House Oversight chairman: Sessions should recuse himself

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Thursday said Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from any investigation of Russian involvement in President Trump’s campaign.

“AG Sessions should clarify his testimony and recuse himself,” Chaffetz tweeted early Thursday.

AG Sessions should clarify his testimony and recuse himself

— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) March 2, 2017

Sessions earlier Thursday offered to recuse himself “whenever it’s appropriate,” hours after reports that he spoke twice with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during last year’s presidential race.

Sessions did not disclose those conversations during his confirmation hearings, testifying under oath that he “did not have communications with the Russians.”

{mosads}One of Sessions’s conversations with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak came in September, during a time when U.S. intelligence officials assert that Russia was interfering in the 2016 race through a hacking and influence campaign.

Reports emerged last month that top aides and allies of Trump’s White House run were in recurring contact with senior Russian intelligence officials.

Sessions has faced heavy pressure since the reports came out late Wednesday, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) calling for the attorney general to resign.

“Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate. 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,” Pelosi said in a statement.