From Trump fixer to Mueller informant: Timeline of Michael Cohen's role in Russia probe

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday about the "illicit acts" he says he helped Trump cover up.

In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including campaign finance violations and lying to Congress about his work on a project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Cohen, who once said he would "take a bullet" for Trump, made the guilty plea as part of a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to sway the 2016 presidential election.

Last year, Cohen told the House and Senate Intelligence committees that the Moscow Trump Tower development plan was scrapped in January 2016. But Cohen continued to update Trump on the project as late as June 2016, according to Thursday's court filing.

Here is a timeline of key moments in Cohen's relationship with Trump:

2007: Cohen joins Trump Organization

Cohen first came on Trump's radar after he bought a Trump World Tower apartment in 2001. He later acquired more Trump properties and helped Trump in a dispute with a condo board, prompting Trump to tell the New York Post in 2007 that "Michael Cohen has a great insight into the real-estate market."

"In short, he’s a very smart person," Trump said.

Who is Michael Cohen?: Some see Trump's lawyer as overzealous bully. Team Trump sees an undying loyalist

2011: Trump's 'pit bull'

Cohen led the push for Trump to make a 2012 presidential run. By that time he had earned a reputation as Trump's personal "pit bull."

"It means that if somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn't like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump's benefit," Cohen explained to ABC News. "If you do something wrong, I'm going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I'm not going to let you go until I'm finished."

September 2015: Trump World Tower Moscow plans begin

Cohen met with Felix Sater and began working on plans for Trump World Tower Moscow, Buzzfeed News reported. Sater was a longtime Trump associate who was born in Russia and spent a year in prison for stabbing a man with a broken martini glass. Sater was suspected of money laundering and stock manipulation in 1998 but was given a pass because he was acting as a CIA informant.

October 2015: Trump signs letter of intent

Sater told Cohen on Oct. 12 that his associates would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the project and to get funding from VTB Bank, which was under U.S. government sanctions, Buzzfeed reported. The news site said Trump signed a letter of intent on the deal on Oct. 28.

November 2015: 'Our boy can become president of the USA'

Sater emailed Cohen on Nov. 3, telling him, "Buddy our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it," The New York Times reported. "I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process."

January 2016: Cohen reaches out to Kremlin

Cohen emailed Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Jan. 16 to ask for help in getting the project approved, according to a court filing Thursday.

June 2016: Last known talk on the deal

Cohen met with Sater in the Trump Tower lobby, where Cohen said he would not be able to make a planned trip to Russia to work on the Trump Tower deal. According to Mueller's team, Cohen briefed Trump more than three times in 2016 on the status of the project, according to Mueller's team.

July 2016: Trump says he has no investments in Russia

"For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia," Trump tweets on July 26.

Nov. 6, 2016: Trump is elected president

Trump defeats Hillary Clinton in an upset. He beat his Democratic opponent with 306 electoral votes to Clinton's 232, although Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million ballots.

Aug. 28, 2017: Cohen gives statement to Congress

Cohen submitted a written statement to the House and Senate Intelligence committees, which said the effort "to build a Trump property in Moscow that was terminated in January of 2016; which occurred before the Iowa caucus and months before the very first primary."

Jan. 12, 2018: Wall Street Journal reports on Stormy Daniels payment

The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to porn star Stephanie Clifford – better known to the world as Stormy Daniels – ahead of the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

Feb. 13, 2018: Cohen says he paid Daniels himself

Cohen told The New York Times he paid Daniels with his own money and that Trump had nothing to do with it.

April 5, 2018: Trump denies knowing about Daniels payment

Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One that he didn't know about the payment to Daniels. "You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael," Trump said.

April 9, 2018: FBI seizes Cohen's files

FBI agents raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room, seizing more than 1.3 million pieces of potential evidence.

May 2, 2018: Trump hires Giuliani

Trump hired former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as his personal attorney.

June 15, 2018: Trump says Cohen 'not my lawyer anymore'

Trump confirmed that Cohen was "not my lawyer anymore." He added that he "always liked Michael. And he's a good person." Giuliani told Politico a month earlier that Cohen was no longer part of Trump's legal team.

July 2, 2018: Cohen willing to cooperate

During an interview with ABC News, Cohen did not dismiss the possibility of cooperating with Mueller's Russia investigation.

July 20, 2018: Cohen secretly recorded Trump

Media reports surfaced saying Cohen secretly recorded a least one conversation with Trump about giving hush money to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model. Three days later, court documents confirmed federal prosecutors obtained a dozen audio recordings in the files seized from Cohen in the FBI raids in April. On July 24, CNN obtained a copy of one of the recordings.

July 25, 2018: Trump responds to news of tapes

"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?" Trump tweeted. "So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?"

Aug. 21, 2018: Cohen pleads guilty to 8 charges

Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including fraud, tax evasion and an illegal campaign contribution. He said he paid off Daniels and McDougal to silence them before the 2016 election at Trump’s "direction" and admitted that the payments were illegal.

Aug. 22, 2018: Trump admits Daniels money came from him

Trump said in an interview with "Fox & Friends" that the money paid to Daniels and McDougal "came from me." Trump said that since the money came from him and not the Trump campaign, the payments were not illegal. He also tweeted, "If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!"

Nov. 29, 2018: Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress

Cohen reached a plea deal with Mueller and pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to Congress. After the news of his guilty plea for lying about efforts to build Trump Tower Moscow, the president told reporters Cohen was a "weak person" who was "lying" to "get a reduced sentence."

Dec. 7, 2018: Prosecutors recommend 'substantial prison term'

Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and Mueller's team submitted sentencing memos to U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley. The Southern district prosecutors said Cohen should get about 42 months, saying he “repeatedly used his power and influence for deceptive ends.” They also said Cohen paid Daniels "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump.

Dec. 12, 2018: Cohen sentenced to 3 years

Pauley sentenced Cohen to a three-year sentence in federal prison for pleading "guilty to a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct." At the hearing, Cohen said he took "full responsibility" for his acts and that "blind loyalty" drove him to cover up the president's "dirty deeds."

Feb. 27, 2018: Cohen testifies in open hearing

In his opening statement as part of his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen calls Trump a "con man," a "racist" and a "cheat."

"Mr. Trump is an enigma. He is complicated, as am I. He has both good and bad, as do we all," reads the statement. "But the bad far outweighs the good, and since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself."

Cohen also planned to present as evidence a $35,000 personal check from Trump, which he says was part of his reimbursement for the hush money he paid to Daniels.

Contributing: Brad Heath, David Jackson, Kevin Johnson, Erin Kelly, Kevin McCoy, Steve Reilly, Fredreka Schouten and John Bacon

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From Trump fixer to Mueller informant: Timeline of Michael Cohen's role in Russia probe