Donald Trump’s Special Representative For Ukraine Negotiations Just Resigned

Amid a growing controversy surrounding President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, resigned from his post.

According to The Hill, Volker announced his resignation after a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday. News of his resignation was confirmed by multiple media outlets and ultimately by Arizona State University, home of the McCain Institute where Volker worked as the executive director.

While leading the Arizona-based McCain Institute, Volker was appointed as U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations in July 2017.

Though no specific reasons were given at the time of this writing regarding why he submitted his resignation, Volker’s name was reportedly mentioned in the complaint filed by a whistleblower in the intelligence community that sparked the brewing phone-call controversy.

It was alleged in the complaint that Volker and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland traveled to meet with the Ukrainian president shortly after the July 25 phone call between the two foreign leaders in an effort to “navigate” Trump’s alleged requests to Zelensky about digging up dirt on former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

CNN reported that Volker allegedly set up a meeting between one of President Zelensky’s adviser’s and Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in an effort to displace the Biden investigation from official channels.

However, Giuliani on Thursday claimed that he had a trail of text messages with Volker that proved nothing inappropriate took place between the two. The former New York City mayor even shared one of the reported text messages from July 19 with CNN.

“Mr Mayor — really enjoyed breakfast this morning,” the message read. “As discussed, connecting you here with Andrey Yermak, who is very close to President Zelensky. I suggest we schedule a call together on Monday — maybe 10am or 11am Washington time? Kurt.”

Volker’s resignation came within hours of news that top Democratic House leaders issued a federal subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and in a separate letter, informed him that five other State Department officials, which included Volker, would be deposed by October 10, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff demanded in the subpoena issued to Pompeo that he turn over requested documents related to the Ukraine situation within one week. The subpoena was also signed by Rep. Elijah Cummings and Rep. Eliot Engel.

The move to subpoena Pompeo is regarded as one of the first steps in beginning the official impeachment inquiry into the president’s alleged actions.