U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is having himself a bad week already. On the right, reports have surfaced that President Trump has reportedly been steaming mad at Sessions dating all the way back to his decision to recuse himself from all investigations relating to Russia. Trump, the reports suggest, blames Sessions for the eventual appointment of a special counsel to oversee the FBI’s Russia probe. Things have gotten so tense between the two that Sessions reportedly considered offering his resignation to the president.
On the left, senators have been chomping at the bit since Sessions allegedly perjured himself during his Senate confirmation hearings. And reports have also circulated regarding a third undisclosed meeting between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Due to all of that (and more), Sessions will appear in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. There was a question of whether or not this appearance would be open or closed, and the former route has been chosen.
On Monday, word came down that Sessions will indeed publicly testify at 2:30pm EST, via Reuters and NBC News:
JUST IN: Attorney General Jeff Sessions to testify before Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow in an open session pic.twitter.com/e9cbu1VjdR
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 12, 2017
Sessions has reportedly told the media that “[I]t is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him.”
Senate members are expected to double back on questions that Sessions answered during his confirmation hearing, some of which — such as his failure to mention meetings with the Russian ambassador during the Trump campaign — later proved to be at the best half-truths. Sessions is also expected to address James Comey’s claims that Trump asked him to leave the Oval Office so that he could pressure the FBI director to drop the probe into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.