Updated 5:40 p.m. | Sens. Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse met Thursday with FBI Director James B. Comey as part of launching their own investigation into Russian election interference.

“Senators Graham and Whitehouse look forward to using their Subcommittee to inform the public of the toolbox of tactics used by Russia to undermine democracy, and working with the FBI to ensure that the FBI’s work is free of all political influence,” said a statement issued by the two lawmakers.

The South Carolina Republican and Rhode Island Democrat, who both have backgrounds as prosecutors, are the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. They wanted an update from Comey and to ensure they did not accidentally cause a problem for any FBI investigations.

Graham said earlier that he wanted to find out whether or not there is an investigation of inappropriate contact between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian entities. 

“I am tired of reading about innuendo,” the South Carolina Republican said Thursday. “Somebody is leaking this crap, and it’s putting people like me in a terrible spot. So, I’m going to meet with the FBI director today, and I’m going to look him in the eye and he’s going to tell me there’s an investigation or there’s not.”

“And if he doesn’t tell me, he’s going to have a hard time,” Graham added.

If such an investigation exists, the three-term senator said Attorney General Jeff Sessions shouldn’t be making determinations regarding potential criminal activity.

“You’ve got an attorney general who is my dear friend, who was closely involved with the presidential campaign,” Graham said. “If there’s credibility to the allegations of inappropriate contacts between a foreign government and the campaign, in my view for the good of the integrity of the system, somebody should pursue that. Not Jeff Sessions.”

“You don’t want somebody involved in the campaign deciding whether or not there’s a crime in the campaign,” he added.