Giuliani: Trump asked me to brief Justice Department, GOP lawmakers on Ukraine trip

President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani said in a new interview Tuesday that the president directed him to brief Republican senators and the Department of Justice (DOJ) about the information he obtained during his recent trip to Ukraine.

“He wants me to do it,” Giuliani told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “I’m working on pulling it together and hope to have it done by the end of the week.”{mosads}

It remains unclear if GOP senators and the Justice Department would be willing to meet with Giuliani and discuss the alleged findings from his trip. Attorney General William Barr has reportedly expressed concerns to Trump that Giuliani has become a liability.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hill. The DOJ declined to comment.

Giuliani, who has become a central character in the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump, last week traveled to Ukraine and met with a host of former and current officials as part of en effort to unearth more dirt on Trump’s political rivals, including 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. 

He was accompanied on the trip by One American News Network, a conservative news outlet producing a documentary about Giuliani’s work in the country. 

During the trip, Giuliani met with a a former Ukrainian diplomat who has propagated an unsubstantiated theory that Ukraine meddled to help Democrats in the 2016 election, according to photos shared on social media. 

Giuliani told the Post that he returned from Ukraine on Saturday and that his trip took him to Hungary and Vienna. He said he was searching for documents and witness to bolster unsubstantiated allegations about Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and the unfounded theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. 

He alleged to the Post that he’d gotten additional witnesses to participate in his fact-finding efforts. Though the Post noted that Giuliani would not provide details about it. 

The Post, citing two White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, reported that Trump did not ask for Giuliani to make the trip to Ukraine amid the impeachment inquiry. The trip also came as The Southern District of New York reportedly conducts an investigation into Giuliani’s business dealings overseas.

The president has appeared open to learning about what Giuliani discovered. He told reporters last Saturday that Giuliani would make a report and deliver it to Congress and Barr. 

“He has not told me what he found, but I think he wants to go before Congress … and also to the attorney general and the Department of Justice,” he said. “I hear he has found plenty.” 

Giuliani told “War Room: Impeachment,” a radio show hosted by former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon, on Monday that he hoped to complete the report by Wednesday or Thursday. He said he was unsure when the documents would be made public, though. 

House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry has been largely focused on allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine to work with Giuliani to investigate Biden and that he conditioned military aid on the country announcing politically beneficial probes. On Tuesday, leaders from the party introduced two articles of impeachment against the president. 

Trump and Giuliani have continually dismissed allegations of wrongdoing amid the impeachment inquiry.