Trump impeachment witness admits Ukraine knew military aid was withheld during push for Biden investigation
Ex-envoy changes earlier testimony during damning day of evidence
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Your support makes all the difference.An impeachment witness called by Republicans has suggested he now understands Donald Trump was using military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden’s son.
Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy to Ukraine, also admitted that the country would have known military aid was being withheld as the Trump administration pushed for an investigation into the Bidens.
Mr Volker said new information from the impeachment inquiry had forced him to reconsider his interpretation of Mr Trump’s Ukraine policy.
"I have learned many things that I did not know at the time of the events in question," he said on Tuesday.
"I did not know of any linkage between the hold on security assistance and Ukraine pursuing investigations. No one had ever said that to me – and I never conveyed such a linkage to the Ukrainians," he continued.
He also acknowledged the link between investigating Burisma and targetting the Bidens, adding: "In retrospect, I should have seen that connection differently, and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections."
The admission, which came during a day of damning testimonies for the president, supports the “quid pro quo” case against Mr Trump.
In an exchange with Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Mr Volker acknowledged Ukraine would have known military aid was being held as the White House pushed for the Biden investigation.
Mr Schiff pointed out that Ukraine would have known at least after a Politico report made the aid hold-up public on 28 August.
“[At that time], they [Ukraine] still hadn’t had the White House meeting and they still didn’t have the aid, and at that point, they had already had the conversation with the president in which he asked them to investigate the Bidens, correct?” Mr Schiff asked.
“That is correct,” Mr Volker replied.
The former envoy, who had been called as a witness by Republicans, also defended Mr Biden against allegations of corruption spread by Mr Trump.
He said the allegations against Mr Biden are “self-serving and non-credible”, and added that he viewed the subject of the investigations sought by Mr Trump as “conspiracy theories”.
Tim Morrison, who was also called to testify by Republicans, claimed he was not concerned anything illegal was discussed on Mr Trump’s 25 July call with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president.
He also said the decision to place a memorandum of the call in a highly-secure location was an accident.
“It was a mistake… an administrative error,” Mr Morrison said, rejecting claims that the memo's placement was part of a cover-up.
A series of text messages, provided to lawmakers by Mr Volker, showed conversations between the ex-envoy, EU ambassador Gordon Sondland and another envoy in which they discussed a need for Ukraine to launch investigations, which included one into Hunter Biden’s former company Burisma.
However, Mr Volker has insisted he was not part of an irregular foreign policy channel led by Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, as others have testified.
He also rejected the suggestion that Mr Trump dubbed him, Mr Sondland and Rick Perry, the energy secretary, as the “three amigos” in charge of Ukraine policy.
“My role was not some irregular channel, but the official channel,” Mr Volker said.
Additional reporting by AP
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