Thread by @HeathMayo

Reviewed the materials released by the House Committees’ from Amb. Volker testimony and, on a close read, they are more devastating for the White House than even the reporting suggests.

Let’s walk through both Volker’s testimony & then the corroborating texts...

First: who is Volker? He’s the former US Rep for Ukraine Negotiations & he resigned a week ago after news of the July 25 call btw Trump & Zelenskyy broke.

These are his words—and he immediately rebukes the whole Deep State nonsense right out of the gate. No “spies” or “treason”.

He then frames the entire affair as his dogged effort to “fix a problem as best he could.” He also goes out of his way to highlight that *he* was focused on US national security interests. It’s almost like he thinks the evidence might lead us to question that fact.

So what problem was Volker fixing? “A negative narrative about Ukraine, fueled by assertions made by” Lutsenko, that reached the President and “impeded our ability to support” Ukraine.

This is an admission that Trump’s belief in conspiracies & Biden charges influenced US policy.

Then, Volker moves into CYA mode. He disavows knowledge of anything related to Biden—but the revealed text messages suggest otherwise. Indeed, “Burisma” which was clearly code for “Biden” appears routinely throughout, as we’ll see.

Read this! Volker clearly knows this smelled.

Finally—Volker goes to great pains to make it clear that he actively opposed withholding aid to Ukraine, along with the rest of practically the entire US national security and foreign policy apparatus.

Trump injured American interests to pressure Ukraine into doing his bidding.

The entire Giuliani section makes it clear that he & Trump were undermining the judgment of State officials on Ukraine. And Biden was all over this thing. Burisma clearly equaled investigating Biden throughout.

Oh, also—Volker says claims against Biden are bogus.

Listen to Volker’s own assessment of Trump’s inability to even grasp the impact of changing circumstances in Ukraine after the election.

This is scary, folks. The President is just dense. He doesn’t understand things and thinks other countries are “trying to take him down.”

Then, in the section of testimony about the Rudy/Yermak tango, Volker discusses negotiations over an official statement that Trump/Rudy wanted Zelenskyy to deliver re: investigating “Burisma & 2016,” presumably to create bad press for Biden. Rudy made repeated demands. Shameful.

Now — let’s move to the smoking guns: the text messages between various players in this shakedown.

These are really the nail in the coffin—Volker’s testimony just reinforces how bad this thing was for US interests in Ukraine & his damning feelings & guilt over what occurred.

Thankfully—some of these are so bad, we can cut right to the chase: Here’s Volker advising Yermak about the quid pro quo. Zelenskyy had to convince Trump he would investigate in order to secure a meeting with Trump. This was BEFORE the call.

Quid. Quo. It’s all there.

Need more evidence? Try this from Ambassador Bill Taylor who made clear that’s exactly what he was gathering from the situation. Sondland — who plays the role of yes-man in all this—won’t put things in text.

He knows he can’t memorialize the truth.

Bill Taylor doesn’t give in. He’s pissed. Why? Because withholding the aid is playing right into the Russian’s hands.

The move was un-American—and they knew it.

Finally—this kicker closes things out. Bill Taylor is furious that aid was withheld and progress in Ukraine stalled “for help with a political campaign.” Sondland unmoved. Notice, after Taylor speaks truth, Sondland takes 5 hrs to compile a legal treatise denying the suggestion.

This was just the *first* witness. This new evidence, combined w/ the July 25 call summary & the WB complaint, makes it abundantly clear that it was common knowledge for officials that a quid pro quo existed whereby Z would agree to investigate Biden for US aid & access. Period.