Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify in an open session before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday afternoon as a part of its ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
For another option to watch a live stream of the Jeff Sessions testimony for free, visit the online CBS News channel, which will stream the full testimony at this link, and is also available on mobile devices and set-top streaming sizes such as Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV through the CBSN app. Comey testified that he decided not to report the president's request to Sessions at the time, because the attorney general was weighing his recusal from all matters related to the Russia investigation - largely for his failure to acknowledge two previous meetings with the Russian ambassador during his January confirmation hearing - and for other "facts" the former director said he could not disclose in a public session.
Those calls have escalated since fired FBI Director James Comey cryptically told lawmakers on Thursday that the bureau had expected Sessions to recuse himself weeks before he did from an investigation into contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian Federation during the 2016 presidential election.
Mr Sessions recused himself from that inquiry in March after media reports that he had been in two previously undisclosed meetings previous year with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
In order for his statements to have constituted perjury, Sessions would have had to make the false statements with both intent and knowledge that they were false.
What did happen at the Mayflower Hotel in 2016 when you were in the same room as Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak?
Sessions is especially important to the case because as the attorney general, he was Comey's boss, and because Comey testified "the attorney general lingered by my chair, but the president thanked him and said he wanted to speak only with me".
Former FBI Director Comey testified last week that he made records of his interactions with the president because he felt the president might one day lie about those interactions.
Trump told reporters Friday he'd have something to say about the tapes "soon", but White House officials haven't given a solid answer about whether they exist - though members of Congress have called for them as evidence if they do.
Sessions has denied any of his contacts with Kislyak involved discussions about the Trump campaign, and he has explained that as a member of the Senate, as he then was, he dealt often with foreign emissaries as part of his normal work.
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Senators will certainly want to know whether Mr. Sessions was directly involved in the investigation, and what discussions he had with Mr. Trump and others ahead of Mr. Comey's ouster. I told the AG that what had just happened - him being asked to leave while the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, who reports to the AG, remained behind - was inappropriate and should never happen.
"There are many unanswered and troubling questions, so the attorney general needs to be forthcoming", said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Why did he do that, and why shouldn't Trump's repeated one-on-one interactions with Comey pose a reason for concern?
Sessions, a former Republican senator from Alabama, will face tough questions from his former colleagues on a number of fronts that he has never had to publicly address in detail.
Reports from the White House indicate that that recusal has been a sore spot between President Donald Trump and Sessions. Typically, Senate Intelligence hearings on this topic have lasted about three hours.
"I think it depends on the scope of the questions", Spicer said. He cut his teeth as a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Alabama, at the height of the drug war, and numerous policies he has tried to implement as attorney general have roots in that time period.
But Sessions, who recommended in a signed memo that Comey be fired, may end up claiming executive privilege as a means of limiting the breadth of his testimony. The Justice Department has denied that, saying Sessions stressed to Comey the need to be careful about following appropriate policies.
A third participant in that meeting, White House senior adviser and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner volunteered in March to testify before the intelligence committee.
The hearing will bring contentious questioning for Sessions and likely some uncomfortable moments for the Trump administration.
When he acknowledged the conversations in March, Mr. Sessions said only that he and Mr. Kislyak discussed a trip Mr. Sessions took to Russian Federation in 1991 and the current war in Ukraine.
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