Thread by @JohnWHuber

Another huge hit to “whistleblower” credibility

Ambassador Volker’s testimony undercuts key charge: that on Jul 26 Volker tried to “help” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy “navigate” Trump’s “demands” about Biden on Jul 25 call

*Volker didn’t even know Biden was mentioned*

THREAD

WB complaint alleges that on Jul 26 (a day after the Trump/Zelenskyy call on Jul 25), US Ambassador Volker met in Kiev to help Zelenskyy “navigate” Trump’s demands to look into Joe/Hunter Biden (which WB calls “interference in the 2020 election”)

But, Volker wasn’t on the Jul 25 call, received only “superficial” readouts of it, didn’t know that Biden’s name was even mentioned, and wasn’t aware that any request was made to investigate Biden either

Volker actually thought Jul 25 was just a congratulatory call and a general discussion about improving corruption in Ukraine, along with Trump offering a White House visit to Zelenskyy

Volker also didn’t discuss the suspension of US aid/weapons sales to Ukraine on Jul 26 either (remember: that’s the alleged “quid” in any “pro quo”), in fact didn’t discuss it with any of his Ukrainian counterparts until it was already public in August

SUMMARY

—WB says that Volker met with Zelenskyy the day after the Trump call to help him “navigate” the “demands” Trump made about Biden

—But Volker didn’t know any demands had been made, or that Biden was mentioned, and he didn’t talk about any withholding of aid either

/ENDS

H/T @jsolomonReports for posting the testimony