WASHINGTON – Attorney General Jeff Sessions has agreed to answer questions about Russia in public, rather than behind closed doors.

The Senate Intelligence Committee announced Sessions will testify in open session at 2:30 pm Tuesday as the committee continues to investigate Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.

The announcement ends initial speculation Sessions’ testimony would relegated to a private, classified setting.

“The Attorney General has requested that this hearing be public,” Sessions’ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. “He believes it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him and looks forward to answering the committee’s questions tomorrow.”

Sessions was previously scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House and Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss the Justice Department budget, but he scrapped that plan given the new questions raised last week by ousted FBI Director James Comey.

Sessions recused himself in March from the federal investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

On May 17, Robert Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department as Special Counsel to oversee the Russia investigation.

Comey said Thursday he didn’t confide in Sessions concerns about a Feb. 14 Oval Office meeting with the president because the attorney general had “problematic” involvement with Russia and was going to have to recuse himself from the probe.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer called Sessions’ agreement to testify in the open a “positive step” given all the “many unanswered and troubling questions” that exist. Among them are what involvement did Sessions have with the Russia investigation and why he recommended Comey’s firing in May when he had recused himself from Russia matters.

“Recommending Director Comey’s firing would seem to be a violation of his recusal, and Attorney General Sessions needs to answer for that,” Schumer said Monday.