Veterans of Foggy Bottom were not wholly surprised when Rudy Giuliani flashed a series of text messages with Kurt Volker on cable news last week, placing the former diplomat at the center of the unfolding Trump-Ukraine impeachment crisis. Volker, who resigned as special envoy to Ukraine one day after a whistleblower report was made public, was always viewed as incredibly intelligent by his fellow diplomats, but “so ridiculously ambitious that is almost didn’t matter how smart he was,” according to one former ambassador. Another former senior U.S. official recalled how Volker said he aspired to be the first career diplomat to become secretary of State. But ambition has a way of humbling those who seek their political fortunes in Trumpworld. “I am not surprised though I am disappointed that Kurt is part of the corruption,” the former ambassador added.

Still, the depths of Volker’s involvement, and the astounding scope of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to get Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate one of Trump’s top political rivals, has sent shock waves throughout the diplomatic community. Even more disturbing, diplomats say, is what the Ukraine episode has exposed about the rot within the State Department and the distinct challenges civil servants are forced to navigate in the Trump era, where loyalty to the president is valued above allegiance to the United States. “This is the conundrum for the career people: Do you try to earn the trust of these bad, corrupt people so that you can affect things in small ways? Or do you come out swinging and they will mow you down?” the former ambassador explained. In sum, they added, the choice is: “Do what you can, or quit.”

The White House argues that there was no “quid pro quo” between Trump and Zelensky, despite Trump withholding military aid from the war-torn country. But a batch of text messages released Thursday night by House Democrats, hours after Volker’s closed-door testimony on Capitol Hill, reveals that even Trump’s envoys didn’t see it that way. Indeed, the messages detail an effort by Volker, Giuliani, and U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland to get Zelensky to promise an investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that counted Hunter Biden among its board members, in order to “get to the bottom of what happened” in 2016. The conversations, which Volker provided to the House committees, suggest that a White House visit, sought after by the new Ukrainian administration, had been made contingent upon such a commitment from Zelensky.

In one exchange with Andrey Yermak, a top adviser to Zelensky, at 8:36 on the morning of the infamous July 25 phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian leader, Volker wrote, “Heard from White House – assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington.” It was during this conversation between the two heads of state that Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to “do us a favor” and investigate the Bidens and a debunked conspiracy theory involving Ukraine and the Hillary Clinton campaign. “Phone call went well,” Yermak wrote to Volker following the call. “President Trump proposed to choose any convenient dates. President Zelenskiy chose 20,21,22 September for the White House Visit. Thank you again for your help!”

When a date for the White House visit had not yet been set two weeks later, Sondland wrote to Volker, “I think potus really wants the deliverable,” suggesting Zelensky would need to make a public statement about an investigation before Trump would commit. “To avoid misunderstandings, might be helpful to ask Andrey for a draft statement (embargoed) so that we can see exactly what they propose to cover,” Sondland continued. The following day, Yermak seemed to acknowledge the stipulations of the arrangement, writing, “I think it’s possible to make this declaration and mention all these things. Which we discussed yesterday. But it will be logic to do after we receive a confirmation of date.” And Yermak continued later in the August 10 exchange, “Once we have a date, will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining reboot of US-UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations.”