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'Weird': Congress reacts to Giuliani's latest Ukrainian venture

Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of President Donald Trump's top allies, said the recent Ukraine trip by the president's attorney was "weird" and "odd."

One of President Donald Trump's staunchest allies said it was "weird" and "odd" that the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was back digging for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine.

However, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told ABC's "This Week" it was promising to hear that Trump said Giuliani wants to speak to Congress about his latest trip to Ukraine.

Ukrainian former diplomat Andrii Telizhenko and Rudolph Giuliani pose for a picture during a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 5, 2019.
Ukrainian former diplomat Andrii Telizhenko and Rudolph Giuliani pose for a picture during a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 5, 2019.Courtesy of Andrii Telizhenko via Reuters

Echoing earlier remarks he made about it being "weird" that Giuliani was back in Ukraine, Gaetz said he believes Trump "urging Mayor Giuliani to provide that clarity to the Congress will be helpful in resolving what seems to be odd having him over there at this time."

The Florida Republican's comments came after Trump told reporters Saturday that he believed Giuliani would deliver findings from his recent trip to Ukraine to Congress and Attorney General William Barr.

"Well, I just know he came back from someplace, and he's going to make a report, I think to the attorney general and to Congress," Trump said.

"He says he has a lot of good information. I have not spoken to him about that information. But Rudy, as you know, has been one of the great crime fighters of the last 50 years," he added. "And he did get back from Europe just recently, and I know — he has not told me what he found, but I think he wants to go before Congress and say — and also to the attorney general and the Department of Justice. I hear he's found plenty, yeah."

In response to those comments, Giuliani told NBC News on Saturday that he is "in process of still analyzing what I received."

Amid the impeachment inquiry into Trump, which was launched in response to him asking Ukraine to probe the Bidens and a debunked conspiracy theory involving that country and the 2016 election, Giuliani — who was at the forefront of efforts among the president and his allies to turn up information in Ukraine — returned to that country recently to conduct interviews on the Bidens, and to try and undercut the impeachment probe.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told "This Week" that Giuliani's actions are "an ongoing threat to the national security."

And on CNN's "State of the Union," Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., another top ally of the president, said Giuliani should present his information to Congress if "he is finding something that is inappropriate."

"I don't know of any role that Rudy Giuliani is playing on behalf of the president of the United States," Meadows said of the president's lawyer. "I think he's over there as a citizen. I think part of that is probably trying to clear his name."

"But he is the president's personal attorney," Meadows added. "But I don't know that he's over there at the president's direction. In fact, I would suggest that he's not."