Senior Democrats, including the House and Senate minority leaders, are calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign after it was revealed that he met twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States last year.
The Washington Post first reported Wednesday night that Sessions met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on two separate occasions last year as a senator. Sessions did not disclose the meetings during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
Democratic leadership in Congress immediately castigated Sessions and called for his resignation.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) released a statement Thursday accusing Sessions of "lying under oath," arguing he cannot continue to head the Justice Department.
"Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate," Pelosi said. "Under penalty of perjury, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, 'I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.' We now know that statement is false."
"Now, after lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the attorney general must resign," Pelosi continued. "Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) also demanded Sessions' resignation on Thursday.
"There cannot be even a scintilla of doubt about the impartiality and fairness of the attorney general, the top law enforcement official of the land," Schumer said at a press conference. "It's clear Attorney General Sessions does not meet that test. Because the Department of Justice should be above reproach, for the good of the country, Attorney General Sessions should resign."
Sessions adamantly denied discussing any campaign-related issues with officials from Russia, including Kislyak.
"I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign," he said in a statement. "I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false."
A Justice Department official confirmed to CNN the meetings took place but said Sessions met with the ambassador "in his capacity as a senator on the Armed Serviced Committee."
Sessions' spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said there was nothing "misleading about his answer" to Congress because he "was asked during the [confirmation] hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign–not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee."
"Last year, the senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German, and Russian ambassadors," Isgur Flores said in the statement.
A White House official told CNN that calls for Sessions' resignation are "partisan" attacks.
"This is the latest attack against the Trump administration by partisan Democrats. [Attorney] General Sessions met with the ambassador in an official capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is entirely consistent with his testimony," the official said.
Beyond Pelosi and Schumer, a slew of other congressional Democrats said Sessions must resign, the Washington Post reported.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said that Sessions should "resign immediately" for keeping his meetings "secret." He added it was "inconceivable" that Sessions would "conceal" his meetings with the Russian ambassador after former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was asked to resign for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his own conversations with Kislyak.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) have demanded an independent investigation into Trump in light of Sessions' undisclosed meetings.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) said on Twitter that he thinks "Jeff Sessions is not the right person to investigate Jeff Sessions."
Some Republican senators have joined Democrats in saying that Sessions should recuse himself from any involvement in federal probes relating to Trump-Russia ties.
"Jeff Sessions is a former colleague and a friend, but I think it would be best for him and for the country to recuse himself from the DOJ Russia probe," Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) said in a statement.
"I think the attorney general should further clarify his testimony. And I do think he should recuse himself," said Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
One Democratic senator noted that it is not unusual for lawmakers to meet with foreign ambassadors in Washington.
"We meet with all the ambassadors, or try to anyway, to build the relationships that you can," Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) said Thursday. "We can basically talk and have some type of interactions back and forth and know where in the world people are coming from."
Manchin confirmed that he previously met the Russian ambassador with a group of other senators.
Another Senate Democrat, Claire McCaskill (Mo.), tweeted Thursday morning that she would never meet or speak with the Russian ambassador as a member of the Armed Services Committee. Her past tweets refute that claim, though, showing she met and spoke with the ambassador multiple times in recent years.