美司法部长塞申斯回避有关俄罗斯插手选举的调查

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from any federal investigation of alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election.

Sessions met with reporters Thursday after The Washington Post reported that as a U.S. Senator and member of the Trump campaign, Sessions held two pre-election meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, but withheld that information during his confirmation hearing.

Questions have hovered whether Sessions talked about the campaign with the ambassador. Some lawmakers from both parties demanded Sessions recuse himself, while some Democrats said he should resign, accusing him of lying under oath.

President Donald Trump, who earlier said he does not think Sessions should recuse himself, called his attorney general "an honest man" who could have stated his response at the hearing more accurately.

Sessions told the reporters Thursday he never had any intention to mislead anyone and that his answers were "honest and correct" as he understood the question at that time.

But he said "in retrospect, I should have slowed down and said, 'But I did meet one Russian official a couple of times. That would be the ambassador.'"

Sessions said Thursday his meetings with Ambassador Kislyak -- first at the Republican National Convention in July and in his Capitol Hill office in September -- were part of his job as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and that "so many" other ambassadors also wanted a meeting.

Sessions said he and Kislyak talked about terrorism and Ukraine, describing the meeting as "testy" at one point when the matter of Russian involvement in Ukraine came up.

Sessions said Thursday that he decided to recuse himself in any investigation into alleged Russian interference in the election upon the recommendation of his staff at the Justice Department. He said no one should see his decision as confirmation that any probe is currently underway.