting there could be tapes of their conversation.
Monday May 15
Washington Post reported that during the meeting between Trump and Russia, Trump went off script and boasted about how the U.S. intelligence gathered information on a certain case (later known to be the possible laptop attacks), which was highly classified information that the U.S. wouldn’t even share with its allies.
White House denied that any source or method had been discussed during the meeting. The Washington Post reporter, interviewed by CNN, pointed out that even though source and methods were not directly discussed, the Russia intelligence could reverse engineer from those details to find out who had leaked information to the US.
Tuesday May 16
Trump admitted that he had discussed with Russia about the intelligence information, which he had full authorization to do.
Sally Yates was interviewed on CNN and claimed that she had made it absolutely clear on Jan 29 to the White House that Michael Flynn’s connection with Russia was a critical issue. Had she not been fired, she would have followed up on why it took the White House so long to look into it. (Source: CNN, NBC)
Wednesday May 17
Putin was ready to provide transcript between foreign minister Lavrov and Trump.
Senate Committee invited Comey to testify. If the allegations were true, Trump’s obstruction of justice could constitute grounds for impeachment, in theory. (Source: NYTimes)
Trump said that no president in history had been treated so unfairly.
Comment
We have only just survived one hundred days under Trump’s presidency. Now impeachment is already in picture. Yet, when I switched channel to Fox, they were talking about how a NYC’s new law in draft that required business owners who had their names on their business to release tax report was targeting Trump and that no law should be drawn to target individuals. Obviously, people will only see what they are willing to see.
This is truly an unprecedented presidency, in which the divide between people are only growing larger with time. Scandals and debates over them have drawn the attentions that should have been put into tax reform, Obama care/Trump care, environment protection, free trade agreements, and other topics that truly have impact on people’s daily life. Yet who has time to care about all these when plots better than that in House of Card are in play?
Will it be better if the media shut up? True that all these are chaotic, but should we blame who creates the chaos or who report them?
Trump supporters, if you are reading this, please imagine a country where no media dare to speak against the government, no officials dare to say no to the president, and no one knows the value that the United States stand for anymore. This is the world you are heading to. Some call it dictatorship; some call it socialist democracy. If this is what you are wishing for, you don’t have to go such a long way as to change the United States. A flight ticket to Russia or China will solve your problem. And believe me, you can enjoy more luxury there (provided you have money, of course).
As for the rest of us, stay tune for more bombshell to come. We haven’t heard the end of the story yet.
Update at 7pm on May 17, 2017
Wednesday May 17
Special counsel has been setup. Former FBI director Robert Mueller will lead the Russia Investigation. CNN says Mueller is highly competent, but he is thorough and the investigation will take a long time, at least a year. I’ve marked down their words. If a year later Mueller finds nothing, they can’t say it is because the Republican has chosen an incompetent leader. Wise choice for the republicans, but probably not a good news for the White House. I am not saying that I am sure Mueller will find anything, just that the White House will have a bee in their hat for a long time.
