Testimony From Ukraine Envoy Kurt Volker Directly Contradicts Democrats’ Impeachment Narrative
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Congressional testimony from the former top American envoy to Ukraine directly contradicts the impeachment narrative offered by congressional Democrats and their media allies. Ambassador Kurt Volker, who served for two years as the top U.S. diplomatic envoy to Ukraine, testified on Thursday that he was never aware of and never took part in any effort to push the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter. He also stressed that the interactions between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials were facilitated not to find dirt on Biden, but to assuage concerns that the incoming Ukrainian government would not be able to get a handle on corruption within the country.
Volker’s full remarks, which were obtained by The Federalist, can be read here .
“As you will see from the extensive text messages I am providing, which convey a sense of real-time dialogue with several different actors, Vice President Biden was never a topic of discussion” during negotiations with Ukraine, Volker testified. Cherry-picked snippets of those texts were released by the office of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., late Thursday evening.
“[A]t no time was I aware of or took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden,” Volker told lawmakers.
Volker said that an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Volker to connect the advisor to Rudy Giuliani, a personal attorney for President Donald Trump.
“[I]n May of this year, I became concerned that a negative narrative about Ukraine, fueled by assertions made by Ukraine’s departing Prosecutor General, was reaching the President of the United States, and impeding our ability to support the new Ukrainian government as robustly as I believed we should,” Volker said. “After sharing my concerns with the Ukrainian leadership, an advisor to President Zelensky asked me to connect him to the President’s personal lawyer, Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”
“I did so solely because I understood that the new Ukrainian leadership wanted to convince those, like Mayor Giuliani, who believed such a negative narrative about Ukraine, that times have changed and that, under President Zelensky, Ukraine is worthy of U.S. support,” Volker said. “I also made clear to the Ukrainians, on a number of occasions, that Mayor Giuliani is a private citizen and the President’s personal lawyer, and that he does not represent the United States government.”
Volker vehemently denied that he ever urged the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on the Biden family.
“As you will see from the extensive text messages I am providing, which convey a sense of real-time dialogue with several different actors, Vice President Biden was never a topic of discussion,” he said.
Volker testified that he never even mentioned a delay on U.S. military assistance to Ukrainian officials until late August, when news reports indicated that funding had been put on hold. Volker’s statement directly undercuts claims that the funding was part of a quid pro quo meant to force the Ukrainians to take certain actions in order for the military aids to be released.
“I became aware of a hold on Congressional Notifications about proceeding with that assistance on July 18, 2019, and immediately tried to weigh in to reverse that position,” Volker testified. “I was confident that this position would indeed be reversed in the end, because the provision of such assistance was uniformly supported at State, Defense, NSC, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the expert community in Washington.”
“As I was confident the position would not stand, I did not discuss the hold with my Ukrainian counterparts until the matter became public in late August,” he said.
Volker explained in his remarks that Trump had a dim view of the Ukrainian government given its involvement in 2016 efforts to damage Trump’s presidential campaign, and that the president’s view of rampant and widespread corruption in the country was a significant barrier to cooperation between the two nations going forward. According to Volker, the interactions between Giuliani and Ukraine were sought in an effort to persuade Trump that Zelensky’s government could be a trusted U.S. partner.
“It was clear to me that we had a growing problem in the negative narrative about Ukraine, built on these earlier accusations by Mr. Lutsenko, that was impeding the development of our bilateral relationship and the strengthening of our support for Ukraine,” Volker said. “I therefore faced a choice: do nothing, and allow this situation to fester; or try to fix it.”
“I tried to fix it,” he testified.
Volker said Giuliani eventually came to believe that the Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, was not credible.
“To my surprise, Mr. Giuliani had already come to the conclusion on his own that Mr. Lutsenko was not credible and acting in a self-serving capacity,” Volker said. “He mentioned both the accusations about Vice President Biden and about interference in the 2016 election, and stressed that all he wanted to see was for Ukraine to investigate what happened in the past and apply its own laws.”
While Volker said he did not believe any of the accusations of corruption levied against Biden, he felt that allegations of Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections were “plausible.” Contrary to Democratic assertions that Trump’s diplomatic team was actively demanding that Ukraine interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, Volker said his team did the opposite.
“The point about Ukraine avoiding anything that could play into U.S. elections in 2020 is a message that I know our Chargé in Ukraine, Amb. Bill Taylor, reinforced in other meetings,” Volker said.
