WASHINGTON ¨C U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday confirmed that the Justice Department has received information from President Donald Trump¡¯s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, ahead of the November election, but that anything originating from Ukraine should not be taken ¡°at face value.¡±

Barr spoke at a news conference a day after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said on the CBS News program ¡°Face the Nation¡± that the department had created a process so that Giuliani could provide information and the department would see if it could be verified.

¡°We have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from the Ukraine,¡± Barr said. ¡°There are a lot of agendas in the Ukraine. There are a lot of cross-currents, and we can¡¯t take anything we receive from the Ukraine at face value.¡±

Last week, the Senate acquitted Republican Trump largely along party lines on impeachment charges that he had abused his power by asking Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Trump had based his demands on unfounded allegations of corruption. The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives said Giuliani, a former prosecutor, sought information about the Bidens in Ukraine.

On Monday, Barr said that the Justice Department has created an ¡°intake process in the field¡± that will be used to assess the ¡°provenance and credibility¡± of any information.

¡°That is true for all information that comes to the department relating to the Ukraine, including anything Mr. Giuliani might provide,¡± he added.

Although the department acknowledged on Monday it is receiving and scrutinizing such materials, the FBI¡¯s No. 2 official still stopped short of saying whether it had led to a more formal investigation into the Bidens.

¡°I am not going to talk about any investigations as I never would. We do not talk about open investigations,¡± FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich said.

Graham said he would refrain from his own probe of the Bidens and concentrate instead on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court¡¯s decision to issue warrants that led to a federal investigation into allegations that Trump¡¯s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in that election.