- The White House is weighing a plan to dismiss Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, Bloomberg News reported.
- Vindman catapulted into the national spotlight last year when he offered damning, firsthand testimony of President Donald Trump's efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into delivering politically motivated investigations against his rivals.
- Sources told Bloomberg that some NSC officials may be removed because they're seen as having been disloyal to the president.
- The White House plans to say Vindman's ouster is part of a broader effort to clean house and decrease bureaucracy.
- Vindman and his family faced harsh blowback and threats from Trump's allies after he testified, including allegations of political bias and disloyalty to the US because of their refugee status.
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The White House is currently debating whether to fire Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from his position on the National Security Council, Bloomberg News reported.
Sources told the outlet that Vindman's ouster would be part of a "broader effort to shrink" the Trump administration's foreign policy bureaucracy.
Vindman catapulted into the national spotlight last year when he was one of several witnesses who testified against President Donald Trump in the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.
Vindman is the top Ukraine expert on the NSC. He works at the Defense Department but has been detailed to the White House since July 2018. Vindman always planned to return to work at the Pentagon, but his potential departure ahead of schedule raises questions about whether the move is politically motivated.
Some officials may be removed from the NSC because they've been perceived as having been disloyal to Trump, Bloomberg reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. But the White House plans to illustrate Vindman's ouster, which could come as soon as Friday, as a wider effort to clean house rather than a personal vendetta against the decorated veteran.
At the center of the impeachment inquiry was a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump repeatedly pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to launch politically motivated investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic frontrunner, and the Democratic Party as a whole.
Trump made those demands while withholding vital military aid (which was eventually released) and a White House meeting that Zelensky desperately wants (and still hasn't gotten).
Vindman directly listened in on the phone call and testified that he was "concerned" by what he heard.
"It was inappropriate, it was improper for the president to request — to demand — and investigation into a political opponent, especially a foreign power where there's at best dubious belief that this would be a completely impartial investigation," he said.
He added: "This would have significant implications if it became public knowledge, and it would be perceived as a partisan play that would undermine our Ukraine policy, and it would undermine our national security."
Vindman testified that immediately after the call ended, he reported his concerns to John Eisenberg, the NSC's top lawyer.
"When I reported my concerns, I did so out of a sense of duty," Vindman said. "My intent was to raise these concerns because they had significant national security implications for this country."
He added that after he conveyed his concerns to Eisenberg, the lawyer told him not to talk to anyone else about what he had heard. And Vindman said Eisenberg then moved a transcript of the phone call to a top-secret codeword level NSC server typically used to store sensitive information pertaining to national security.
Vindman was also a witness to other episodes that were part of the impeachment inquiry, including a July 10 White House meeting during which Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the EU, explicitly told Ukrainian officials that Zelensky would get a White House meeting if he launched the investigations Trump wanted. Vindman reported details of that meeting to Eisenberg as well.
Vindman faced harsh blowback from the president and his allies in Congress after he testified against Trump behind closed doors and later in public. Among other things, he was accused of being anti-Trump and faced racist allegations of dual loyalty to Ukraine because he and his family are refugees who fled the then-Soviet Union four decades ago and came to the US.
After arriving in the US and completing his education, Vindman joined the army and received a Purple Heart after being wounded in the Iraq war.
He discussed his background when testifying before the House Intelligence Committee last year.
"Dad, my sitting here today, in the US Capitol talking to our elected officials is proof that you made the right decision forty years ago to leave the Soviet Union and come here to United State of America in search of a better life for our family," Vindman testified. "Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth."
Vindman also expressed gratitude in his belief that he would not face political retaliation for his testimony.
In Russia, he said, "my act of expressing my concerns to the chain of command in an official and private channel would have severe personal and professional repercussions, and offering public testimony involving the president would surely cost me my life."
"I am grateful for my father's brave act of hope 40 years ago and for the privilege of being an American citizen and public servant, where I can live free of fear for mine and my family's safety," he said.
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