Former US special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker's opening statement to three House Committees has been released for public viewing. In the 11 pages, much is said about Rudy Giuliani's involvement and attempts to force Ukraine to investigate Trump's political rival, Joe Biden.
Volker emphasized over and over again that Rudy Giuliani was relying on material that wasn't reliable, that the former prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko was not to be trusted, and that he knew Biden would never use power for personal gain or for his son's personal gain.
He laid out a timeline that made it clear Rudy was Trump's emissary (ratfcker, more like). Both of the conspiracy theories Rudy was chasing came straight from Lutsenko.
In the early months of 2019, I was aware of an emerging, negative narrative about Ukraine in the United States, fueled by accusations made by the then-Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko, that some Ukrainian citizens may have sought to influence the U.S. 2016 Presidential election, including by passing information they hoped would reach the Hillary Clinton campaign that was detrimental to the Donald Trump campaign.
There was a second narrative, also fueled by the then-Prosecutor General, that the company, Burisma, had sought to garner influence with then-Vice President Biden, by paying high fees to his son Hunter Biden.
So Rudy Ratfcker Giuliani glommed onto unproven allegations by an outgoing Prosecutor General of a corrupt government as a way to serve Dear Leader some dirt on his political opponents. We know this because Volker says so:
[Trump] said that Ukraine was a corrupt country, full of “terrible people.” He said they “tried to take me down.” In the course of that conversation, he referenced conversations with Mayor Giuliani. It was clear to me that despite the positive news and recommendations being conveyed by this official delegation about the new President, President Trump had a deeply rooted negative view on Ukraine rooted in the past. He was clearly receiving other information from other sources, including Mayor Giuliani, that was more negative, causing him to retain this negative view.
And then there was the matter of the withheld military aid.
On July 18, I was informed that at an interagency (sub-PCC) meeting, OMB had said that there was a hold being placed on Congressional Notifications about security assistance to Ukraine. No reason was given.
Unsaid, but implied: Trump believed these conspiracy theories and planned to withhold aid from Ukraine until the new President agreed to undertake his investigations.
Hence, the "I need you to do me a favor, though..."
This entire 11-page statement is clear: Rudy Giuliani was Trump's partner in ratfcking, from feeding the conspiracy theories to Trump to working the Ukrainians to dig dirt. Trump was the extortionist, using his power to leave Ukraine undefended and vulnerable to Russian aggression.
Read the full statement below:
Volker Opening Statement (Long) 10-03-2019 by Karoli on Scribd
