Kurt Volker, a former special envoy to Ukraine, has been tied to what Acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor dubbed the “irregular channel” of Ukraine policy, featuring Rudy Giuliani, Gordon Sondland, and others. But Volker sought to distance himself from this channel during his testimony on Tuesday, making himself out to be a naive pawn in Giuliani’s meddling.
As Volker saw it, there was an important distinction between an investigation into Burisma, the Ukrainian oil company Hunter Biden worked for, and an investigation into President Trump’s political rival, he said. If he had been aware that Giuliani and Sondland intended to pursue the latter, he would have raised objections of his own, he noted. In fact, Volker called the allegations against Joe Biden “self-serving and not credible.”
But Giuliani didn’t agree and pursued his own agenda, though it’s unclear whether he did so at the behest of the Trump administration. What is clear, however, is that Giuliani’s back channeling created conflict between Trump’s senior officials and resulted in an anonymous whistleblower report that Democrats have used to accuse Trump of quid pro quo corruption.
And to that point, Volker says: Blame Giuliani.
Volker is doing what the Trump administration should have done weeks ago. Giuliani has become a liability — his judgment is questionable, and his actions were inexcusable. Volker alleged that Giuliani knew that Yuriy Lutsenko, the former Ukrainian prosecutor who spread misinformation about then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, was not a reliable source, but disseminated Lutsenko’s false narrative anyway.
Volker’s role in this is still worth scrutiny. He admitted to introducing Ukrainian officials to Giuliani, thereby facilitating an unauthorized back channel. And other witnesses, including George Kent, one of the State Department’s top officials for Europe, testified that Volker was completely aware of Giuliani’s intentions and chose to do nothing.
“And Kurt’s reaction or response to me at that was, well, if there’s nothing there, what does it matter? And if there is something there, it should be investigated,” Kent said during his Oct. 15 deposition.
By distancing himself from Giuliani, Volker is hedging a bet that House Democrats will be less concerned with the enabler than they are with the bad actor. This might be true, but Volker isn’t off the hook just yet.
