US Attorney General Jeff Sessions will Tuesday testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee where he will face questions over his meetings with Russian officials during last year's presidential election campaign.
Former FBI Director James Comey raised additional questions at a hearing on Thursday, saying that the FBI expected Sessions to recuse himself weeks before he actually did. Sessions said the Senate Intelligence Committee is most appropriate because it "has access to relevant, classified information".
Sessions had been scheduled to testify Tuesday before a joint appropriations subcommittee of Congress, but on Saturday he sent letters to the committee chairmen saying that the intelligence committee would be a better forum to answer questions about Russian Federation.
Comey - who Trump sacked as Federal Bureau of Investigation chief last month - told the Senate panel he had thought Sessions would recuse himself from the Russian Federation probe earlier than he did, for undisclosed reasons that are classified.
During the closed portion of Comey's appearance Thursday, CNN reports, he testified that Russian intercepts indicated that Sessions had an "unreported third meeting" with Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 campaign.
Speaking to lawmakers later in closed session, sources said, Comey confirmed that he had been talking about a story that NBC News and other outlets had already reported - the existence of classified intelligence suggesting an undisclosed meeting between Sessions and the Russian ambassador to the U.S.in April 2016 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
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Sessions said he would send Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to the appropriations subcommittees in his stead to discuss budget matters.
In January, Sessions was still a senator from the state of Alabama when he appeared at a hearing before his confirmation as attorney general.
Mr Comey declined to elaborate in an open setting.
Despite the recusal, Sessions was involved in deciding to fire Comey.
Comey's testimony raised questions about Sessions' engagements with Russian Federation and his involvement in Comey's firing despite Sessions' recusal from the Russian Federation investigation, which Comey was leading. After Comey met in a classified meeting with the intelligence committee, reports leaked out that Sessions may have had a third meeting with Kislyak a year ago. Comey said he couldn't discuss it publicly.
Comey told the panel that on Feb 14, the president had made private comments to Comey in the Oval Office that he interpreted as an improper order to drop a criminal investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser.
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