In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week as part of the special counsel investigation, the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday, making him the first member of President Trump’s cabinet to be interviewed in the inquiry. 
  
 The interview occurred as the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is increasingly focused on Mr. Trump’s conduct in office and on whether he obstructed the investigation itself, according to two people briefed on the matter. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller has told the president’s lawyers that he will most likely want to interview Mr. Trump about the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and about the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, one of the people said. Mr. Mueller’s investigators have asked current and former Trump administration officials about what Mr. Trump cited as reasons for Mr. Comey’s firing, and why Mr. Trump was so concerned about having someone loyal to him oversee the Russia investigation, people familiar with the interviews said. 
  
 For Mr. Sessions, the interview was the latest in a balancing act that has lasted nearly a year. He has sought to get back in Mr. Trump’s good graces by pursuing investigations into issues like leaks to the news media and relaying Mr. Trump’s displeasure about senior F.B.I. leadership to the bureau’s current director, Christopher A. Wray. 
  
 But Mr. Sessions has also tried to present a veneer of independence in congressional testimony and now has met with investigators in Mr. Mueller’s inquiry, which has for months cast a shadow over the Trump White House. ||||| FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2017, file photo, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington. Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior... (Associated Press) 
  
 FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2017, file photo, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington. Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior... (Associated Press) 
  
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions was interviewed for hours last week in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday. 
  
 The interview comes as Mueller is investigating whether President Donald Trump's actions in office, including the firing of FBI Director James Comey, constituted obstruction of justice. Mueller is also investigating contacts between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. 
  
 Sessions is thought to be the highest-ranking Trump administration official to be interviewed by Mueller's team. 
  
 He is seen as a potentially important witness given that Trump initially said he fired Comey last May at the recommendation of the Justice Department. 
  
 At the time, the White House released a memo from Sessions' deputy, Rod Rosenstein, faulting Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and appearing to lay the groundwork for his dismissal. 
  
 Trump has since said he was thinking of "the Russia thing" when he fired Comey. 
  
 Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in early March after acknowledging that he had had two previously undisclosed encounters with the Russian ambassador during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. He said it would be improper for him to oversee a probe into a campaign for which he was a vocal and prominent supporter. 
  
 Rosenstein appointed Mueller, a former FBI director, to take over the Russia investigation one week after Comey was fired. 
  
 Sessions' interview was first reported by The New York Times. ||||| Neither meeting was revealed until Tuesday. 
  
 Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores confirmed the Sessions meeting, which was also first reported by The New York Times. She declined to say if the attorney general turned over any documents or communications to Mueller's office. 
  
 Trump 'not at all concerned' about Sessions 
  
 The White House said it is cooperating with Mueller's investigation. White House special counsel Ty Cobb declined to comment when asked about the Sessions meeting, and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment about the Comey interview. 
  
 Trump told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he wasn't worried about what Sessions told Mueller's team. 
  
 "No, I'm not at all concerned," Trump said in the Oval Office. He added that he and Sessions did not discuss the conversation when the attorney general visited the White House on Monday. 
  
 According to CNN research , Sessions is the 15th member of the Trump administration, including former and current officials, who are known to have been interviewed in the Russia investigation that is currently led by Mueller and was previously led by Comey. 
  
 Last week, two people familiar with the process told CNN former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has struck a deal with Mueller's team and will be interviewed by prosecutors instead of testifying before a grand jury. The sources did not say when the interview will take place or if the subpoena would be withdrawn. 
  
 Sessions announced he would recuse himself from all matters relating to the Russia investigation in early March 2017. Politicians, including Republicans, praised the decision at the time, but Trump has publicly rebuked his attorney general and said he wished Sessions had not recused himself. 
  
 Sessions' recusal left Justice Department oversight of the probe to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller to be special counsel after Trump fired Comey in May 2017. 
  
 Earlier this month, the Times reported that Mueller is aware of an unsuccessful attempt by Trump to lobby Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Department's Russia probe. 
  
 Comey vs. Trump 
  
 Trump has railed against Comey since he fired the former FBI chief in May 2017. 
  
 It became public shortly after Comey's ouster that he had kept contemporaneous memos on conversations where he wrote that Trump asked him to let go of an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 
  
 CNN reported in May that Mueller had been briefed on the contents of some of Comey's memos. 
  
 Comey, while still FBI chief, confirmed the existence of the Justice Department's Russia investigation, and in testimony for a June hearing after his firing, Comey affirmed his claim that Trump sought to influence ongoing investigations. 
  
 During that June hearing, Comey said he believed he was fired "because of the Russia investigation." 
  
 "I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted," Comey said. |||||
A: 
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was interviewed for hours last week in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday. The interview comes as Mueller is investigating whether President Trump's actions in office, including the firing of FBI Director James Comey, constituted obstruction of justice. Mueller is also investigating contacts between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. Sessions is thought to be the highest-ranking Trump administration official to be interviewed by Mueller's team—the New York Times calls the interview the first to touch Trump's Cabinet—and is seen as a potentially important witness given that Trump initially said he fired Comey last May at the recommendation of the Justice Department, reports the AP. At the time, the White House released a memo from Sessions' deputy, Rod Rosenstein, faulting Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and appearing to lay the groundwork for his dismissal. Trump has since said he was thinking of "the Russia thing" when he fired Comey. The Times was the first to report news of the interview, and the paper notes that in recusing himself from the Russia investigation, Sessions was left with "no control of Mr. Mueller." CNN reports the interview took place last Wednesday and notes Sessions had not been subpoenaed. It adds that press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed Sessions was at the White House Monday, but she said she was unaware whether he and Trump spoke of the interview.