Volker was part of ‘irregular’ Ukraine diplomacy, official says
Ambassador William Taylor named Kurt Volker, the former head of Arizona State University’s McCain Institute who was a special envoy to Ukraine, as part of an “irregular” channel in diplomatic relations with that country.
Taylor testified Wednesday, part of the first day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, that Volker and others worked closely outside of the conventional diplomatic methods, an area that has come under scrutiny.
Taylor, a diplomat who has worked with every president since Ronald Reagan, effectively headed the U.S. embassy in Ukraine since the spring, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo persuaded him to return to government service.
“I encountered an irregular, informal channel of U.S. policymaking with respect to Ukraine — unaccountable to Congress — a channel that included then-Special Envoy Kurt Volker, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and, as I subsequently learned, (Trump’s lawyer Rudy) Giuliani,” Taylor said.
“I was clearly in the regular channel, but I was also in the irregular one to the extent that ambassadors Volker and Sondland included me in certain conversations. Although this irregular channel was well-connected in Washington, it operated mostly outside of official State Department channels.”
Taylor’s testimony returned focus on those channels of communication, whose purpose are at the heart of the impeachment proceedings.
In his own closed-door testimony, which was released last week, Volker said he worked to advance U.S. foreign policy interests while trying to balance the demands from the White House and Giuliani.
Volker is scheduled to testify publicly next week.
“The Ukrainians did not ‘owe’ President Trump anything, and holding up security assistance for domestic political gain was crazy ...”
William Taylor
Top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine
Taylor said Wednesday, though, that Volker and Sondland both told him that Trump treated Ukraine as a businessman expecting a check from a customer who had not yet paid for merchandise.
“During our call on Sept. 8, Ambassador Sondland tried to explain to me that President Trump is a businessman. When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check,” Taylor said.
“Ambassador Volker used the same language several days later while we were together at the Yalta European Strategy Conference. I argued to both that the explanation made no sense: The Ukrainians did not ‘owe’ President Trump anything, and holding up security assistance for domestic political gain was crazy, as I had said in my text message to Ambassadors Sondland and Volker on Sept. 9.”
Volker testified that he was “surprised” when he eventually learned about the content of the July 25 telephone conversation between Trump and new Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. According to notes of that call, Trump asked Zelenskiy for “a favor” that included investigating Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son.
Volker also said he never got an explanation as to why $391 million in military aid to Ukraine was delayed.
Volker said he worried Giuliani was spreading already-disproven narratives about Ukraine to Trump, complicating relations between the nations, just as Ukraine had elected Zelenskiy.
Even so, Volker acknowledged encouraging Ukrainian officials to address the concerns that Trump had expressed through Giuliani.
On Aug. 13, Volker was inspecting the proposed language of a Ukrainian statement announcing an investigation of interference in U.S. politics.
In a text message, Volker asked that the statement include “2 key items.” The investigation should include “Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections,” Volker said.
Volker stepped down from his unpaid envoy post in September ahead of his closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee. Shortly afterward, he also quit as executive director of ASU’s McCain Institute for International Leadership, which he had headed since its 2012 founding.
Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, asked Volker to resign, saying his involvement in the impeachment inquiry was “overshadowing” the think tank’s work.
Volker said Ukrainians asked to be connected to Giuliani “in order to try to get across their message of being different from the past.” By speaking to Giuliani, Ukrainian officials thought their messages would reach Trump.