Jeff Sessions’s memory failed him this week.

Or, more accurately, it failed him on Jan. 10 when, during his confirmation hearing for attorney general, he told Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D): “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have—did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”

Except that he did. Twice in fact. As The Washington Post reported this past week, Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention in July and then again at his office in September.

Whoops!

At first, Sessions tried to explain this seeming contradiction away by noting that he met with Kislyak in his official capacity as a senator, not as a surrogate for the Trump campaign—making his answer to Franken perfectly fine.

When it became clear that wasn’t going to work—or come close to working—Sessions decided that he would recuse himself from any and all investigations into the 2016 campaign by the Department of Justice, a clear attempt to throw a bone to the howling pack in hopes the controversy would die down.