Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention in Washington, D.C. on Friday, and before he began his remarks he jokingly checked the room for Russians.
Sessions has testified before multiple committees regarding his contacts with Russia, whose involvement in the 2016 election is being investigated by the House and Senate. Democrats have focused on his failure to disclose a meeting with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which he has insisted was unrelated to the Trump campaign and was part of normal business as a U.S. senator.
"Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room?" Sessions said after coming up to the microphone. The packed room at the Mayflower Hotel responded with loud laughter.
"Before I get started here—any Russians? Anybody been to Russia?" he asked, as the laughs grew. "Got a cousin in Russia?"
President Donald Trump has called the Russia investigation a "witch hunt," and Sessions has expressed frustration with Democrats who have discounted his denials.