Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is quickly shooting down a Democratic push for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to return to the committee over his conversations with a Russian official.
"It's unfortunate that the Democrats didn't even have the decency to give him an opportunity to clear up confusion to the statement in writing," Grassley said in a statement.
Sessions said that he would send a letter to the Judiciary Committee about his previous pre-election conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
But the nine Democrats on the Committee sent a letter to Grassley on Friday asking for Sessions to be brought back before the committee to be questioned over his comments.
"Given the seriousness of this manner, we do not believe that a written submission to correct the record is sufficient," they wrote.
Grassley's office noted that "there are no plans to ask Sessions to come before the committee before an annual oversight hearing, as is customary."
The Washington Post reported that Sessions spoke to Kislyak during the presidential campaign but denied any such meetings during his confirmation hearing when he was under oath.
Sessions said Thursday that he would recuse himself from any current or future investigations into Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, but stressed that the decision wasn't an admission of wrongdoing.
Grassley called the decision the "right thing," adding that Sessions "did exactly what he said he'd do regarding potential recusals when he was before our committee."
But Democrats are hounding for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor or for Sessions to resign.
Five Democrats on the committee-including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member-sent a separate letter to the Justice Department on Friday asking for the inspector general to investigate Sessions's decision.
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