Last updated at 4:30 p.m. with Sessions comments.

WASHINGTON — Former Dallas congressman Pete Sessions denied any wrongdoing Thursday after the arrest of two of his campaign donors, Soviet-born businessmen who tried to help launch a corruption probe of Joe Biden in Ukraine.

A federal prosecutor in New York accused the men of illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. campaigns. The duo had helped President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, prod Ukraine to investigate the former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate.

The indictment doesn’t mention Sessions by name, nor does it charge him with any crime.

But it refers to donations the defendants Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman provided to a “Congressman-1” that align with what’s known about Sessions’ campaign contribution history, and details interactions that track with Sessions’ push for the ouster of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and his interactions with the men.

Sessions, who lost his congressional seat last year and is seeking a comeback, insisted in a written statement that he’s done nothing wrong and noted that the indictment itself says that “the defendants concealed the scheme from the candidates, campaigns and federal regulators.”

“Therefore, if I am ‘Congressman One,’ I could not have had any knowledge of the scheme described in the indictment or have involvement or coordination of it,” he said.

The two businessmen, both American citizens who live in Florida, were arrested Wednesday night while awaiting a flight out of the country, despite being scheduled to testify before the U.S. House on Thursday and Friday.

The indictment alleges that as part of their scheme, they last year committed to raising $20,000 for the campaign of “Congressman-1," around the same time that one of the men, at the behest of a Ukrainian government official, sought “Congressman-1’s assistance in causing the U.S. government to remove or recall the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.”

Sessions has acknowledged that he met with the businessmen, and that he wrote in May 2018 to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to ask for that ambassador’s removal. Before Thursday afternoon’s statement, he had not explained who motivated him to seek the ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, a career diplomat, from her post in Kyiv.

Sessions asserted that he met with Parnas and Fruman “about the strategic need for Ukraine to become energy independent," adding that “there was no request in that meeting" and that he "took no action.” He later had “a couple additional meetings” with them. “Again,” he said, "at no time did I take any official action after these meetings.”

He said that he urged Pompeo to remove Yovanovitch because “several congressional colleagues reported to me that the current U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine was disparaging President Trump to others as part of those official duties.

“My entire motivation for sending the letter was that I believe that political appointees should not be disparaging the President, especially while serving overseas,” he said.

Sessions, through spokesman Matt Mackowiak, declined to identify the other congressmen he says brought complaints to him about the ambassador, or say if he encouraged them to contact Pompeo directly.

The two businessmen were arrested Wednesday night at Dulles International Airport, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. They had started gaining notoriety in recent weeks for their work with Giuliani to investigate Biden over the former vice president’s son’s business dealings in Ukraine.

Efforts by Trump and his allies to pressure Ukrainian officials over Biden is now the source of a formal impeachment inquiry that House Democrats are pursuing against the president. Trump removed Yovanovitch in May after complaints from Giuliani that she was blocking the push for an inquiry by Ukraine.

Parnas and Fruman were scheduled to provide depositions to the House committees on Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Reform -- Parnas on Thursday, Fruman on Friday.

Instead they appeared in federal court in Virginia on Thursday.

Prosecutors accuse them of violating campaign finance law by hiding the foreign source of donations. The indictment alleges that they laundered money as part of a “scheme to funnel foreign money to candidates for federal and state office so that the defendants could buy potential influence with candidates, campaigns and the candidates’ governments.”

A central figure is “Congressman-1,” whom Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, referenced repeatedly at a news conference.

“Protecting the integrity of our elections and protecting our elections from unlawful foreign influence are core functions of our campaign finance laws,” said Berman, whose office led the investigation into Parnas, Fruman and their associates.

Even before the arrests of Parnas and Fruman, Sessions’ relationship with the duo had come under scrutiny as the Republican sought to return to the House by announcing a bid for office in a nearby district being vacated by Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan.

Sessions last week downplayed his ties to the businessmen, saying on KXAS-TV’s Lone Star Politics that he simply spoke to Parnas and Fruman about the oil business.

“This was during the campaign, early in the campaign, and they did come by my office and I did meet them and I did meet them off the Hill and they did become contributors," Sessions said. "That is not unusual for you to meet people who then become contributors."

While the 21-page indictment never names “Congressman-1,” the similarities between him and Sessions are striking.

“Congressman-1,” the indictment says, benefited in the 2018 election cycle from about $3 million in independent expenditures from a committee that Parnas and Fruman made a $325,000 contribution to under the auspices of a corporation called Global Energy Producers.

Sessions in 2018 benefited from just over $3 million in advertising and other independent expenditures made by America First Action – a pro-Trump super PAC – against Colin Allred, the Dallas Democrat who unseated Sessions.

And a group called Global Energy Producers, which Parnas and Fruman list as their company in other capacities, did indeed make a $325,000 contribution last year to America First Action.

“Congressman-1,” the indictment says, in or about June 2018 received a maximum $2,700 contribution from Fruman and then another maximum $2,700 contribution from Parnas, though the indictment says the Parnas donation was actually paid for by Fruman.

Sessions in June 2018 received $2,700 contributions from both Parnas and Fruman, who together have made about $1 million in campaign contributions.

