WASHINGTON _ Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify in public Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where members are eager to hear an explanation of his actions related to the investigation into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with a Russian scheme to interfere in last year's election.
Sessions asked to testify in public, believing "it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him," according to Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman.
The nation's top law enforcement official, Sessions recused himself from supervising the Russia investigation after he came under criticism for failing to disclose two meetings with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. Some Democrats also have questioned why Sessions, after that recusal, wrote a memo to Trump saying he recommended the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey.
In closed-door testimony during the hearing last week, Comey said that the FBI had been looking into unverified reports that Sessions might have had a third conversation with the ambassador during a Trump campaign speech at the Mayflower Hotel last year. The Justice Department has said there was no such meeting.
