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Donald Trump has accused his opponents of conducting a “witch hunt” over his administration’s links to Russia.

The President spoke out after his Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to remove himself from an FBI probe into Moscow’s hacking of the US election.

Mr Sessions is accused of lying in a congressional hearing about his meetings with Russian ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak last year.

Less than two months since taking office the President has already seen his National Security Adviser, Mike Flynn, forced to resign over his contacts with the Russians.

It has emerged that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also met the Russian ambassador in December at the Trump Tower.

(Image: AFP)

A besieged Mr Trump said the allegations were nothing more than a “total witch hunt".

“The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now they have lost their grip on reality,” he said.

The same language was used by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov when questioned about the allegations.

Mr Lavrov also drew comparisons with Senator Joe McCarthy, the Republican behind the “red scare” in the 1950s.

(Image: REUTERS)

“All this is very much reminiscent of a witch hunt and the McCarthyism era which we all thought was long gone,” Mr Lavrov said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about Kushner’s meeting with Mr Kislyak in December, said he agreed with Mr Trump’s use of the phrase “witch hunt.”

“We have nothing to add to President Trump’s exhaustive definition,” he said.