“Congressman-1,” the indictment says, met in May or June of 2018 with Parnas, who sought the lawmaker’s help in removing Yovanovitch.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks during a news conference in New York on Thursday. Two Florida businessmen tied to President Donald Trump's lawyer and the Ukraine investigation were charged Thursday with federal campaign finance violations. The charges relate to a $325,000 donation to a group supporting Trump's reelection. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig)

This Facebook screen shot provided by The Campaign Legal Center shows, from left, Donald Trump Jr., Tommy Hicks Jr., Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, posted on May 21, 2018. Parnas and Fruman were arrested on Oct. 9, 2019, on campaign finance violations resulting from a donation to a political action committee supporting President Donald Trump's reelection. (The Campaign Legal Center via AP) (Uncredited)

Even last week, Sessions admitted that he met with the businessmen more than once and that he wrote to Pompeo in May 2018 to say he had “notice of concrete evidence” that the ambassador had “spoken privately and repeatedly about her disdain for" the Trump administration.

“It was providing information that was based upon firsthand knowledge and information,” Sessions said last week, though he wouldn’t at that time reveal his source. “She was very much against the administration, did not represent them and spoke publicly against the administration."

The ambassador’s eventual removal has drawn attention from House Democrats in their probe of Trump’s efforts this summer to pressure the Ukrainian president to look into Biden, but Sessions said last week that he didn’t speak to Parnas or Fruman about the Bidens.

It’s unclear why Fruman and Parnas, the latter of whom once ran a business called Fraud Guarantee, zeroed in on Sessions when they already had enough clout to meet with GOP power players like Donald Trump, Jr., the president’s son, and Dallas businessman Tommy Hicks, Jr., co-chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The Soviet-born duo reportedly even had dinner with Trump in May 2018, though the president told reporters Thursday afternoon that he doesn’t remember them.

“I have pictures with everybody," Trump said. “I don’t know if there’s anybody I don’t have pictures with. I don’t know them. I don’t know about them. I don’t know what they do. I don’t know, maybe they were clients of Rudy. You’d have to ask Rudy.”

But there’s no question Sessions had a high profile at the time.

The 11-term Republican, whose father William Sessions once served as FBI director, led the party’s House campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, during the 2010 midterm elections in which the GOP rode a tea party wave to a huge victory.

He also spent six years as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, another post in the GOP leadership.

Lev Parnas (left) and Igor Fruman were arrested on Wednesday at Dulles International Airport. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP) (Uncredited)

Another clue could come in the form of Roy Bailey – a Dallas businessman and GOP megadonor who’s long been a Sessions ally; who’s long had a business relationship with Giuliani, the former New York City mayor; and who’s emerged as a major fundraiser for Trump.

Those ties all converged in September 2018, when Giuliani headlined a fundraiser for Sessions that also served to honor Bailey, the Texas Tribune reported at the time.

More to the point, Bailey served as finance chairman of America First Action, according to the Washington Post. That’s the group that received $325,000 from Parnas and Fruman and also spent more than $3 million in independent expenditures against Sessions’ Democratic rival.

Bailey, who is not referred to in the indictment, declined comment on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for America First Action told the Journal that the super PAC had placed the contribution in question in a segregated bank account following a complaint made last year by the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center to the FEC.

The donation “has not been used for any purpose and the funds will remain in this segregated account until these matters are resolved,” the spokeswoman said. “We take our legal obligations seriously and scrupulously comply with the law and any suggestion otherwise is false.”

The indictment could complicate Sessions’ political reboot in Waco, his boyhood hometown where he’s seeking to take advantage of a GOP-friendly district that came open after Flores, the current congressman, became one of six Texas Republicans to retire ahead of the 2020 elections.

While Flores pushed back against Sessions’ candidacy over his former colleague’s decision to parachute into the district, Sessions insisted last week that Republicans in the district asked him to run.

"We need enthusiasm," he said. "We need to understand that this race, even in Texas, is going to be about the presidency. I want to get in that fight."

Democrats, in turn, were quick to pile on Sessions over the indictment.

“This shocking news about Pete Sessions and his connection to Giuliani’s Ukraine henchmen demonstrates just how entangled Sessions is in the corruption and shady behavior of Republicans in Washington,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Avery Jaffe, adding that the group was “proud to put Congressman-1 into retirement in 2018.”

Ed Espinoza, executive director of Progress Texas, said, “Now we know why Republicans are so quick to defend Trump – it’s because politicians like Pete ‘Petersburg’ Sessions are personally benefiting from his corruption.”

Rick Kennedy, a Democrat who lost to Flores 57-41 last year and is taking another shot at the seat, said the revelations in the indictment raised troubling questions.

“What is his overall role in what’s happening in Ukraine?” he said. “Was there an explicit quid pro quo for this letter regarding Ambassador Yovanovitch, or was it just a wink and a nod? Is Sessions just a useful idiot in this role -- these guys expressed a concern about the ambassador and he wrote a letter on their behalf -- or is he in on a broader conspiracy that appears to be emerging?”

At the minimum, Kennedy said, Sessions’ involvement “is just an example of everything that's wrong with our politics today. The big donors come knocking, he does them a favor, he gets a big donation out of it.

“There’s probably nothing illegal about that,” he continued. “It just shows you how our politicians are bought and sold these days.”

Political writer Gromer Jeffers Jr. in Dallas contributed to this report.