Kurt Volkeramended his closed-door testimony on Tuesday. He now does not dispute that military aid was linked to Ukraine investigating corruption, but he asserts he didn’t know that at the time it was tied to the Bidens and that it only became clear to him after his Oct. 3 deposition. In hindsight, he says it was a mistake to push on Burisma.
Volker claims that he was never aware of an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate Biden and “did not understand” that investigating Burisma meant investigating Biden. He argues: “I drew a sharp distinction between the two.”
Volker now says Sondland made “a generic comment about investigations” in that key July 10 meeting with Ukrainians. Volker previously testified there was no mention of the investigations in that meeting.
Kurt Volker told the committees that accusations against Marie Yovanovitch “did not appear to me to be credible.” He added that he’s known Vice President Biden for some time. “Those accusations did not appear credible.”
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THE STATEMENT
Kurt Volker said he made an error in pushing the investigation. He was responding to Rudy Giuliani’s push for the politically-charged probe, he said, but didn’t realize Joe Biden was the target. He spoke highly of Biden and Maria Yovanovitch.
“In hindsight, I now understand that others saw the idea of investigating possible corruption involving the Ukrainian company, Burisma, as equivalent to investigating former Vice President Biden,” Volker, who resigned as the State Department’s lead negotiator for Ukraine in September, told lawmakers Tuesday.
Volker thought it was inappropriate and distanced himself from Gordon Sondland and the issue. The Ukrainians found out about the hold on August 29th [a month after the call]. He told Ukrainians that there was nothing to be concerned about and it was an internal problem. Volker said he didn’t know others were saying something different.
“In retrospect, I should have seen that connection differently, and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections,” Volker said in his opening statement before the House Intelligence Committee.
Volker’s opening remarks conflict with accounts from other witnesses. George Kent, one of the State Department’s top officials for Europe, testified that he warned Volker in July that Giuliani wanted an investigation into Biden.
“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. “My response to him was asking another country to investigate a prosecution for political reasons undermines our advocacy of the rule of law.”
Volker met with Giuliani only once and disregarded the “conspiracy theory” that Biden was involved in corruption. He’s an “honorable man.”
Well, that’s it then. We don’t need to investigate. Usually, we investigate before making decisions like that.
“You know, what were Ukrainian citizens doing, and do you want to look into that?” Volker said on Oct. 3. “Saying investigating Vice President Biden or his son, that is not fine.”
Kent suggested in October that Volker didn’t tell the truth of his intentions at the time. However, Kent blamed Giuliani for interfering with Volker and his ability to do his job.
CLOSED-DOOR TESTIMONY
In his closed-door testimony, he was singing a different tune. The October 3rd testimony was different.
Volker defended Trump at several key moments in his closed-door testimony. He said no quid pro quo was ever communicated to him and that the Ukrainians never said to him that they believed there was a quid pro quo. https://t.co/uKHv08lM8d
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) November 19, 2019
MEANWHILE, VINDMAN BOMBED
This could not have gone worse for Democrats, and could not have gone better for Americans sick to death of this concocted, bogus circus. pic.twitter.com/iUr7S8ogbe
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) November 19, 2019
PRIOR TO THE UKRAINE CALL, 5 DEMS VOTED TO IMPEACH
5 Democrat members of the Intel Committee voted to move forward with impeachment BEFORE the Ukraine call even happened.
This isn’t about facts for them. It’s a partisan coup to overturn the will of the American people.
WATCH @Jim_Jordan destroy the Dems’ impeachment charade ↓ pic.twitter.com/VqQZNLQTa4
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) November 19, 2019
THE OCT 3 TESTIMONY
Volker Testimony October 3 … by Maura on Scribd
