US envoy to Ukraine resigns amid whistleblower scandal

Kurt Volker, the state department’s special envoy for Ukraine who got caught in the middle of the pressure campaign by President Trump and his lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, to find damaging information about Democrats, abruptly resigned from his post on Friday.
Volker, who told secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Friday that he was stepping down, offered no public explanation, but a person informed about his decision said he concluded that it was impossible to be effective in his assignment given the developments of recent days.
His departure was the first resignation since revelations about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine’s president to investigate former vicepresident Joe Biden. The unidentified intelligence official who filed the whistleblower complaint that brought the president’s actions to light identified Volker as one of the officials trying to “contain the damage” by advising Ukrainians how to navigate Giuliani’s campaign.
According to the whistleblower, Volker visited the Ukrainian capital of Kiev the day after Trump spoke with Zelensky on July 25, and provided advice about how to “navigate” the US president’s request. Volker was working in concert with Trump’s private lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who has tweeted out text messages from Volker in order to argue that the Ukrainian outreach was sanctioned by the state department.
The state department had no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, Democrats charged into an impeachment investigation of President Trump on Friday, ordering secretary of state Mike Pompeoto turn over Ukraine-related documents and scheduling testimony for witnesses to alleged abuse of power by the US leader. Three House committees gave Pompeo one week to produce the documents.
^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

References

1. ^{^} Ukraine (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
2. ^{^} Mike Pompeo (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
3. ^{^} Joe Biden (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
4. ^{^} whistleblower (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
5. ^{^} Rudy Giuliani (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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