Sessions also, however, confirmed that Comey appeared to be concerned about being asked to do something improper after a meeting with President Trump on April 14.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking interviews with Coats and two other Trump administration officials and that the Russian Federation investigation is widening to examine whether President Donald Trump tried to obstruct justice.
Amid speculation that Trump is considering ways to fire Mueller, the expanded inquiry has outraged the beleaguered President and his associates, who consider the whole exercise a witchhunt. The President was also cornered into publicly committing to a testifying under oath after he called Comey a liar when the sacked official said Trump fired him because of the Russian Federation probe.
Trump's private legal team also suggested that the Federal Bureau of Investigation deliberately leaked the information that the Special Counsel was expanding his probe to cover obstruction of justice charges, calling it "outrageous, inexcusable, and illegal".
Mueller has not publicly discussed his work, and a spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
In Sessions' testimony Tuesday, the AG did dispute some of the particulars of Comey's story about his interactions with President Trump.
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Trump said he fired Comey for poor performance, though he ealso reportedly told a group of Russian officials that the Comey dismissal would help get the Russia probe behind him.
Coats was attending a briefing at the White House together with officials from several other government agencies.
Comey told Congress last week that he leaked his memos of his conversations Trump to a friend after a tweet by the president suggested he may have taped the conversations. Two Capitol Police officers were injured but said to be in "good" condition, while Zachary Barth, a congressional aide, and Matt Mika, a lobbyist, were also wounded.
"Didn't do it myself, for a variety of reasons", Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8. According to the New York Times, sources say the president was only turned off from the idea by staffer who said such an action could "turn a bad situation into a catastrophe", though said sources said the only thing stopping him was the idea the threat of firing Mueller would speak for itself. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey's firing.
While the Justice Department appointed Mueller to investigate Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election - and any "collusion" with the Trump campaign - his assignment also includes "any matters that arose or may arise" from the Russia probe. But there was an overlooked moment that merits notice: a statement from Sessions' testimony about the Trump campaign and Russian Federation. Those specifics can only be verified if, as the president has hinted, audiotapes exist.
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