Mediating peace between Russia and Ukraine was supposed to be a part-time job for Kurt Volker, but he's now at the center of a full-blown scandal — with questions about his conduct that are separate from the alleged pressure campaign that could lead to President Donald Trump's impeachment.
As Trump's special representative for Ukraine negotiations, Volker supported a shift in policy to send lethal weapons to Kyiv, including tank-busting Javelins missiles, described by their manufacturer as "the world's most versatile and lethal one-man-portable, anti-tank, guided munition and surveillance weapon system."
But at the same time Volker was pushing Trump to arm Ukraine, he also held positions with a major lobbying firm, BGR Group, and a think tank, the McCain Institute, that each had financial ties to Raytheon Co., which manufactures the Javelin system and earned millions from Trump's decision.
Volker, a career diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, resigned on Friday, a day after he was referenced in the whistleblower complaint alleging Trump improperly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden's son.
The whistleblower complaint has emboldened congressional Democrats to push forward with an impeachment inquiry against Trump. But it has also drawn uncomfortable attention to Volker and the unusual arrangement by which he served as Trump's special envoy — essentially as a volunteer while maintaining other paid jobs, including as executive director of the McCain Institute, a Washington think tank named for the late Republican Sen. John McCain, of Arizona.
Volker has not been accused of violating any conflict-of-interest rules. But his resignation is likely to fuel further investigations beyond his unorthodox role working with Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in pressing Ukrainian officials on Trump's behalf. Congress is now all but certain to scrutinize his conduct as special envoy, a post to which he was appointed on July 7, 2017, by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He now leaves with Ukraine and Russia no closer to peace.
Supporters of Volker point to his distinguished record as a career diplomat and national security official in Washington, and say his actions were likely well-intentioned.
In his written complaint, the whistleblower wrote that Volker visited Kyiv on July 26, the day after a controversial phone call in which Trump asked Zelesnky for a "favor” and to work with Giuliani, who was pushing for the investigation of the Bidens. The whistleblower said Volker was accompanied by the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, and that they met with Zelensky and other officials and tried to help them understand and deal with Giuliani's requests. The whistleblower also said Volker and Sondland spoke to Giuliani in an effort to "contain the damage" to U.S. national security from Giuliani's seemingly freelance foreign policy efforts.
But in a television appearance on Thursday, Giuliani held up an iPad to display text messages allegedly from Volker and insisted that Volker and others in the State Department were fully aware of what he was doing in Ukraine.
“He should step forward and explain what he did,” Giuliani said of Volker. “The whistleblower falsely alleges that I was operating on my own. Well, I wasn’t operating on my own!”
Volker and Sondland did not respond to messages requesting comment. Sondland, who is based in Brussels, also declined a request for an interview about his role in visiting Ukraine.
But some foreign policy experts have said questions should have been raised about Volker's arrangement from the moment he was appointed, effectively to act as a part-time mediator for the Ukraine crisis while retaining his other jobs
And at least one good government group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it was reviewing the matter. “We think it raises a lot of questions, and we’re looking into it,” Noah Bookbinder, the group’s executive director, said.