WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave more than two hours of sometimes heated testimony to Congress, with Democrats demanding details of matters including conversations with President Donald Trump, interactions with the Russian ambassador, and the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The appearance before the Senate intelligence committee Tuesday gave Sessions a chance to defend himself, but offered little new insight.

Some takeaways from Sessions’ appearance:

COLLUSION

Sessions, a close Trump adviser during the battle for the presidency, said in his opening statement that it was a “detestable and appalling lie” to suggest he was aware of or participated in any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. He said he never met with, or had conversations with, Russians about election interference.

Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe in March after it was revealed he twice met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign but failed to say so at his confirmation hearing. Sessions reiterated Tuesday those meetings were in his capacity as a lawmaker and not about the campaign.

RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR

Sessions was adamant he never had a third meeting with the Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He did allow for the possibility the men could have had a brief interaction “in passing” at a well-attended reception at the Mayflower Hotel before an April 2016 foreign policy speech by then-candidate Trump. But Sessions said he had no recollection of that.

He’s been hounded by speculation over the possibility of a third meeting, with Democratic senators calling for an investigation. But Sessions angrily denounced such claims as “secret innuendo,” a likely reference to media accounts of a closed-door briefing lawmakers had last week with Comey that suggested the FBI had been looking into whether another meeting had taken place.

RECUSAL

Sessions insisted he stepped aside from the Russia investigation because he was a principal adviser to the Trump campaign, not because he did something wrong or was a subject of the probe.