In a letter being released Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer raises questions of potential political interference from the White House into the federal investigation. | AP Photo Schumer calls for DOJ watchdog to probe Trump-Russia investigation

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling for an “immediate” investigation by the Department of Justice's independent watchdog into federal probes of communication between Donald Trump’s team and Russian officials during the 2016 campaign.

In a letter being released Monday, the Senate’s top Democrat raised questions of potential political interference from the White House into the federal investigation. Among the issues Schumer wants Michael Horowitz, DOJ’s inspector general, to look into are whether any White House official has attempted to interfere with the federal probe and whether Sessions and Trump discussed the issue when the two men met privately in the Oval Office last month.


Schumer also demanded to know whether DOJ officials have faced pressure from the White House regarding the federal investigation, and whether Sessions’ refusal to recuse himself — until late last week — was “improper” under DOJ guidelines.

“As Inspector General, your mission is to detect and deter misconduct, as well as to investigate alleged violations of criminal and civil laws by DOJ employees,” Schumer wrote to Horowitz. “Many troubling facts and questions have emerged with respect to the role of Russia in our election and the investigation of that role by the federal government.”

Schumer also rattled off a number of questions related to Sessions’ testimony before the Judiciary Committee in January, when the former Alabama senator told the panel that he “did not have communications with the Russians.” Sessions clarified last week that he did meet with the Russian envoy, Sergey Kislyak, which he said was in his official capacity as a senator.

Schumer demanded answers on who at DOJ was involved in preparing Sessions for his “misleading” testimony to the Senate, whether other Justice officials knew that Sessions had met with Kislyak during the campaign and whether those meetings had been properly disclosed.

Several other Democrats, led by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, requested a similar IG probe late last week into Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from any Russia-related investigations.