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Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference on July 13 at the Justice Department in Washington. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo Sessions releases questionnaire excerpt that omitted meetings with Russians

The Justice Department released a portion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' background check questionnaire Thursday, confirming that he did not report meetings with the Russian ambassador or any other foreign nationals when he was being vetted for a security clearance earlier this year.

Sessions' aides confirmed in May that he had not listed two meetings with the Russians or hundreds of other meetings with foreign officials, but a liberal watchdog group filed a lawsuit for a copy of the relevant question and answer from Sessions' questionnaire, known as Standard Form 86 or more commonly, an SF-86.

"Have you or any member of your immediate family in the past seven (7) years had any contact with a foreign government, its establishment (such as embassy, consulate, agency, military service, intelligence or security service, etc.) or its representatives, whether inside or outside the U.S.? (Answer "No" if the contact was for routine visa applications and border crossings related to either official U.S. Government travel or foreign travel on a U.S. passport)," reads the form disclosed Thursday to American Oversight in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The box next to the word "No" is marked with an "x."

Sessions' aides say an assistant helping him complete the form was told by the FBI that he did not have to list meetings held in his official capacity as a U.S. senator. Sessions says he was acting as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee when he had the meetings.

The FBI has not commented on whether Sessions completed the form accurately or whether an FBI employee in fact said such meetings were exempt from the reporting requirement.

Sessions found himself in hot water with his former Democratic colleagues in March when it emerged that he had held meetings with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, despite Sessions having said at his confirmation hearing that he had not had any interaction with Russian officials and knew nothing about their alleged efforts to influence the 2016 election. Sessions was a top adviser to Donald Trump during his campaign.

"I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians," the attorney general said in January.

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Sessions later told reporters that he understood the question to be about campaign-related contacts with the Russians and he did not think to mention any official meetings he'd held in his Senate offices.

As late as Wednesday evening, Justice Department officials indicated to American Oversight that all the information the group was seeking was being withheld on privacy grounds as well as over concerns about disclosing confidential law enforcement techniques and procedures.

However, in a co urt filing early Thursday, Justice Department lawyers said Sessions had authorized the release of the relevant question and answer.

"Notwithstanding Defendants’ appropriate assertion of FOIA Exemptions ... over the information contained in the record requested by Plaintiff ... the Department of Justice, in consultation with the Attorney General, has consented to a discretionary release of this record," Justice Department attorneys wrote.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment Thursday.

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, called for Sessions to amend his disclosure and for the House panel to delve into the issue.

"It is deeply disturbing—but no longer terribly surprising—that a senior member of the Trump Administration appears to have misled the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government," Conyers said in a statement. "“It is imperative that the House Judiciary Committee investigate this matter. At a minimum, the government should immediately review whether the Attorney General remains qualified to hold a security clearance, and Mr. Sessions must submit a corrected form to the authorities detailing any and all contacts with foreign governments.”

American Oversight's suit also seeks any notes the FBI has about how it learned of Sessions' meetings with the Russians and any inquiry the agency made into those contacts. No such information was turned over Thursday.

At hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss Thursday, a Justice Department attorney said notes from the background check don't address the Russia meetings.

“That would seem to indicate that Sessions didn’t disclose his Russian contacts to the background investigators during his interviews, and that the FBI didn’t find the information on its own," Austin Evers of American Oversight said.

While special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, the American Oversight request and suit did not prompt the FBI to assert the FOIA exemption most commonly used to withhold materials related to pending investigations.

“Jeff Sessions is our nation’s top law enforcement officer, and it is shocking one of his first acts after being named Attorney General was to lie to the FBI on an issue of national security," Evers said. "It’s one thing to know that the Attorney General lied on his security clearance form, but it’s another to see a potential felony in black and white....Mr. Sessions has advised federal prosecutors across the country to charge defendants with the most serious crimes, carrying the toughest penalties. Special Counsel Robert Mueller should take him at his word."