Trump blasts US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: Calls him a 'total hypocrite,' over Russia ties

Donald Trump has called for an "immediate investigation" into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's ties to Vladimir Putin amid the ongoing row over his administration's ties to Russian officials.

The US President tweeted a photo, taken 14 years ago, of the two men holding coffee and doughnuts at a New York City petrol station.

He called the New York senator a "total hypocrite" and called for a probe into Mr Schumer's "ties to Russia and Putin".

See Trump's tweet after the cut>>>

We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

Mr Trump did not point out when the photo was taken, but Mr Schumer explained it was taken in 2003 when the Russian President travelled to New York for the opening of a Russian-owned Lukoil petrol station on Manhattan's west side.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Schumer said he would "happily talk" under oath about his meeting with Mr Putin, which took place "in full view of press and public".

He added: "And for the record, they were Krispy Kreme donuts."

On the same trip to the US, Mr Putin also travelled to Camp David, Maryland, where he met President George W Bush and the two held a joint news conference.

Mr Trump tweeted hours after the Drudge Report website made the photo its top image, and the day after pro-Trump blog Gateway Pundit posted it with the headline "Where's the outrage?"

He has hit back at congressional Democrats over their meetings with high-profile Russians following Democratic Party criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his failure to acknowledge his own meetings.

Mr Trump also took aim at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday, who was among the first to call for Mr Sessions to resign.

He tweeted a 2010 photo of Mrs Pelosi and other politicians meeting with Russian officials, including then-President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and called for an investigation.

Mrs Pelosi initially denied meeting Mr Kislyak, but her spokeswoman later clarified that they had never had a one-on-one meeting.

She then hit back at Mr Trump, saying he did not "know the difference" between an official meeting photographed by the press and a "secret" meeting that Mr Sessions "lied about under oath".

It is not improper for elected officials to meet with foreign diplomats.

On Thursday, Mr Sessions said he would recuse himself from investigations into Russian influence in the US elections after it emerged he had spoken with Russia's ambassador twice during the campaign.

That contradicted his testimony during his Senate confirmation hearings.

Several other members of Mr Trump's administration have also faced questions over ties to Russia, including former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

That followed the decision by US intelligence agencies to publicly accuse Moscow of trying to influence the November election in Mr Trump's favour.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any personal ties to the Kremlin, and his aides have denied or played down contact with Russian officials.

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