Story highlights Franken on Thursday stopped short of calling for Sessions' ouster

But he said the attorney general had presented conflicting explanations

(CNN) Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions Thursday of misleading Congress and suggested the nation's top law enforcement official should recuse himself from any investigation into President Donald Trump's potential ties to Russia.

"I am going to be sending (Sessions) a letter to have him explain himself, but he made a bald statement that during the campaign he had not met with the Russians," Franken said on CNN's "New Day." "That's not true."

In the aftermath of revelations that Sessions twice met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a time when Moscow was suspected of engaging in hacks against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, Democratic lawmakers and a number of their Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill have called on the attorney general to remove himself from any role in overseeing any investigation related to Russia.

Sessions has strongly pushed back against the reports, saying he never discussed campaign-related issues with anyone from Russia.

"I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign," he said in a statement Wednesday night. "I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false."

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