Trump's Ukraine envoy quits as president rages on Twitter over whistleblower revelations

Kurt Volker previously served as Nato ambassador

Donald Trump cries 'witch hunt' after DNI whistleblower hearing

Donald Trump‘s envoy to Ukraine has reportedly resigned after being named in the whistleblower complaint that has rocked the administration.

Multiple media sources said Kurt Volker, the president’s special representative for Ukraine, resigned on Friday.

A whistleblower complaint from within the intelligence community, released publicly on Thursday, described Mr Volker as trying to “contain the damage” from efforts by Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to press Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to to investigate Joe Biden and his son.

It said: “On 26 July, a day after the call, special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker visited Kyiv and met with president Zelenskyy and a variety of Ukrainian political figures. Ambassador Volker was accompanied in his meetings by US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

“Based on multiple readouts of these meetings recounted to me by various US officials, ambassadors Volker and Sondland reportedly provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to “navigate” the demands that the president had made of Mr Zelenskyy.”

Mr Volker, who had served in the position on a part-time, unpaid basis since 2017, had sought to help Ukraine’s government resolve its confrontation with Russia-sponsored separatists.

Meanwhile on Friday, Mr Trump unleashed a stream of furious outbursts over the whistbleblower revelations, just days after House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an official impeachment inquiry that some believe could yield results as soon as October.

Ms Pelosi joined others in voicing concern over the president’s hints that the whistleblower should be executed for exposing his or her attempt to pressure the Ukrainian president into investigating a major rival in the 2020 election.

One of the whistleblower’s key complaints that the transcript of Mr Trump’s Ukrainian call was moved to a classified location by White House staff appears to have been vindicated by an insider, according to CNN. Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is central to the allegations, has further implicated the state department in the scandal, presenting Fox News with text messages that he claims prove his meeting with an aide of Mr Zelensky was ordered by officials in Mike Pompeo’s department, not by Mr Trump.

Key Points

• Trump rages over whistleblower revelations
• Nancy Pelosi reaffirms her commitment to impeachment inquiry
• Whistleblower complaint allegedly vindicated by White House source
• Trump's lawyer Giuliani further embroils Pompeo's state department

[27 September 2019 16:09 · Andy Gregory]

Bernie Sanders has suggested the president's upbringing has left him thinking he "can do anything he wants".

[27 September 2019 16:19 · Andy Gregory]

House intelligence committee member Mike Quigley says William Barr and Rudy Giuliani should testify before the committee as part of the impeachment inquiry.

[27 September 2019 16:27 · Andy Gregory]

A White House official has vindicated a key complaint by the whistleblower, according to CNN.

Phil Thomas reports on the insider allegation that National Security Council lawyers told staff to move the transcript of Mr Trump's Ukraine call to a classified server.

[27 September 2019 17:07 · Clark Mindock]

From our Voices section, Michael Arcenaux argues that the Ukraine scandal has implications for more politicians than just those in Donald Trump's orbit.

It is pretty bad for Joe Biden, too, he writes.

[27 September 2019 17:20 · Clark Mindock]

The president who almost was — but was not after Donald Trump scraped together a handful of votes in a handful of states — has weighed in on the scandal plaguing Washington and the nation.

Simply put, Hillary Clinton thinks Donald Trump is a fraud. Hard to say he would not posit the same about her, however...

[27 September 2019 17:40 · Clark Mindock]

Once thought to be risking it all — his reputation, most of all — to join the Trump administration, it appears that attorney general William Barr has now officially thrown it all away.

At least, that's the conclusion one might garner from the recent comments from Nancy Pelosi, who thinks Mr Barr is prowling and on the loose, leaving devastation in his path as he seeks to protect Mr Trump from the scandals that have plagued him.

[27 September 2019 18:00 · Clark Mindock]

A lot happened yesterday. So, we would forgive you if you missed some of the happenings in Washington.

Among those things you may have missed are the rants of Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer and eager talking head who has lit up the late night conservative network punditry circuit for months now.

Take a look:

[27 September 2019 18:20 · Clark Mindock]

Here is CNN reporting on the news they broke, confirming the whistleblower report claim that the Trump administration locked away a non-classified transcript.

[27 September 2019 18:40 · Clark Mindock]

Hard to believe this was a whole year ago:

[27 September 2019 19:00 · Clark Mindock]

Just going to leave this right here...