Former US Diplomat Kurt Volker Outlines Ukraine Scandal's Main Points Before Congress: Read Testimony
By
Ramsey Touchberry is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek based in the nation's capital, where he regularly covers Congress.
Prior to joining Newsweek in 2018, Ramsey was a multimedia reporter at the local NPR and PBS affiliate WUFT News in Gainesville, Florida. While there, he reported for TV, radio and web, primarily focusing on local and state politics. He also investigated county animal shelters' euthanization rates and the struggles Florida felons face when re-entering society, stories that won a regional Hearst and Murrow award, respectively. In 2017, Ramsey was a USA Today College correspondent, where he reported on higher education news.
Originally from the Sunshine State, Ramsey graduated from the University of Florida in the spring of 2018 where he studied both digital and broadcast journalism. You can contact him at r.touchberry@newsweek.com and via encrypted email atr.touchberry@protonmail.com.
🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
In his day-long testimony before members of Congress behind closed doors Thursday, former top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine Kurt Volker laid out five main points about the ongoing scandal involving President Donald Trump pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
In his prepared opening remarks to lawmakers, which were obtained by Newsweek Friday and can be read in full below, Volker stated he was "concerned that a negative narrative about Ukraine, fueled by assertions made by Ukraine's departing Prosecutor General, was reaching the President of the United States, and impeding our ability to support the new Ukrainian government as robustly as I believed we should."
Former Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker departs following a closed-door deposition led by the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on October 3 in Washington, DC.Former Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker departs following a closed-door deposition led by the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on October 3 in Washington, DC.Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty
He also distanced himself from the revelations that Trump urged a foreign leader to investigate a political rival. Volker did say, however, that he was aware—and concerned—about hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid being withheld from Ukraine by the U.S.
Ramsey Touchberry is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek based in the nation's capital, where he regularly covers Congress.
Prior to joining Newsweek in 2018, Ramsey was a multimedia reporter at the local NPR and PBS affiliate WUFT News in Gainesville, Florida. While there, he reported for TV, radio and web, primarily focusing on local and state politics. He also investigated county animal shelters' euthanization rates and the struggles Florida felons face when re-entering society, stories that won a regional Hearst and Murrow award, respectively. In 2017, Ramsey was a USA Today College correspondent, where he reported on higher education news.
Originally from the Sunshine State, Ramsey graduated from the University of Florida in the spring of 2018 where he studied both digital and broadcast journalism. You can contact him at r.touchberry@newsweek.com and via encrypted email atr.touchberry@protonmail.com.
Ramsey Touchberry is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek based in the nation's capital, where he regularly covers Congress.
Prior to joining Newsweek in 2018, Ramsey was a multimedia reporter at the local NPR and PBS affiliate WUFT News in Gainesville, Florida. While there, he reported for TV, radio and web, primarily focusing on local and state politics. He also investigated county animal shelters' euthanization rates and the struggles Florida felons face when re-entering society, stories that won a regional Hearst and Murrow award, respectively. In 2017, Ramsey was a USA Today College correspondent, where he reported on higher education news.
Originally from the Sunshine State, Ramsey graduated from the University of Florida in the spring of 2018 where he studied both digital and broadcast journalism. You can contact him at r.touchberry@newsweek.com and via encrypted email atr.touchberry@protonmail.com.
Ramsey Touchberry is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek based in the nation's capital, where he regularly covers Congress.
