Giuliani and Sondland run shadow diplomatic channel on Ukraine, bypassing career State Department

From at least summer 2019, U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Ukraine Special Envoy Kurt Volker operated a parallel diplomatic track on Ukraine coordinated by Rudy Giuliani outside normal State Department channels. The House impeachment report found this irregular channel was devoted to pursuing Trump's political asks -- investigations of Biden and the 2016 election -- rather than official U.S. policy interests. NSC and career State Department officials were deliberately cut out of the process.