U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday rejected accusations that he had lied to lawmakers when he previously testified he knew of no contacts Donald Trump's election campaign had last year with Russian operatives, VOA reported.

Sessions told the House Judiciary Committee he had no recollection of a 2016 meeting with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who discussed his contacts with people who said they could arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, until recent news reports showed he had chaired the meeting.

"In all of my testimony, I can only do my best to answer all of your questions as I understand them and to the best of my memory," Sessions said. "But I will not accept and reject accusations that I have ever lied under oath. That is a lie."

Since his last appearance before a congressional panel in mid-October, news surfaced that Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty in early October to lying to federal agents investigating Trump campaign links to Russia and is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's criminal investigation. 

Prosecutors said in court records that at a March 2016 meeting, about seven months before the presidential election, Papadopoulos told Sessions, Trump and others that he had connections that could arrange the Trump-Putin meeting. Sessions said he "pushed back" against Papadopoulos's idea and the Trump-Putin meeting never occurred in the midst of the campaign.