Attorney General Jeff Sessions portrayed himself as the victim in the controversy surrounding his contact with the Russian ambassador to the US, griping that criticism of him is “unfair” and that it’s “sad to be attacked like that.”

“I don’t believe anybody that was in that meeting would have seen or believed I said one thing that was improper or unwise,” Sessions said Thursday night on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“It was really a sad thing to be attacked like that, but I think we’ve explained it and we intend to move forward.”

He continued: “I don’t think what was said about that meeting I had with the Russian ambassador was legitimate. I think it was hyped beyond reason, and I think it was unfair, and I was glad to be able to address it today.”

Sessions said he’d amend the congressional record to disclose that the meetings took place. During his Senate confirmation hearing, the then-US senator from Alabama claimed he had had no meetings with Russian officials.

“I spoke at the Republican convention at a conference with some 50 ambassadors,” said Sessions, describing one meeting with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. “After I spoke, I walked down from the podium and mingled with a number of people and we met at that occasion and had a chat, and I left shortly thereafter.”

But last September, Sessions again met with the ambassador — this time a private confab in his Senate office.

As a senator, Sessions claimed meetings with foreign ambassadors were commonplace. “I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with a United States senator meeting with an ambassador from Russia,” he said.

“I learned something perhaps in that meeting — I usually did — and so that’s what happened. Ambassadors were coming by to see me pretty often,” he added.

The nation’s top cop announced Thursday he’d be recusing himself from any Department of Justice investigations into the Kremlin’s interference with the 2016 presidential election.

At the time, Sessions served as Trump’s surrogate and foreign policy liaison.

“I was involved in the campaign to a degree [that] I think [it] would have been perceived that I wouldn’t be objective[ly] participating in an investigation that might involve the campaign,” he said.