Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerDemocrats scramble on COVID-19 relief amid division, Trump surprise Pelosi, Schumer 'encouraged' by Trump call for bigger coronavirus relief package Schumer, Sanders call for Senate panel to address election security MORE (D-N.Y.) is demanding that Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE have no involvement in selecting the next FBI director.

"This attorney general should not oversee the hiring process of the next FBI director. His role will jaundice the entire process if it hasn’t already," Schumer said Thursday.

Schumer argued that Sessions helping to pick a successor for James Comey, whom President Trump fired on Tuesday, would violate the attorney general’s pledge to recuse himself from any investigation related to Russia's involvement in the U.S. presidential election.

Whoever succeeds Comey will oversee the bureau's probe into Russia's meddling and potential ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

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Sessions is helping interview interim FBI directors, according to multiple reports.

Schumer added on Thursday that he wants a response from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally MORE (R-Ky.) by the end of the day on his request that Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein meet with lawmakers in separate closed-door briefings on the Comey firing.

"We’d like the majority leader to hold separate, all-senators briefings with the attorney general and the deputy attorney general," he said.

In addition to a briefing with the top two Justice Department officials, Democrats want a special prosecutor appointed to handle the Russia investigation and Comey to meet with senators on Capitol Hill.

Democrats have homed in on Sessions since Comey’s firing, arguing he has broken his pledge to recuse himself from the investigation into the 2016 campaign by helping fire Comey, who was overseeing the FBI's probe of Russia. The White House circulated letters from Sessions and Rosenstein recommending Trump fire Comey.

Schumer appeared to signal that he thought Sessions had "compromised" the executive branch's investigation, arguing it needs to be conducted outside of the White House's reach.

"In order to ensure the American people have faith in the impartiality of the investigation, it must be conducted far from the reach of the White House," he said.

Schumer said the Comey firing is the latest sign from the White House that it is willing to stifle anyone who could potentially investigate the administration.

"And the administration is not shy about removing independent prosecutors and law enforcement officers from their posts if they are doing something the president doesn’t like," he said.

"This is about a pattern of events which casts tremendous doubt on whether this administration has any interest in allowing the Russia investigation ... to proceed unimpeded," he added.