Yesterday's testimony by US Ambassador to Ukraine Kurt Volker is important for explaining what was going on in President Trump's telephone conversation with Ukraine President Zelenskyy. This is particularly so regarding the role of Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, which has been a focus of the false Ukraine Hoax narrative. By any fair reading, the testimony utterly destroys the false narrative put out by the CIA and House Dems, led by Adam Schiff.
You'll recall that at the time the whole Ukraine Hoax came up, and after reading the call transcript, I pointed out that it was Zelenskyy who was adamant about wanting to speak with Giuliani, whereas Trump repeatedly introduced AG Bill Barr's name. Volker explains in his testimony that he, too, attempted to explain the distinction between the president's personal attorney and the Attorney General, but that Zelenskyy insisted that he needed to speak with Giuliani.
Volker's testimony provides the reason for Zelenskyy's strong desire to speak with Giuliani--it arose from Volker's own representations to Zelenskyy. Volker relates that he believed, as far back as May, that Trump was receiving an unduly negative perception about Ukraine from Giuliani--and he communicated this concern to Zelenskyy. Volker admits that, in the event, his impression was mistaken. Nevertheless, as a result of hearing Volker's apprehensions, Zelenskyy not unnaturally concluded that it was important for him to speak directly with Giuliani in order to convince Giuliani, and through him Trump, that Ukraine was now on a new path and was serious about rooting out corruption.
I don't have any reason to disbelieve that, but I believe another factor was probably involved as well. Zelenskyy is a product of a deeply corrupt culture--not merely in independent Ukraine but also reaching back to Ukraine's past as a major component of the USSR. In any corrupt system personal connections are paramount. I suspect that Zelenskyy believed that Giuliani's views would simply carry more weight with Trump than those of Barr. That betrays a misunderstanding of the American system of governance--as revealed by Trump's repeated attempts to introduce Barr's name into the conversation--but an entirely understandable one from Zelenskyy's standpoint.
The other important point that emerges from Volker's testimony is that he never informed Ukrainian officials that a hold on US aid was being discussed. The reason he didn't mention this to Ukraine officials was that he believed strongly that such a hold wouldn't be adopted, so there was no point in even introducing the topic in his discussions with the Ukrainian side. So, there was no pressure--Trump didn't mention the possibility of withholding aid and Zelenskyy had not awareness of it in the first place.
