Sessions scheduled to testify before Senate Judiciary next month

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month for an annual Justice Department oversight hearing, panel Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), announced Wednesday.

The hearing is set for Oct. 18, and will mark Sessions’s first time appearing before the Judiciary panel since his confirmation hearing in January and the first oversight hearing of his tenure at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

DOJ oversight hearings are routine and are held every year.

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The meeting is not related to the committee’s investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, which was the subject of the attorney general’s last congressional hearing.

He sat for a contentious testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, during which he forcefully rejected the notion that he colluded with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential race, while he was a high-profile campaign surrogate for President Trump.

“The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie,” Sessions said at the time.

He has recused himself from the federal probe into Moscow’s election hacking, which is being run by special counsel Robert Mueller.