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WHITE HOUSE — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from any federal investigation of alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election.

Sessions met with reporters Thursday after The Washington Post reported that as a U.S. senator and member of the Trump campaign, Sessions held two pre-election meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but withheld that information during his confirmation hearing.

Questions have hovered whether Sessions talked about the campaign with the ambassador. Some lawmakers from both parties have demanded Sessions recuse himself, while some Democrats say he should resign, accusing him of lying under oath.

Sessions testified at his confirmation hearing, "I have been called a surrogate a time or two in that [Trump] campaign and I didn't have, did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it."

Sessions told the reporters Thursday he never had any intention to mislead anyone and that his answers were "honest and correct" as he understood the question at that time.

Sessions said his meetings with Kislyak — first at the Republican National Convention in July, then in his Capitol Hill office in September — had nothing to do with Trump run for the White House. He said the talks were part of his job as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

He said he and the ambassador talked about terrorism and Ukraine, describing the meeting as "testy" at one point when the matter of Russian involvement in Ukraine came up.

Sessions said Thursday that he decided to recuse himself in any investigation into alleged Russian interference upon the recommendation of his staff at the Justice Department. He said no one should see his decision as confirmation that any probe is currently under way.

Earlier Thursday, President Donald Trump said he has "total" confidence and that Sessions should not recuse himself. He also said he was unaware of Sessions' meetings with the Russian ambassador until the media reported it.

The attorney general is the top law enforcement officer in the United States.

The White House and Republicans accused Democrats of playing politics with the issue.

House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters that "Democrats are setting their hair on fire" in trying to get news media to focus on the Russia links story. He said there is "no evidence" of any Americans colluding with Russians to meddle in the election, in which Trump upset Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump's new administration has already seen the resignation of his first national security adviser over alleged links to Russia. Trump ousted Michael Flynn after just 24 days on the job after information emerged that he had lied to top officials about the nature of his own conversations with the Russian ambassador.

Trump has denied multiple reports that people connected to his campaign had connections with members of the Russian government during the election season.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is part of the Justice Department that Sessions heads, is probing alleged Russian activities aimed at disrupting the U.S. election to help Trump win, and any possible links between the Trump campaign and the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is carrying out its own probe, and the House Intelligence Committee announced parameters for its investigation Wednesday.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded last year that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump defeat Clinton by hacking into Clinton campaign computers.