



Attorney General Jeff Sessions will remove himself from any current or future investigations related to President Donald Trump 's election campaign amid backlash over his testimony about contacts with Russia. But a late Thursday report from The Wall Street Journal raised questions about the use of his campaign funds for the trip to Cleveland to attend the Republican National Convention and where he met with the Russian ambassador. The report cited a person at the convention and campaign finance records. In a news conference Thursday, Sessions said Justice Department staff recommended that he recuse himself from probes "in any way" related to Trump's campaign. Critics questioned whether Sessions could be impartial in investigations related not only to Trump's campaign, but also the president's conduct more broadly, due to his role as an adviser to Trump's campaign. "I feel like I should not be involved in investigating a campaign I had a role in," Sessions said. He also defended his testimony in which he appeared to mislead senators about his contact with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the United States. He said that, due to the framing of Democratic Sen. Al Franken's question to him, he "focused (his) answer on" whether he met the official in his role as a campaign surrogate, not his position as a then-senator. "In retrospect, I should have slowed down and said I did meet with one official a couple of times and that was the Russian ambassador," Sessions said Thursday. Sessions said he will send a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday or Friday clarifying his testimony.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions answers questions during a press conference at the US Justice Department on March 2, 2017, in Washington DC. Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images