Special Counsel investigation

President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon as part of a flurry of clemency action in the final hours of his White House term that benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family.

President Donald Trump pardoned more than two dozen people, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, in the latest wave of clemency to benefit longtime associates and supporters.

President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Nov. 25, ending a yearslong prosecution in the Russia investigation that saw Flynn twice plead guilty to lying to the FBI and then reverse himself before the Justice Department stepped in to dismiss his case.

President Donald Trump said on June 15 that his former national security adviser, John Bolton, could face a "criminal problem" if he doesn't halt plans to publish a new book that describes scattershot, sometimes dangerous, decision-making by a president focused only on getting re-elected.

U.S. Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell on May 13 released a list of former Obama administration officials accused of "unmasking" former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

In an abrupt about-face, the Justice Department on May 7 said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.

There have been impeachment trials in the United States before, but never in an environment as polarized as this. Following the Mueller investigations, it looked like the current era of political tribalism would prevent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from even bringing forward articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide who was a key figure in the FBI's Russia probe, filed paperwork Tuesday to run for the US House seat being vacated by Democrat Katie Hill.
Papadopoulos didn't immediately comment, but on Sunday he tweeted, "I love my state too much to see it run down by candidates like Hill. All talk, no action, and a bunch of sellouts."

A U.S. Justice Department review of the origins of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now a criminal investigation, a person familiar with the matter said on Oct. 24
The person, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to say whether a grand jury had been convened in the investigation.

Testifying in defiance of President Donald Trump's ban, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House impeachment investigators on Oct. 11 that Trump himself had pressured the State Department to oust her from her post and get her out of the country.