President Donald Trump said his Attorney General Jeff Sessions could have been more accurate in what he said about his contacts with Russian officials but blamed Democrats for blowing up the controversy for political reasons.
"Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional," Trump said via Twitter.
He accused the Democrats of "overplaying their hand" and "losing their grip on reality" and described the "illegal leaks of classified and other information" as a witch hunt".
Mr Sessions said he would stay out of any investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election but maintained he did nothing wrong by failing to disclose he met last year with Russia's ambassador.
His announcement did nothing to quell concerns among congressional Democrats, a number of whom called for him to step down.
Mr Trump and Republicans who control Congress are trying to move past early administration missteps and focus on issues important to them, including immigration, tax cuts and repealing the Obamacare healthcare law.
US intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the election campaign as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Mr Trump's favor.
The Kremlin has denied the allegations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also described the scandal over contacts between the Russian ambassador and Mr Sessions as a "witch hunt", the RIA news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues, and the account was hacked last summer, the Indianapolis Star reported.
Emails released to the Indianapolis Start in response to a public records request show Mr Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisors on topics ranging from security gates at the governor's residence to the state's response to terrorism attacks across the globe, the newspaper reported.
Indiana law does not prohibit public officials from using personal email accounts, the Star said.
The newspaper said that in response to its investigation the vice president's office confirmed that "Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal account.
"As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana law regarding email use and retention," his office told the paper.
"Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law, and are being managed according to Indiana's Access to Public Records Act."
As Mr Trump's running mate on the 2016 campaign trail, Mr Pence criticised the Hillary Clinton for using a private email server for official communications - a scandal that dogged her throughout the race.
The reporter who broke the story, Tony Cook, told CNN that Mr Pence's spokesman had "downplayed any comparisons to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and email account."
