ODESA, Ukraine (Feb. 26, 2019) U.S. Ambassador for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Voller delivers remarks to local press while the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) is in Odesa, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2019. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ford Williams/Released)
Kurt Volker, former United States special representative to Ukraine, embarrassed Adam Schiff with a revelation that completely destroys the Democrats’ narrative on Ukraine. The Democrats’ “smoking gun” quid pro quo has always been that the President withheld aid from Ukraine leaders, and then pitched them on the idea that investigating the Bidens would bring the aid back.
Not only is that not what the President says in the transcript of the call, it is impossible that the Ukrainians could have felt pressure to get the aid back because, as Volker told Schiff in a secret interview, the Ukrainians didn’t even know the aid had been cut off.
Byron York reports at The Washington Examiner:
In a secret interview, Rep. Adam Schiff, leader of the House Democratic effort to impeach President Trump, pressed former United States special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker to testify that Ukrainian officials felt pressured to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter as a result of Trump withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
Volker denied that was the case, noting that Ukrainian leaders did not even know the aid was being withheld and that they believed their relationship with the U.S. was moving along satisfactorily, without them having done anything Trump mentioned in his notorious July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
When Volker repeatedly declined to agree to Schiff’s characterization of events, Schiff said, “Ambassador, you’re making this much more complicated than it has to be.”
The interview took place Oct. 3 in a secure room in the U.S. Capitol. While the session covered several topics, the issue of an alleged quid pro quo — U.S. military aid in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens and a public announcement that such an investigation was underway — was a significant part of the discussion.
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