Donald Trump continues to deny that he knew anything about a June 2016 meeting between members of his campaign and Russians.
But in an overnight tweet, he said the meeting was "totally legal and done all the time in politics".
Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!
Now, Mr Trump is acknowledging that, yes, the meeting was about gaining dirt on his Democratic rival — but that's a-okay because it was all legal anyway.
Critics have also noted the last sentence of his tweet: "I did not know about it!"
If he's advocating that there's nothing wrong, illegal or concerning about the meeting, the Washington Post asks, why is he distancing himself from it?
It follows reports the President is getting increasingly anxious about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
To understand the gravity of the thing, we need to understand just how much this story keeps changing.
What was the Trump tower meeting?
The Trump Tower meeting plays a central role in special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into whether Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the lead-up to the election.
The President has denied any involvement, but evidence against him and his administration continues to stack up.
His son, Donald Trump Jr, has been under scrutiny for organising a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 — five months before the election — between Trump campaign officials and Russians.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. walk out onto the North Portico of the White House. Photo / Getty Images
The meeting was attended by Trump Jr, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, a Russian lawyer and four other people with ties to the Kremlin.
The meeting was first exposed by the New York Times, in a report that detailed an undisclosed meeting between members of the Trump administration and a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya.
In a statement to the Times, Trump Jr claimed the meeting was largely about the issue of adopting Russian children.
"It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up."
He added: "I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand."
July 9, 2017
The next day, the Times reported Trump Jr was actually promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to five White House advisers.
In a follow-up statement, Trump Jr claimed the woman made "vague, ambiguous" statements about "individuals connected to Russia... funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs Clinton".
He maintained the conversation quickly moved on to the issue of adopting Russian children.
The president continued to deny any involvement.
July 12, 2017
Trump Jr released what he said was the full email chain of his correspondence with the meeting handlers, acknowledging it was predicated on getting information about Hillary Clinton.
"The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research," he wrote.
Donald Trump's legal team acknowledged that the president actually "dictated" his son's first misleading statement to the Times.
"You have received all of the notes, communications and testimony indicating that the President dictated a short but accurate response to the New York Times article on behalf of his son, Donald Trump Jr," the letter said, according to the Times. "His son then followed up by making a full public disclosure regarding the meeting, including his public testimony that there was nothing to the meeting and certainly no evidence of collusion."
So, to recap: Despite claiming to have had nothing to do with the meeting, Donald Trump actually wrote the letter — on his son's behalf — falsely claiming the meeting was about Russian adoptions.
Donald Trump Jr has been under scrutiny for organising a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 - five months before the election. Photo / Getty Images
July 27, 2018
In a bombshell claim, Donald Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen last week claimed the president knew in advance the meeting.
Mr Cohen said he was with the President when Trump Jr told him Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton at a June 2016 meeting, CNN reported.
Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has blasted Mr Cohen in response, calling him a "pathological liar" and standing firm on the line that the president knew nothing about the meeting.
What next?
Donald Trump continues to call for an end to the investigation.
Last week, he called on his attorney-general Jeff Sessions to end it — in what lends credibility to reports that he has concerns for what the probe may uncover.
