Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was investigated for perjury in connection to statements he made about contact with Russians during his confirmation hearing, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Trump campaign and Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.

Ultimately, however, the special counsel found his office could not prove Sessions was “willfully untruthful,” and found his explanation on Russian contact “plausible.”

The investigation into Sessions’ comments were confirmed in Mueller’s report, released to Congress and the public on Thursday. Part of the investigation centered on misstatements the then-Alabama Senator made during his confirmation hearing regarding contact with Russians, statements Sessions later clarified.

According to the report, the investigation found Sessions interacted with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on two occasions in 2016, as well as a reception held before Trump delivered a foreign policy speech. During his 2017 confirmation hearing, however, Sessions testified he “did not have communications" with the Russians, comments he later clarified to say he “did not recall” the conversations with the Ambassador.

Although the investigation established Sessions and Kislyak met on those occasions “the evidence is not sufficient enough to prove that Sessions gave knowingly false answers to Russia-related questions in the light of the wording and context of those questions,” the Mueller report noted.

“Sessions later explained to the Senate and to the (special counsel) 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,” the report noted. “Given the context in which the question was asked, that understanding is plausible.”

Mueller’s office “concluded the evidence was insufficient to prove Sessions was willfully untruthful” in his answers and not enough proof existed to “obtain or sustain a conviction for perjury or false statements.”

Sessions’ personal counsel was informed of the office’s decision in March 2018, the report said.

Sessions was an early supporter of Trump, tapped for the AG post in 2016. His decision to recuse himself from the special counsel investigation ran afoul of Trump, who became public in his criticism of his AG. Sessions resigned in November 2018.