Yuri Gripas/Reuters
NBC News cameras caught up with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday, the morning after reports emerged that he had spoken twice with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the 2016 campaign—a fact he did not disclose during his Senate confirmation hearings. “I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign,” Sessions told NBC News, continuing his camp’s insistence that while he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, he did not mislead anyone by not disclosing the conversations. According to Sessions and his spokesperson, the meetings were entirely unrelated to the 2016 presidential campaign, despite the ex-senator’s role as a prominent Trump surrogate. Additionally, Sessions told NBC News that he will recuse himself from the Department of Justice’s probe of Russian meddling in the election “whenever it’s appropriate.” Sessions’ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told AL.com that the then-Alabama senator spoke with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, after Sessions gave a speech at a Heritage Foundation event at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last July. Around 50 other ambassadors attended, Flores said, adding that Sessions and Kislyak also spoke on the phone on Sept. 13.