Sessions to appear before Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday

Sessions wrote the chairmen that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein will take his place before both the House and Senate subcommittees to testify about the Justice Department's budget.

Judd Legum at Think Progress said, "Instead of testifying publicly before the appropriations committees, where these matters could be discussed in the light of day, Sessions will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee".

He told Shelby that the Russian Federation investigation would very likely be the focus of the Intelligence Committee's questioning.

Sessions recused himself in March from a federal investigation into contacts between Russia and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump after acknowledging that he had met twice a year ago with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

The attorney general, the highest-ranking law-enforcement officer in the nation, said he would testify before the Senate committee Tuesday, presumably under oath.

The White House responded forcefully after fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey told senators that the administration had spread "lies, plain and simple" about his dismissal.

Sessions said he was "pleased to accept" the invitation to appear before members of the Senate Select Committee on Tuesday.

He recused himself from the Russian Federation investigation in March after he failed to disclose a meeting he had with Russia's ambassador in Washington.

Meanwhile Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump "absolutely" has confidence in Sessions. A Justice Department official said that committee hearing probably will be closed to the public.

His disappointment has turned to anger in some cases, the alleged sources close to the President told ABC, evident from multiple lashings out by the commander-in-chief toward Mr. Sessions in private meetings.

Trump asked Sessions, along with other members of the Trump administration, to leave him and Comey alone after a counter-terrorism briefing February 14, one day after national security adviser Michael Flynn was sacked.

The travel ban is just one of the things that have soured Sessions' record to President Donald Trump, according to the International Business Times.

Trump demurred when asked whether tapes of his talks with Comey actually exist. Trump didn't like the decision at the time and has come to view it as the root of everything that led to the appointment of Bob Mueller as special counsel to oversee the Russian Federation investigation.

In March, Sessions recused himself from supervising the investigation into possible collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

At a briefing with reporters earlier today, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer declined to say whether the president has confidence in the attorney general.