The Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee released the transcript of former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker’s closed-door Oct. 3 testimony amid complaints from President Trump and Republicans about the secretive nature of the impeachment investigation.
In his testimony, Volker distanced himself from the controversial July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that call, Trump asked for a “favor” from Ukraine related to a conspiracy theory about CrowdStrike, urged Zelensky to look into any Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election, and suggested the Ukrainians investigate allegations of corruption related to the Bidens.
Volker testified he didn’t listen in on the July 25 phone call, and he was unaware of Biden being mentioned until the transcript was released. Volker was one of the so-called “three amigos” — along with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and Energy Secretary Rick Perry — who helped manage Trump’s Ukraine policy. Volker resigned from his position in late September.
In the wake of Volker’s testimony last month, Republicans pointed to his claim there was no quid pro quo related to withholding military aid to Ukraine, while Democrats pointed to Volker’s assertion that Biden’s actions in Ukraine weren’t improperly influenced by his son’s business dealings.
Volker testified that “Vice President Biden was never a topic of discussion” in his texts with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and U.S. chargé d’affaires to Ukraine William Taylor. But the messages sent and received by Volker mention “investigations” four times — with an investigation into Burisma mentioned twice.
House Intelligence Committee investigator Daniel Goldman pressed Volker on whether he believed Giuliani’s Ukraine pressure to be legitimate, asking, “So is it your testimony that you understood that Rudy Giuliani’s desire for the Ukrainian government to investigate Burisma had to do with potential money laundering or other criminal conduct by the company itself, and not in connection to either Joe or Hunter Biden?”
“No, I believe that Giuliani was interested in Biden, Vice President Biden’s son [Hunter] Biden, and I had pushed back on that, and I was maintaining that distinction,” Volker said.
Goldman followed up, asking, “So you were maintaining that distinction because you understood that that whole theory had been debunked and there was no evidence to support it, right?”
“Yes,” Volker replied.
Nevertheless, Volker played a role in trying to get Ukraine to declare its intention to investigate certain issues. One new text from Aug. 13 from Volker to top Zelensky aide Andrey Yermak included the exact language that the Trump administration wanted Ukraine to use in a public announcement about “anti-corruption” investigations.
“Special attention should be paid to the problem of interference in the political processes of the United States, especially with the alleged involvement of some Ukrainian politicians. I want to declare that this is unacceptable. We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 elections, which will prevent the recurrence of this problem in the future,” Volker’s text to Yermak said.
When asked by congressional investigators why Ukraine did not make a statement, Volker said “it died.”
“I mean, no one — once we started seeing a tempo of engagement with Ukraine, we had first the sense that Rudy was not going to be convinced that it meant anything, and, therefore, convey a positive message to the President if it didn’t say Burisma and 2016,” Volker testified. “I agreed with the Ukrainians they shouldn’t do it, and in fact told them just drop it, wait till you have your own prosecutor general in place. Let’s work on substantive issues like this, security assistance and all. Let’s just do that. So we dropped it.”
Giuliani told the Washington Examiner “it was certainly understood,” including by Volker, that Giuliani wanted Burisma to be investigated in connection with Hunter Biden’s $50,000 per month position and because of Joe Biden’s actions in Ukraine threatening to withhold $1 billion in loans while pushing for then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
The Biden camp and many others have countered that Shokin was widely seen by the United States and Europe — and inside Ukraine — as ineffective, corrupt, and a hindrance to Ukraine’s progress. Ukraine’s Parliament removed Shokin in 2016.
Volker testified he learned in May that Giuliani “planned to travel to Ukraine to look into” these issues. Giuliani’s proposed trip became national news at the time, with the New York Times reporting Giuliani wanted Ukraine to investigate 2016 and the Bidens and Burisma. Giuliani said that “we’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation.” Dozens of articles and television segments made it clear Giuliani was part of an effort to push Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