The diplomat also said he didn’t even know the Biden family had been referenced at all in Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelensky.
“I was not on the July 25 phone call,” Volker said. “I received a general readout via our Chargé and my own State Department staffer, as well as from Mr. Yermak.”
“All said it was a good, congratulatory call, that they discussed the importance of fighting corruption and promoting reform in Ukraine, and that President Trump reiterated his invitation to President Zelensky to visit the White House,” he testified. “I was not made aware of any reference to Vice President Biden or his son, which I only learned about when the transcript of the call was released on September 25, 2019.”
The full statement from Volker can be read in its entirety here .
By Sean Davis
OCTOBER 4, 2019
Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
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This is why Schiff held the closed session and muzzled the Republican members and didn't release the transcripts last night!. You never know what you will discover.
This represents STRIKE 1 for democrats!
Schiff leaked misleading material to fool gullible liberals...
anyone surprised?
He had to be perfect with this..Any signs of impropriety or unfairness will turn the weary public against the dems. He just can't help himself.
What 'misleading material' did Schiff leak Sean? Please be specific.
In reference to the headline of this seed. "No. It does not."
Actually, neither Dean or the Federalist has a fucking clue what was said during Volker's 'testimony'. The only thing they have is his OPENING STATEMENT.
Actually, he did no such thing. He merely stated that he didn't talk about Biden, probably because he was never informed that Biden was talked about in the July 25 phone call.
That is a lie. Non of the texts were truncated. Each of the texts release were COMPLETE texts, NOT snippets.
So it looks like what little Dean wrote in that article is bullshit, which is par for the course with his 'reporting'.
Why is that?
Don't the people have a right to know?
Because the deposition was taken during a closed door hearing.
I seriously doubt that you had an issue when Nunes conducted just such hearings and NEVER released the transcripts.
IOKIYAR right Vic?
The POINT is, the author of your seed extrapolated from that to make claims that are demonstrably false.
Of course, that's what you count on him to do. Make shit up and post it as fact.
No, the point is the people have a right to hear this.
Of course, that's what you count on him to do. Make shit up and post it as fact.
I count on democrats being exposed for what they are - SCUM. They are moving forward on this without the American people knowing what is going on.
YES!
Your seed makes NO attempt at clarifying what was said in Volker's opening statement Vic. It decries cherry picking while is cherry picks what Volker wrote AND misrepresents the rest. It also lies about the texts that the House Committee released.
You don't want the people to hear the truth, you want them to hear YOUR truth.
Your'e dancing again. My seed demonstrates why something like this shouldn't be held behind closed doors. You proclaim the conclusions in the article are only derived from an opening statement and that answers to questions would somehow contradict those statements. That defies logic. We shouldn't have to debate that. We should hear the entire hearing!
I'll ask you again - Why not let the American people hear it? Don't they have a right to know?
Good night. Thanks for stopping by
Bullshit.
No it doesn't Vic.
I 'proclaim' that because it is a FACT.
I ALSO 'proclaim' that some of the 'conclusions' misrepresent the statement and some are outright lies.
Where the did I 'proclaim' THAT Vic?
Save your fucking strawman fallacies for someone they'll work on.
Probably because is originated from one or your fever dreams.
You aren't even debating about what we KNOW Vic. Have you gone and READ Volker's WHOLE opening statement? Did you notice how much the author of your seed glossed over or omitted?
I've ALREADY cited some of the issues with your seed. You want to debate it, please proceed.
Adding the facts of the content of Volker's testimony wouldn't change that. I doubt that you'd LISTEN to it or READ it either. You'd probably wait for some moron like Dean to tell you what was said.
What they have the right to know right now is that your seed is NOT an accurate summary of Volker's opening statement. If you don't care about accurately representing THAT, what possible value is the transcript of the whole deposition to you? It would seem that only it's value is if it can be sliced and diced 'for effect'.
Oh and BTFW Vic, where were you when Jared and Don Jr. and Bannon and and and ALL testified behind closed doors? I didn't see you decrying the fact that Nunes held a TON of closed door depositions and hearings, many of which he never released a transcript. Were you here 'advocating' for the American people THEN Vic?
I'm letting you have the last word. At least I got you to admit that Volker and everyone else should be testifying in open sessions with everyone being able to question them. Getting you to admit that Volker just put a hole in Schiff's lies and the WB's claims may be a bridge too far.