The U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine resigned Friday, just after his name was found in both a declassified whistleblower complaint against Donald Trump and the text log of Rudy Giuliani. Kurt Volker, who also serves as the Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership—in partnership with Arizona State University—reportedly met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday to tender his resignation.
ASU’s student paper, the State Press, was the first to report the story, after verifying the news with university officials. Soon after, CNN confirmed it.
Two versions of Volker’s involvement have emerged in the last 48 hours. According to the whistleblower, Volker was the one left to clean up the threats to national security and U.S.-Ukraine relations caused by Giuliani’s maneuvering as Trump’s personal attorney. Giuliani, on the other hand, insists the State Department involved him, and has released screenshots of extremely detailed text messages he claims are from Volker.
Giuliani said Volker informed him that the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky went well. He also said that days earlier, around July 19, Volker first contacted him about connecting Giuliani with one of Zelensky's top advisers, Andriy Yermak.
Giuliani shared with CNN what he claimed was a text message from Volker on July 19.
"Mr Mayor — really enjoyed breakfast this morning," read the message shared with CNN. "As discussed, connecting you here with Andrey Yermak, who is very close to President Zelensky. I suggest we schedule a call together on Monday — maybe 10am or 11am Washington time? Kurt"
The State Department does concede that Volker connected Giuliani with Yermak—but only at Yermak’s request.
Volker became the U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine—a volunteer, unpaid position—in 2017.
Who’s next?