Special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE investigated Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsGOP set to release controversial Biden report Trump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status MORE over possible perjury, but concluded there wasn't sufficient evidence to show that the former attorney general was "willfully untruthful" in his statements about his contacts with Russians.

Mueller, as part of the 448-page report released Thursday, said that the special counsel's office looked into if Sessions "committed perjury or made false statements" when the former Alabama senator testified before Congress during his attorney general confirmation hearing.

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"Although the investigation established that Sessions interacted with [Russian Ambassador Sergey] Kislyak on the occasions described above and that Kislyak mentioned the presidential campaign on at least one occasion, the evidence is not sufficient to prove that Sessions gave knowingly false answers to Russia-related questions in light of the wording and context of those questions," Mueller said in the report.

Mueller's office notified Sessions's lawyers in March 2018 that they would not pursue changes against him.

"The Office concluded that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Sessions was willfully untruthful in his answers and thus insufficient to obtain or sustain a conviction for perjury or false statements," Mueller wrote in the report.

Sessions, then still a senator, told members of the Judiciary Committee in January 2017 that he did not have communications with Russians during the 2016 election. The Justice Department later disclosed that Sessions had met twice with Kislyak, but argued they were related to his role as a senator and not a campaign surrogate for President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE.

Mueller added that it was "plausible" that Sessions didn't recall talking about the campaign with Kislyak, and that Sessions later explained to the special counsels office that he thought the question during the Judiciary Committee hearing referred only to the exchange of campaign information.

"Sessions later explained to the Senate and to the Office that he understood the question as narrowly calling for disclosure of interactions with Russians that involved the exchange of campaign information, as distinguished from more routine contacts with Russian nationals," Mueller wrote. "Given the context in which the question was asked, that understanding is plausible."

Sessions's recusal from the Russia investigation over his role in the Trump campaign was a constant source of frustration for the president, who publicly lamented that he would have chosen someone else for the role had he known of Sessions's decision in advance.

Trump fired Sessions as the top Justice Department official last November, the day after the midterm elections.