Snippets of text messages revealed today from Ambassador Kurt Volker’s testimony have been reported , however due to these being used out of context by right wingers in claiming they exonerated Trump, the House has published them in full here:
foreignaffairs.house.gov/…
They are absolutely damning. The one text the GOP is hanging their hat on is clearly a Cover Your Ass text on the record since the sender knew how illegal what they were doing was, and others in the comms circle were beginning to question it. Instead, when you look at the texts in sequence and context, the meaning is irrefutable. Follow the trail:
7/19 Volker: ...Most impt is for Zelensky to say that he will help investigation
7/21 Taylor: Zelensky is sensitive about Ukraine being taken seriously not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics.
Sondland: Absolutely, but we need to get the conversation started and the relationship built, irrespective of the pretext.
7/25 Volker: Heard from White House — assuming President Z convinces Trump he will investigate / “get to the bottom of what happened” in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington.
8/9 Sondland: I think potus really wants the deliverable
(this seems to refer to the “dirt” they want manufactured. Following this is a lot of chatter about forcing Zelensky to issue a written statement that they are investigating Biden and 2016, which Volkner provides a draft for:)
8/13 Volker: ...We intend to complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Bursima and the 2016 U.S. elections
(then if they didn’t know it before, the quid pro quo becomes obvious for Zelensky and they clearly get concerned — see image pasted on the side)
9/1 Taylor: Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?
Sondland: Call me
9/8 Taylor: The nightmare is they give the interview and don’t get the security assistance. The Russians love it (And I quit).
(clearly Taylor is an actual patriot. The interview referred to here is something they cooked up for Zelensky to say they are investigating Biden)
9/9 Taylor: As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.
(clearly that is what had been discussed, the true reason for it. But Sondland must have realized having this recorded in texts is, uh, not a good thing, so in the spirit of hiding Trump’s calls on a secret server, he sends this text back several hours later:)
Sondland: Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign I suggest we stop the back and forth by text If you still have concerns I recommend you give Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks
Woo boy! When you read it all together like this, the CYA moment comes across quite transparently:
a) the only thing ever mentioned specifically about what President Zelensky had to do was Biden and 2016, so “trying to evaluate” means he is waiting to see if Zelensky will muckrake for him or not.
b) Sondland specifically wants to avoid using texts that are recorded. It’s not a huge leap to think that prior to this they got wind of the whistleblower complaint so were taking extra precautions?
If this is day one of the impeachment investigation, I shudder to think what else is out there. These texts alone are more than enough to impeach.
