Mutliple news outlets are reporting leaked information that Adam Schiff attempted to pressure former United States special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker to admit that the Ukrainian President felt threatened by President Trump during their illustrious phone call. Volker was asked repeatedly to state that Ukrainian officials felted pressured to investigate the Hunter Biden or else have Ukrainian military aid withheld.
Volker repeatedly denied that there was any such pressure, and stated that Ukrainian officials did not even know that the aid package had been delayed.
Schiff responded by saying:
Ambassador, you’re making this much more complicated than it has to be.
According to the Washington Examiner:
The interview took place Oct. 3 in a secure room in the U.S. Capitol. While the session covered several topics, the issue of an alleged quid pro quo — U.S. military aid in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens and a public announcement that such an investigation was underway — was a significant part of the discussion.
“[The Ukrainians] didn’t want to be drawn into investigating a Democratic candidate for president, which would mean only peril for Ukraine, is that fair to say?” Schiff asked Volker.
“That may be true,” Volker said. “That may be true. They didn’t express that to me, and, of course, I didn’t know that was the context at the time.” (Volker has said he did not know that Trump had mentioned the Bidens on the July 25 call with Zelensky until the rough transcript of the call was released on Sept. 25.)
“Part of the other context is vital military support is being withheld from the Ukraine during this period, right?” Schiff asked.
“That was not part of the context at the time,” Volker said. “At least to my knowledge, they [Ukrainian leaders] were not aware of that.”
Schiff continued to push the narrative that Trump withheld aid until the Ukrainians would agree to investigating the Bidens, to which Volker responded,
We’re getting now into, you know, a conflation of these things that I didn’t think was actually there.
But I don’t believe the Ukrainians were aware that the assistance was being held up.
They became aware later, but I don’t believe they were aware at the time, so there was no leverage implied.
