President Donald Trump forcefully went after both prongs of the Democratic congressional leadership, demanding investigations of both congressional Demoratic leaders after photos purported to show their own Russia ties.

It wasn't immediately clear if the president was serious in his call for an investigation of his rivals. At the moment, it is his administration's own contacts with Russia, and Russia's alleged election hacking, that is the subject of investigations by the FBI and the House and Senate intelligence committees.

'I hereby demand a second investigation, after Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it,' Trump tweeted Friday afternoon.

Earlier, Trump went after Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer after a photo surfaced of Schumer and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2003. The two pols were enjoying donuts during an event for the opening of a Russian-owned gas station in Manhattan.

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President Trump demanded an 'investigation' of House minority leader Nancy Pelosi after a photo emerged showing her seated at a table with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

President Donald Trump demanded an 'immediate' investigation of House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, after she said she hadn't met the current Russian ambassador, only to be revealed to have met him in a 2010 photo

'We should start an immediate investigation into and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!' Trump wrote.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared to give a gift to the Trump White House, which has been sent reeling by reports of Trump's Russia ties, when she fielded a question about at a Politico interview Friday about whether she had ever met the current Russian ambassador, Sergey Kisliak.

On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigations involving the presidential election after it was revealed he twice met the ambassador during the campaign.

'Not with this Russian ambassador, no,' was Pelosi's response.

Within hours, a photo surfaced showing Pelosi seated around the same table as the peripatetic ambassador.

It was during a 2010 meeting in the Capitol, where the ambassador accompanied then-president Dmitri Medvedev, who was considered a modernizer in between President Vladimir Putin's two stints in power.

She was accompanied by then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Also attending was Sergey Lavrov, who is Russia's foreign minister.

NOW LET ME THINK ... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday she hadn't met with the current Russian ambassador, only to be exposed in a seven-year old photo to have met him

The meeting was publicly acknowledged, and happened a day after Medvedev met with President Obama, and happened long before Russia was alleged to have hacked the U.S. elections.

But it's emergence was just the latest evidence that Russia's ambassador cultivated extensive contacts with multiple facets of the U.S. government and power structure, from both parties – and that not everyone either disclosed or remembered those ties.

Pelosi's spokesman, Drew Hammill, told Politico, which published the photo, that Pelosi had meant she'd never met solo with the ambassador.

'Of course, that's what she meant,' said Hammill. 'She has never had a private one-on-one with him.'

HOW SWEET: President Donald Trump went after Democratic Senator Charles Schumer by retweeting this photo of Schumer and Russian President Vladimir Putin

THIRD TIME'S A CHARM: Trump tweeted and then deleted his tweet – twice – before getting the spelling right, while visiting a Florida school with his Education secretary

Earlier, Trump tried to blow a hole in repeated revelations about his associates' ties to Moscow by tweeting a photo of rival Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Vladimir Putin.

As reports swirled about his own campaign's Russia ties – including an undisclosed meeting between son-in-law Jared Kushner and the Kremlin's ambassador to Washington – Trump blasted out a photo of Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader.

'We should start an immediate investigation into and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!' Trump wrote.

Attached was a photo of Schumer and President Vladimir Putin enjoying Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee.

The 2003 photo was taken in New York, as Schumer welcomed Putin for an event commemorating Lukoil's first gas station in Manhattan, Gateway Pundit revealed.

An AP photo included in the post shows the two men smiling over coffee and doughnuts.

Schumer commented at the time: 'When I showed the president of Russia a Krispy Kreme doughnut and he ate it and said it was good, that was one of the more surreal moments I've had in politics.'

He tweeted back at the president Friday: 'Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in '03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you &your team?'

LET'S TALK: Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian Federation president Dmitry Medvedev (R) at a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. The photo is credited to a photographer with the Russian TASS agency

Trump sent out the tweet attacking Schumer as his own administration was under fire for Russia contacts during a year when Russia was believed to be behind hacking of the presidential election

Schumer responded that he would be happy to discuss his Putin contacts 'under oath. Would you & your team?'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would sit out any decision on prosecutions which could arise from current investigations into whether Russia meddled in the election - but that he had not lied to the Senate

A series of reports have catalogued contacts between Trump associates and Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak

Schumer welcomed Putin to New York to promote a new gas station being opened by Lukoil, the Russian oil company

The Trump administration has come under fire for Russia contacts, at a time when the Kremlin was under sanction following the country's invasion of Ukraine.

In 2003, at the time the Schumer meeting occurred, Putin had not yet fully emerged into his role as perpetual adversary to U.S. policy goals. In 2001, President George W. Bush famously said after meeting Putin, 'I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul.'

In the intervening years he cracked down on the free press, helped engineer his departure and return to power, put down a rebellion in Chechnya, and interfered in the politics of its neighbors.

The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia hacked the U.S. elections.



IT'S A GAS: Media and pedestrians gather during the opening of Lukoil's gasoline station September 26, 2003 in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Lukoil, a Russian oil company, acquired Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. and its 1, 300 stations in November 2000

FOREIGN INVESTMENT: Sen. Charles Schumer met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at an event commemorating a new Lukoil service station

Schumer has called for a special prosecutor to investigate Trump Russia ties and whether an investigation has already been compromised. He has called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, and was among the first to call for Sessions to recuse himself from any investigation – something Sessions did on Thursday in a dramatic announcement.

'Because the Department of Justice should be above reproach, for the good of the country, Attorney General Sessions should resign,' Schumer said.

In addition to Kushner, former national security advisor Mike Flynn met with Russia's ambassador, as did attorney general Jeff Sessions, a key endorser and campaign advisor for Trump.

The Daily Caller reported at least 22 visits by ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the White House during the Obama administration.

The number of advisors linked to President Donald Trump who met with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. has grown to five – with two more acknowledging the contacts Thursday night.

Carter Page, who Trump identified as among his first foreign policy advisors, acknowledged the contact on MSNBC Thursday night when he didn't deny meeting with Kisklak.

Kislyak's role as the Kremlin's eyes and ears in Washington exploded onto the scene after it was revealed he met with a number of officials in Trump's inner circle during the campaign and after Trump won the presidency.

'I'm not going to deny that I talked with him,' Page told MSBNC's Chris Hayes.

Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also brought up the Schumer incident when asked about Trump associates meeting with the Russian ambassador at a conference held during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

'Please explain to me how volunteers meeting at a conference where nearly 80 ambassadors attended is a story,' Sanders said.

'I guess it's kind of lost on me where that would be newsworthy in any capacity. I mean Chuck Schumer sitting and having drinks with Putin and that's not a news story, but apparently a volunteer for a campaign bumping into one at a conference where there's again dozens of other ambassadors is newsworthy,' she continued.

Then she defended Sessions meeting with the ambassador, something she said occurred in his 'official capacity.'

'As a senator he obviously in his official capacity met with the ambassador. Again, that was as a senator not as a campaign official, so again, to try to muddy the waters in that way is I think pretty unfair to the attorney general,' she said.