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Attorney General Jeff Sessions to testify in public hearing

Sessions will be questioned over his role in the controversy around ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

<p>Then Senator Jeff Sessions listens to testimony during a Judiciary hearing entitled: The Looming Foreclosure Crisis: How To Help Families Save Their Homes on December 5, 2007, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. </p>

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday he wants his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee to be public.

"He believes it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him," said Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores.

Sessions is scheduled to testify Tuesday afternoon, less than a week after former FBI director James Comey told the same panel that President Trump fired him in order to interfere with the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Comey also told senators that Sessions is vulnerable in the Russia probe because he may have a third, previously undisclosed meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, a key figure in the investigation; Sessions disclosed only two contacts with Kislyak during his confirmation process, the reason the attorney general later gave for recusing from the investigation.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair and ranking Democrat, jointly announced that Sessions would testify Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET "in open session."

The high-stakes testimony also takes place amid reported friction between Sessions and Trump, who criticized the attorney general's decision to recuse himself in the Russia probe.

As news of his testimony broke, Sessions attended a Cabinet meeting with Trump at the White House.

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