President Donald Trump. Getty Images President Donald Trump defended his embattled attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Thursday, calling Sessions an "honest man" targeted by a Democratic "witch hunt" over his recently reported contacts with Russia's ambassador to the US.

Trump did say, however, that Sessions could have been clearer during his confirmation hearing for attorney general, when Sessions denied having discussions with Russians.

"Jeff Sessions is an honest man," Trump said in a statement. "He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional."

He continued:

"This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election, and now they have lost their grip on reality. The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!"

Earlier Thursday, Sessions recused himself from investigations of Russian interference with the 2016 US election following reports the Republican had multiple contacts with the Russian ambassador during the campaign, contacts he did not acknowledge in his confirmation hearing.

Sessions has said the contacts were made in his role of a US senator and not as a Trump surrogate and he therefore did not believe his contacts were relevant to the questioning at his confirmation hearing.

Multiple lawmakers, however, have called for Sessions to resign after news of his meetings broke.