Volker served as a legislative fellow on the staff of Senator John McCain from 1997 to 1998. In 1998, he became first secretary of the US mission to NATO, and in 1999 he was sent to deputy director of NATO Secretary-GeneralGeorge Robertson's private office, serving in that position until 2001.[10]
Volker went into the private sector in 2009, becoming an independent director at The Wall Street Fund Inc,[11] where he worked until 2012. He was a member of the board of directors at Capital Guardian Funds Trust[12] beginning in 2013.[13] Volker was also an independent director at Evercore Wealth Management Macro Opportunity Fund until 2012.[14]
Volker served as a senior advisor at McLarty Associates, a global consulting firm from 2010 to 2011.
He has been a Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies since September 2009, and a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council since October 2009. Volker is currently listed as a trustee at the CG Funds Trust,[19] and a member of the board of trustees at The American College of the Mediterranean (ACM), an American-style degree-granting institution in Aix-en-Provence, France. As an undergraduate, he was enrolled at ACM's study abroad institute, IAU College. He is also a member of the board of directors at The Hungary Initiatives Foundation.[20] In addition, Volker is a member of the Atlantic Partnership.[21]
Ukrainian media reported in June 2021 that Kurt Volker represents US investors that co-founded American University Kyiv in partnership with Arizona State University.[22]
On July 7, 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed Ambassador Kurt Volker as the US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations.[23][24] Volker accompanied Tillerson on his trip to Ukraine two days later. On September 27, 2019, Volker resigned from this official, yet volunteer, position.[4][25]
In mid-September 2019, reports began to surface suggesting that a whistleblower complaint had been submitted to Michael K. Atkinson, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, which he found to be credible and a matter of "urgent concern".[26] Subsequently, claims were advanced by various chairmen of U.S. House committees that Kurt Volker, while acting in his official capacity as US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, had been told by the White House "to intercede with President Zelensky" about investigations regarding Joe Biden and Paul Manafort.[27] Volker met with Zelensky the day after President Trump spoke by phone with the Ukrainian president,[28] a call which would later reportedly result in a whistleblower complaint.[29] Two days after Volker's meeting, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats resigned, resulting in a stand-off regarding whether the new acting DNI would share the complaint with Congress.
On September 26, 2019, the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the unclassified text of this whistleblower complaint regarding the interactions between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.[30] In this document, Volker, along with US Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, were described as having "provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to 'navigate' the request that the President had made of Mr. Zelensky".[31]
That same day Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani posted on Twitter a screenshot that purported to be a text message from Volker to Giuliani, stating, "Mr. Mayor -- really enjoyed breakfast this morning. As discussed, connecting you here with Andrey Yermak [Wikidata],[32] who is very close to President Zelensky. I suggest we schedule a call together on Monday -- maybe 10am or 11am Washington time? Kurt".[33][34]
NBC News has reported, in regard to the Volker text that Giuliani allegedly received, "Whether Volker was acting on orders from Trump is unclear, and the State Department hasn't said why Volker made the introduction, other than that the Ukrainian aide requested it. But the introduction ultimately led to a meeting between Yermak and Giuliani in Spain that the whistleblower wrote was a 'direct follow-up' to Trump's call."[24]
In the White House memorandum of the July 25 telephone call between the two presidents, President Zelensky is quoted as saying, "I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine."[35] Notably, the date on the screenshot of the purported text message from Volker to Giuliani is July 19, six days earlier.[34]
On September 27, 2019, Volker resigned hours after congressional Democrats announced he would be called to provide a deposition.[4][36]
Volker was interviewed in a closed session of the House committees leading the Trump impeachment inquiry on October 3, 2019, and his prepared statement was made public on October 4, 2019.[37]The Washington Post reported that he asserted he had warned Giuliani that he (Giulani) was receiving untrustworthy information about the Bidens from Ukrainian political figures.[38][39][40][41]
On November 19, 2019, Volker testified before the U.S. House of Representatives during a public hearing, during which he corrected or reversed statements made in his closed hearing, regarding mention of investigations, stating instead that Sondland "made a generic comment about investigations," which Volker and others found "inappropriate."[42][43] He had previously said that he was not aware of any link between investigations and a White House visit.[44] On November 21, 2019, David Holmes, who serves as head of political affairs in the US Embassy in Ukraine, described Volker, as well as Sondland and U.S. Energy SecretaryRick Perry as "The Three Amigos" who ran the Ukraine campaign with Trump and Giulani.[45][46][47][48]
Personal life
In June 2019, Volker married Georgian journalist for Voice of America Ia Meurmishvili.[49] He was previously married to Karen Volker, with whom he had two sons. He speaks English, Hungarian, Swedish, and French. [citation needed]
^"Kurt Volker". McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. Archived from the original on September 30, 2017. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
^ abLederman, Josh; Welker, Kristen (September 26, 2019). "Whistleblower says U.S. envoy scrambled to contain Giuliani's damage to national security". NBC News. New York, NY. Retrieved September 29, 2019. Volker, by law, can only spend about one-third of his time working for the U.S. government, owing to his status as a "Special Government Employee." That category, designed to enable private sector workers with particular expertise to serve the government temporarily, limits Volker to no more than 130 days out of any 365-day period spent on his Ukraine envoy duties.
^Declassified Whistleblower Complaint(PDF) (Report). Washington DC: US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. September 26, 2019. p. 4. Archived from the original(PDF) on December 18, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
^"Andrey Yermak, Producer". IMDb. Retrieved September 29, 2019. Andrey Yermak is a Ukrainian film and TV Producer, International Law Expert, owner of the production company Garnet International Media Group (GIMG).
.jpg)
