Jeff Sessions Grilled In Russia Probe: Watch Live Stream

WASHINGTON, DC — Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday to answer questions about contacts between Russians and associates of President Donald Trump. His appearance follows the guilty plea by George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign aide who last month admitted in court that he lied to the FBI about his own foreign contacts.

Papadopoulos served on the foreign policy advisory council that Sessions chaired during the campaign. The appearance on Capitol Hill also comes after statements from another adviser, Carter Page, who claimed to have advised Sessions, then a Republican senator from Alabama, on an upcoming trip to Russia.

Charging documents in that case indicate that Papadopoulos told the council "that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump" and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
One of the attendees at that meeting, J.D. Gordon, recalled that Sessions quickly "shut him down and said, 'We're not going to do that.' "

Gordon has also said that Papadopoulos went around him and Sessions and that they did not know he had continued to try to arrange such a meeting.

Sure to come up during the grilling are statements Sessions previously made during his Senate confirmation hearing in January that he was “not aware” of any communications between the Trump campaign with the Russian government, and said he did not communicate with the Russians. Papadopoulos’ statements directly contradict those accounts.

In a letter last week, Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee told Sessions to be prepared to address “inconsistencies” between his past statements and new revelations.

"If, as recent reports suggest, you rejected Mr. Papadopoulos's suggestion that President Trump meet with Vladimir Putin at that March 31 meeting — a fact you appear to have remembered only after Mr. Papadopoulos's account was made public — it seems likely that you were 'aware' of communications between the Russian government and surrogates of the Trump campaign," the letter states.

Watch clip: 'My Story Has Never Changed'

Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, said last week that he had contact with a high-level Russian official while on a trip to Russia last year, and that Session was informed about the trip. Page said Sessions “had no reaction whatsoever” when told about the upcoming trip.

The attorney general’s appearance comes after a revelation Monday that Donald Trump Jr.privately corresponded with Wikileaks on many occasions during his father’s presidential campaign, The Atlantic reported. The president, his son and other members of the campaign have frequently denied that there was any collusion or communication between them and Russia before the election. However, multiple news outlets have since documented several previously undisclosed contacts.

The hearing begins at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. You can watch it live on Patch.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

AP Photo/Darron Cummings