like his 9/22 text to Volker directing Volker to say Giuliani’s contacts w Ukrainian officials were done at State and Volker’s request, which Volker told lawmakers was not true. Giuliani has a parallel cover story: thread —>
Giuliani text to Volker 9/22, directing him to say that Volker had put Giuliani and Zelensky advisor Yermak together, Giuliani was reporting to Volker and Sondland, and to “straighten [Secretary Pompeo] out” on that. docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG… 
Giuliani texts to Volker 9/22: “Kurt, will you please get out a statement that State connected me to Yermak & I reported back to State on my conversations..Also have Sondland inform Pompeo he can say State connected me..” docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG…
Volker in 10/3 deposition on what Giuliani was asking him and State to say: “It’s not the truth...I wasn’t giving any direction to him in any way.” assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6540…
Volker testifies he had 2 missed calls from Giuliani on 9/20, (the day Sean Hannity says State directed Giuliani to make the contacts with the Ukrainian officials. that is apparently the cover story). Volker describes Giuliani waving his phone around on tv as his claimed proof
Volker says he tells Pompeo counselor Brechbuhl 9/21 “Rudy’s way out there.” Then gets this stream of texts from Rudy 9/22 demanding he get out a statement he/State directing him
Volker says he called Pompeo. and Pompeo says Giuliani had called him, and was concerned that State wasn’t “affirming that we had connected Yermak and him rather than him just doing it on his own.”
Volker says he did not learn Pompeo was on the 7/25 Trump Zelensky call til yesterday (10/2). Said he told Pompeo his concern that Giuliani was projecting negative image about Ukraine to Trump, and Pompeo only said he was glad Volker was handling it.
Q: Did Pompeo ever say he took your concerns to the president?
Volker: He did not.
Q: Do you know whether Giuliani & Pompeo had any direct conversations?
Volker: Only the one I mentioned..around sept. 22nd.
Volker: He did not.
Q: Do you know whether Giuliani & Pompeo had any direct conversations?
Volker: Only the one I mentioned..around sept. 22nd.
Volker says first time he spoke to Giuliani was May 10th. Had read in media Giuliani was going to Ukraine and was intending to pursue these allegations Lutsenko had made, and Volker told him Lutsenko is not credible. Don’t listen to what he’s saying.
Volker said he also told Giuliani on May 10 call that Zelensky is the real deal, and he wanted to explain to Giuliani the dynamics going on between Russia and Ukraine. Volker said he followed up with a text 5/11 to contact him any time, and Giuliani never got back to him.
Giuliani never got back to him, but announced he was canceling his trip, and that Zelensky was surrounded by enemies of the United States.
Fascinating. Volker says Lev Parnas came to a breakfast he had with Giuliani at Trump hotel 7/19. & Volker expected he would like Giuliani be anti Zelensky. But Volker launches into why he thinks zelensky good & next 3-6 months critical. & Parnas agrees with him.
wow. Volker says he dives in & tells Parnas why he thinks Zelensky good & has 3-6 mo window to determine next 5 years. &parnas agrees with him. then Volker says he thinks Lutsenko self serving opportunist peddling bunk. and Giuliani agrees with him, came to same conclusion. !
giuliani and parnas had spent past months doing campaign to smear and get rid of the US ambassador seemingly based on dirt peddled by Lutsenko who Giuliani tells Volker 7/19 he has concluded is a fraud
none of these people believe anything they go on tv to say, do they. giuliani, stone, pompeo....
Volker on his sense of why Bill Taylor was reluctant to serve as acting ambassador to Ukraine: “I think hanging over everyone’s head on the expert community is, is there some grand bargain with Russia where we throw Ukraine under the bus.”
Volker explains what Taylor meant in 5/26 text when he expressed concern about the Giuliani-Biden thing swirling around, suggesting it was obvious to everyone what investigations and targets Giuliani was after.
Volker says there was a meeting with Pompeo, Brechbuhl, Taylor and Volker to offer Taylor reassurances about the policy and that essentially what soon happened would not happen before he agreed to take the job.
