Attorney General Jeff Sessions got his turn to testify before the Senate intelligence committee Tuesday, saying he never met with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any election or campaign.

Sessions also said he never had conversations with FBI Director James Comey about his job performance before Comey's firing.

The hearing started just after 2:40 p.m. Tuesday and lasted more than two hours.

Senate Democrats had raised questions about whether Sessions privately met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at an April 2016 foreign policy event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Sessions says he was there for a speech by then-candidate Donald Trump, and members of Sessions' staff were also in attendance.

During his opening statement, Sessions said he did not have any undisclosed meetings with Russian officials. He called accusations of collusion with the Russian government "an appalling and detestable lie."

Sessions defended his 35 years serving his country and said he had no knowledge of "any such conversations by anyone connected to the (President Donald) Trump campaign."

Answering a series of questions from the committee, Sessions said he recused himself from the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia because he was involved in the campaign.

He says he stepped aside because Justice Department rules prevent such a conflict of interest.

Sessions became attorney general in February but did not recuse himself from that probe until March.

Sessions later contradicted Comey's testimony about his concerns over a meeting he had with Trump.

Comey testified last week that Sessions did not respond when he complained that he did not want to be left alone with Trump again. This was after a February meeting in which Comey said Trump told Sessions and others to leave the room before asking him to drop a probe into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russia.

Sessions says he was not silent, saying he stressed to Comey the need to be careful about following appropriate policies.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.