U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a letter on Saturday that he will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday to address matters brought up by former FBI Director James Comey in his testimony earlier this week to the same committee.
Sessions came off particularly badly in last Thursday's testimony by fired FBI Director James Comey, leading Dan Rather to label him a "marked man".
Jeff Sessions, a longtime senator until President Donald Trump picked him as U.S. attorney general, heads to Congress this coming week when he will face a grilling about his Russian interactions.
Sessions had been scheduled to testify before other committees about the Justice Department's budget that day, but he will instead appear before the intelligence panel.
It later came out in closed session questioning that Sessions had yet another meeting with Russian ambassador to the USA and purported spymaster Sergey Kislyak.
He said during his confirmation hearing that he had not met with Russians during the campaign.
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.
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The letter did not say whether Mr. Sessions planned to give public testimony or to appear before the panel behind closed doors.
Sessions wrote the chairmen that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will take his place before both the House and Senate subcommittees to testify about the Justice Department's budget.
There are also concerns that Sessions might have helped subvert the ongoing Russia-related investigations.
His decision comes as a result of testimony given by last week by Comey that Sessions may have more links to Russian Federation than was previously believed. But on Saturday, after senators made clear they would zero in on Sessions's connections to Russia, Sessions shifted his plan, opting to address the Senate Intelligence Committee.
It was later reported that Comey privately told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Sessions was involved in a third undisclosed meeting with Russian officials during the campaign. We also were aware of facts that I can't discuss in an opening setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic.
Reports suggesting that USA intelligence discovered an alleged Russian hack of Republican National Committee (RNC) computers during the election campaign emerged yet in late 2016, but no leaks followed.
"Our judgment, as I recall, is that [Sessions] was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons".
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