WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions, facing a chorus of criticism over his newly disclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador last fall, recused himself on Thursday from any current or future investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

His abrupt decision to remove himself from the case capped a harried day for the Trump administration over the ongoing Russia controversy and intensified pressure in Congress to conduct a full, outside investigation into questions that have shadowed Mr. Trump since his election.

At a hastily called news conference, Mr. Sessions acknowledged that he had two conversations with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to Washington. He said one of them was a sit-down meeting at his Senate office on Sept. 8, two months before the vote, in the midst of intensifying reports about Russia’s attempts to meddle in the election and hack into the campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Read more from the NY Times