Now, on to Volker's testimony, both during his closed door deposition and his public impeachment testimony.. By his account, he was retired from the State Department and agreed to serve as special envoy to Ukraine without pay because he wanted to support the country, which was being invaded by Russia. He was aware of Giuliani communicating with Lutsenko and other Ukrainian officials. The country was mired in corruption, but when Zelensky was elected president, Volker was much impressed and thought that Zelensky's position would be bolstered by a White House meeting. He attended the White House briefing on May 23, 2019 and tried to convince Trump that Zelensky was "the real deal," but Trump remained convinced that the country was corrupt and tried to take him (Trump) down, and that Zelensky was surrounded by "terrible people." When Volker disagreed, Trump said, "Talk to Rudy." Volker said he did not take that as a directive to talk to Rudy, but did take it to mean that Trump was getting misinformation from Giuliani, and that if he could only convince Giuliani that Zelensky was "the real deal," he could arrange a White House meeting, since he was convinced that Trump and Giuliani were motivated by a good-faith desire to fight corruption.
Volker also attended a July 10, 2019 meeting in Washington DC between Ukrainian officials Yermak and Danyliuk and US national security officials, including John Bolton. In his closed-door deposition, Volker said the meeting was disappointing because the Ukrainians focused on the finer details of military reform and did not present a bigger picture, but that nothing inappropriate happened. In his public testimony (after a number of NSC officials said that clearly inappropriate discussions had taken place), Volker said that Gordon Sondland (Ambassador to the EU) had spoken to the Ukrainians at the end about corruption in a generic sense, and that the conversation struck everyone as inappropriate, but that nothing came of it.
Volker met in person with Giuliani just once, on July 19, 2019. (They had other communications that were presumably by phone or text). During the conversation, Volker argued that Zelensky was the "real deal," and that Lutsenko was corrupt and not to be trusted. Rather to Volker's surprise, Giuliani agreed and asked to be introduced to Andrei Yermak. Volker said that Giuliani raised the subjects of the 2016 election, Burisma, and the Bidens as topics for investigation. Volker pushed back on the subject of Biden, saying he had never known Biden to be corrupt. Giuliani dropped the subject, and Volker heard nothing further about Biden. Volker set up a three-way conversation on July 22, 2019 that he said was little more than a meet-and-greet. He did not take part in the July 25, 2019 phone call that led to the impeachment and did not see the readout until it was publicly released. However, he spoke to Zelensky the day after the call, and Zelensky seemed pleased with the outcome.
During much of August, Volker worked with the Ukrainians on the statement to make a statement that met with Giuliani's requirements and would get a White House meeting. There was much back-and-forth negotiation (verified by texts), starting out with a proposal simply to make a generic commitment to fight corruption, but moving toward a requirement to mention the 2016 election and Burisma. There was no mention of Biden and Volker said that he saw nothing inappropriate about mentioning the election or Burisma, and did not see Burisma as referring to Biden. Eventually, Volker and the Ukrainians decided that such a statement was not appropriate and decided against it. Volker attributed this to the Ukrainians becoming increasingly confident that the US supported them, as evidenced by Bolton visiting the country on August 17, 2019.
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| Portions of Ukraine occupied by Russia |
As for the military aid, Volker learned of the hold on July 18, 2019 from Acting Ambassador Taylor. He dismissed the hold as no more than an ordinary bureaucratic snag and did not see it as significant in any way. Even when the hold was revealed by Politico on August 29, 2019, Volker did not see the hold as anything more than an ordinary and routine bureaucratic snag and, indeed, maintained as much during his testimony to Congress.
The aid was released on September 11, 2019, after Congress opened an investigation. The transcript of the phone call was released on September 25, 2019, while Zelensky was visiting the United Nations. The Ukrainians sought to prevent the release and were furious when it happened. Volker stepped down as special envoy on September 27, 2019.
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