Approved~MJM
Former U.S. envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker appeared on Capitol Hill Thursday as one of the first witnesses to go before a congressional body amid the impeachment probe triggered by the whistleblower complaint on President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Volker is participating in a transcribed interview before members of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees after the complaint mentioned him as having allegedly played a role in Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s investigations connected to Ukraine. Volker resigned soon after the complaint was made public last week.
Talking to reporters outside the hearing, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, praised Volker as “unbelievably knowledgeable about what was going on in Ukraine” and called him a “true professional in our diplomatic corps.”
Meanwhile, new encrypted text messages obtained by Fox News show Volker and other U.S. officials battling internally last month over whether Trump was engaged in a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine as he pressed for the country to look into the Biden family, while holding back U.S. aid. The texts with Volker, U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland and Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine Bill Taylor indicate that the nature of a potential arrangement between the U.S. and Ukraine was a matter of dispute.
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