By Jeremy Herb
(CNN)Former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker explained in his opening statement to Congress that he connected the President’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani with Ukraine’s leadership in an effort to convince Giuliani — and, through him, President Donald Trump — there was new leadership in Ukraine that could be trusted.
In Volker’s statement, which was delivered during his closed-door testimony Thursday and obtained by CNN, the US diplomat portrays himself as someone who was seeking to divert Giuliani’s influence on the President and help Trump see that the new government was serious about reform.
Volker said that Trump was “skeptical” of Ukraine’s leadership, which he said was understandable given the country’s history of corruption, but he also added that the President suggested that Ukraine “tried to take me down,” a reference to the unproven allegations that Ukraine was involved in the 2016 election meddling.
“He said that Ukraine was a corrupt country, full of ‘terrible people,'” Volker said of Trump. “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.
“Volker also said that he was not aware of any effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden — and he made a point to distinguish investigations into Biden with investigations into Burisma, the energy company where Hunter Biden was hired as a board member. But he added he was not aware that Biden was mentioned on the July 25 call until the transcript was released. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe or Hunter Biden in Ukraine.
Volker testified that he became aware that the foreign aid to Ukraine was being held up but at the same time that he was connecting Ukrainian leadership aides with Giuliani, but he said he “did not perceive these issues to be linked in any way.
“Volker said that as accusations against the Bidens began to be aired publicly, he cautioned the Ukrainians to distinguish between efforts to fight corruption domestically and doing anything that could be interpreted as interfering in US elections.
“To the best of my knowledge, no such actions by Ukraine were ever taken, at least in part, I believe, because of the advice I gave them,” he said.
Volker made a point to praise Biden in his testimony, saying the suggestion he would be influenced by his son’s position at Burisma “simply has no credibility to me.”
“I know him as a man of integrity and dedication to our country,” Volker said.
(c) CNN
“He was clearly receiving other information from other sources, including Mayor Giuliani, that was more negative, causing him to retain this negative view.”
This man is an enemy of Ukraine!
https://ukrainetodayorg.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/191003-rudy-giuliani-gty-773.jpg
If they can put the blame on Ukraine for the interference in the 2016 election, Russia will get free and the sanctions can be lifted.
Problem with that, all the evidence points to Russia, not Ukraine.
Nobody is talking about lifting sanctions in America, that’s a western European thing.
What sanctions has been lifted in Europe? As far as I know the only sanctions that has been lifted so far was by Trump’s Treasury Department that lifted sanctions on three businesses linked to a Russian Oligarch.
Two thirds of all aids to Ukraine has been coming from Europe, plus trade agreements and visa free travel. That’s a western European thing!
The problem in the EU, not what sanctions have been lifted, but the strength of them, and that Nord Stream is a stab in the back for Ukraine
I fully agree that Nord Stream II is a disaster that never should have been started and will hurt Ukraine, but I’m afraid it’s too late to stop it. That should have been done much earlier and it’s not only Europe to blame for the lack of sanctions.
Nope, no country has hammered Russia like they should have done, and that just encourages Putin. BTW did Norway kick the Russian special forces out of the country?
They was on a visit to Svalbard, a demilitarized zone, putting pressure on Norway. Not much we can do about it, it’s their answer to American soldiers and a new radar in Norway 🙂
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/05/24/russia-warns-it-will-take-measures-in-response-to-new-near-border-spy-radar-in-arctic-norway-a65740
According to a report I read, they was also spotted on the mainland, and 3 different intelligence agencies confirmed it, but seems the Norwegian government are denying it for some strange reason.
“It is completely unknown to the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces that there has been Russian military activity on Norwegian soil. That includes Svalbard”, a Norwegian armed forces spokesman told the newspaper Klassekampen.
I haven’t seen that, but I’m Swedish 😉 Alina has started on a Swedish course, I told her that soon she can speak two languages that I don’t understand 😀
Conversations must be interesting between you. I was having a conversation with my sister in law the other day by using google translate. Anyway she burst out laughing at one answer I give her. Seems I said something about big ball bags. 😂😂
Going bowling anyone? :-)))
Klassekampen is a red newspaper, I don’t trust anything coming from them! They still praise Pol Pot as a hero 🙁
https://dbstatic.no/66393581.jpg?imageId=66393581&width=640&height=384
Pol Pot was a good man manager. He made sure the people didn’t starve, he murdered millions of them.
Try to translate and read this article as I found via Google
https://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/norge/2019/09/27/195614102/etterretningskilder-russiske-elitesoldater-over-pa-norsk-territorium
I read something similar. It’s pretyy poor response from the Norwegian government, they had every right to shoot these invaders.
More holiday merry makers again, you say?
Biggest noises for lifting sanctions come from business owners in western Europe. Some sqeaking from guvment factions reliant on Pootlerstan coming from Italy and a couple of other countries.
Seems Giuliani is the russian devil brainwashing Trump. Time he’ll fall on a bullet…
I’m sure the intelligence guys must have something on the bastard.
9/11, mafia, corruption, russian assets… if they want to fry him they should have plenty.
I would be at least partially wary of this leak by CNN, they don’t exactly have a sterling record of fairness or accuracy. There are clearly too many surrounding Trump that have tarnished Ukraine’s reputation and given the Kremlinals a pass. Foreign policy should be above politics but it takes both sides to accomplish that.
Yeah CNN are not exactly impartial, but when Trump asks China to investigate Biden, that’s almost as bad as asking Muscovy.
Mafia shitbag while NYC mayor.
‘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.’
This is because Trumpkov has surrounded himself with putler-loving scum for many years. The worst one of course is the major criminal Manafort. Michael Savage is equal second with Giuliani. All three of these and their wives have regular cosy dinners at Mar-A-Lago, where those two defacto kremlin agents have been poisoning Trumpkov’s mind for years.
Was just reading an article on Fox News. This is what Trump said.
“I don’t care about Biden’s campaign, but I do care about corruption,” Trump said. “I don’t care about politics, I don’t care about anything. I care about corruption.”
This is fair enough, but sounds very hollow, when a few weeks back, he said Ukraine fired a very good prosecutor (Shokin), widely ragarded on both sides of the Atlantic, as one of the most corrupt people in Ukraine.
Interpretation; I care about other people and their corruption. Don’t you dare look into mine.