According to the article it was the written question submitted by Sen. Leahy that limited itself to communications specifically discussing the campaign.

The oral question by Sen. Franken was more open ended, and Sessions response seemed even less ambiguous.

  At his Jan. 10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing,
  Sessions was asked by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) what he
  would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone
  affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the
  Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign.

  “I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He
  added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in
  that campaign and I did not have communications with the
  Russians.”

  Officials said Sessions did not consider the conversations
  relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in
  detail what he discussed with Kislyak.

I don't think there's any kind of conspiracy involving Russia. But clearly there was a conspiracy among the Russians to effect the campaign. And there _might_ be something of a conspiracy within Trump's camp in the sense that they're intentionally circling the wagons regarding Trump's preferred Russian policy. I wouldn't speculate about the motivations behind Trump's preferences because they're probably numerous and not even necessarily coherent; more like a general coincidence of interests that both Trump and Russia would like to exploit.