Who exactly is Kurt Volker? His name came to light after it was disclosed that he played a prominent role in the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Hunter Biden. Unlike other administration officials who tried to invoke executive privilege, Volker resigned from his post as special envoy to Ukraine, ostensibly so that he could testify freely before Congress.
But his actual testimony was clearly that of a Trump loyalist, one who tried to gloss over what was really going on, as well as his own central role in it. So who is this guy, and what is his game?
Volker, 54, began his career as a CIA analyst and soon became a foreign service officer. Most of his work was in Europe, including a three-year stint in Budapest. Under President George W. Bush, he was named U.S. ambassador to NATO.
After President Obama replaced him, Volker went to Wall Street. He then became executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership after it was launched at Arizona State University in 2012 as a living memorial to the late Senator John McCain. Volker had worked briefly in the 1990s as an aide to McCain in the Senate.
Volker’s appointment to serve as special envoy to Ukraine was also odd. He was not officially part of the government, but a citizen special representative outside of normal government channels, a role reminiscent of Rudy Giuliani’s.
Volker simultaneously worked as a Ukraine diplomat and as a lobbyist at BGR Group (the Haley Barbour/Ed Rogers super-firm), which represents Raytheon, the company that makes the Javelin anti-tank missile that Ukraine wants. Were it not for the larger Ukraine affair, that conflict of interest would be a scandal all by itself.
