President Trump defended Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE on Thursday night, insisting that the former Alabama senator "did not say anything wrong" amid swirling criticism over his testimony earlier this year about contacts with Russian officials.

Trump appeared to be referring to Sessions's statements before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation, when Sessions said he had not spoken to Russian officials. It was revealed this week that Sessions twice spoke with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. last year.

"Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong," Trump said in a statement posted to social media. "He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional."

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Sessions came under fire Wednesday night after it was revealed that he spoke with Russia's envoy to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, during the campaign. The existence of the conversations appeared to contradict statements Sessions made during his Jan. 10 confirmation hearing.

Responding to Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenPeterson faces fight of his career in deep-red Minnesota district Getting tight — the psychology of cancel culture Tina Smith wins Democratic Senate primary in Minnesota MORE (D-Minn.), who asked how he would handle possible contacts between Trump campaign aides and the Kremlin, Sessions told senators that he never communicated with Russian officials.

"If there was any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what would you do?" Franken asked.

"I'm not aware of any of those activities,” Sessions responded. “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians."

Bowing to bipartisan pressure on Thursday, Sessions recused himself from any federal investigation of Russia's intervention in the 2016 presidential election, though some Democrats maintain he should also resign.

Sessions denied he intentionally misled senators and said he did not "recall any specific political discussions" during his conversations with Kislyak before the November election. Sessions's office has maintained that the talks were appropriate because Sessions sat on the Armed Services Committee while in the Senate.

His recusal came shortly after Trump told reporters while touring an aircraft carrier that he had "total" confidence in his attorney general and that he didn't think Sessions needed to recuse himself.

"The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now, they have lost their grip on reality," Trump said in his statement late Thursday. "The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!"

Updated: 8:54 p.m.