Jeff Sessions turns in list of Russia contacts -- a day late and mostly blank

The Justice Department released clearance forms on Attorney General Jeff Sessions' foreign contacts -- a day late and short on details.

A federal court ordered the department last month to release security clearance forms submitted by Sessions listing any contacts with foreign governments in the previous seven years, but the documents weren't provided until after Wednesday's deadline had passed, reported NPR.

The forms were filed Thursday morning with U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, although in heavily redacted form.

The ethics watchdog group American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act request in March seeking portions of the attorney general's Standard Form 86 that might show contact with Russian government officials during the campaign or after the election.

"Jeff Sessions is our nation's top law enforcement officer, and it is shocking one of his first acts after being named Attorney General was to mislead his own agency about a matter of national security," said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight.

In the Justice Department filing, Sessions answers "no" when he was asked whether he or his immediate family had any contact with a foreign government or its representatives, inside or outside the U.S., in the past seven years.

The released forms contain no other detailed information.

Sessions has admitted to speaking to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice last year, but only after filling out those documents and after news reports revealed those meetings.

He also failed to inform senators of the conversations during his confirmation hearings.

Sessions testified last month in the Senate, where he had served until taking over as head of the Justice Department, that suggestions he colluded with Russia during the election were "an appalling and detestable lie."