Analysis: Slow leak of Russia news flooding White House

NEW YORK — As Air Force One flew home from Europe, news was set to break about a meeting that Donald Trump’s eldest son had with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, promising yet another round of unwelcome headlines about the president and Russia. And that happened twice within a week.

The day-after-day dripdrip-drip of revelations over the past week about Donald Trump Jr.’s contact with the Russian lawyer in 2016 underscores the White House’s inability to shake off the Russia story and close the book on a narrative that casts a shadow over Trump’s presidency. No matter how presidential Trump may have looked on his back-to-back trips to Europe in recent days, the persistent questions about connections between Trump’s team and Russia prevent him from savoring a public relations victory and building momentum for his stalled legislative agenda.

“Omissions are as harmful as contradictions because it seems like you’re hiding something,” Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, said of the Trump team’s strategy. “From a communications standpoint, it’s unforgiveable.”

Indeed, Trump Jr.’s account of his Trump Tower meeting has seemingly changed on an almost daily basis. At first, the meeting was said to be about a Russian adoption program. Then, it was to hear information about campaign rival Hillary Clinton. Finally, Trump Jr. was forced to release emails — mere moments before The New York Times planned to do so — that revealed he had told an associate that he would “love” Russia’s help in obtaining negative details about the Democratic nominee.

Even the number of people who attended the meeting has changed. On Friday, a prominent Russian-American lobbyist told The Associated Press that he, too, had been part of the discussion.

Each revelation, no matter how small, has been seized upon by Democrats and dissected in detail on cable news.

The investigations have thrown the White House off balance, leaving some officials on edge about whether there are more disclosures to come.

On Saturday, the White House announced that Trump had hired Washington attorney Ty Cobb to serve as his special counsel to handle the White House’s response to the Russia probes. The move reflects the president’s growing acceptance that the Russia probes will linger over his tenure for months or even years.

Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner — the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser also attended the June 2016 meeting — have retained attorneys separate from those hired by the president.