A Republican lawmaker who supported Donald Trump for president is calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the federal investigation into possible links between the Trump administration and Russian government.

Appearing on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” California Rep. Darrell Issa also called for a special prosecutor to oversee any probes into Trump-Russia links.

“You cannot have somebody, a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions, who was on the campaign and who was an appointee. You’re going to need to use the special prosecutor’s statute and office to take, not just to recuse, you can’t just give it to your deputy, that’s another political appointee,” Issa told Maher.

Rep. Darrell Issa appears to tell Bill Maher that Jeff Sessions should recuse himself & special prosecutor statute should be invoked? pic.twitter.com/Gt7zO9AtAV — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 25, 2017

As attorney general, Sessions would have final say on whether to prosecute anyone implicated in the federal investigation, which is being led by the FBI. But Sessions has dismissed Democrats’ calls for him to remove himself from the probe, which reportedly centers on whether several current and former Trump associates improperly communicated with the Russian government during the presidential campaign.

The White House has strongly denied that any improper communications took place or that the election was discussed.

Issa is the first Republican to call for Sessions to recuse himself from the matter. The Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Sessions last week requesting his recusal.

Follow Chuck on Twitter