Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday asked the FBI director to open a criminal investigation into whether 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 lied under oath when he denied having any contact with Russian officials.

In a letter, the lawmakers called on FBI Director James Comey and Channing D. Phillips, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., to probe whether Sessions lied to Congress under oath and broke the law.

“Efforts by Attorney General Sessions to assert that his testimony was not false or even misleading because he met with the Russian Ambassador in his capacity as a Senator, rather than a campaign representative, appear to be disingenuous at best as the questions put to him did not in any way ask if the meeting was campaign related,” they wrote.

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Pressure mounted on Thursday for Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into potential Russian contacts with President Trump’s campaign following a Washington Post report that revealed he spoke with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. in 2016.

Sessions denied having any contact with Russian officials during oral and written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be attorney general.

During that hearing, Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenPeterson faces fight of his career in deep-red Minnesota district Getting tight — the psychology of cancel culture Tina Smith wins Democratic Senate primary in Minnesota MORE (D-Minn.) asked Sessions what he would do if he learned of evidence that Trump campaign associated were in contact with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign.

“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” Sessions said, adding that “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

Sessions was also asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahyBattle over timing complicates Democratic shutdown strategy Hillicon Valley: Russia 'amplifying' concerns around mail-in voting to undermine election | Facebook and Twitter take steps to limit Trump remarks on voting | Facebook to block political ads ahead of election Top Democrats press Trump to sanction Russian individuals over 2020 election interference efforts MORE (D-Vt.) in a written question if he had been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election before or after Election Day.

“No,” Sessions responded.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz Jason ChaffetzThe myth of the conservative bestseller Elijah Cummings, Democratic chairman and powerful Trump critic, dies at 68 House Oversight panel demands DeVos turn over personal email records MORE (R-Utah) are now calling on Sessions to clarify his testimony and recuse himself from any Justice Department investigation related to Russia’s attempt to influence the 2016 election.

Democrats, meanwhile, are calling on Sessions to resign, less than a month after being sworn in as attorney general.

Sessions has maintained he spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in his capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, not as a representative for the Trump campaign. Sessions was the first GOP senator to endorse Trump, and one of his top Senate staffers, Stephen Miller, is now a senior aide to President Trump.

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

But the House Judiciary Committee Democrats said they are skeptical of Sessions’s explanation. The Washington Post noted in its story that of the 26 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2016, none of the 20 who responded met with the Russian ambassador last year.

“His efforts to down play the contacts as ordinary business for a Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee also seem questionable given that other Members of the Committee have not indicated that they had similar meetings with the Russians,” they wrote.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that federal investigators have reviewed contacts Sessions had with Russian officials while he was advising Trump’s presidential campaign.