TRUMP PLAYS LADY MACBETH
'OUT': Trump says he was right to remove 'insubordinate' NSC aide
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday defended the ouster of impeachment witness Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman from the White House National Security Council, calling him “insubordinate” and saying he had incorrectly reported the contents of Trump’s “perfect” telephone calls.
Vindman was one of two witnesses who provided some of the most damaging testimony during Trump’s impeachment investigation who were ousted by the administration on Friday.
Trump tweeted that “Fake News” media kept “talking about ‘Lt. Col.’ Vindman as though I should think only how wonderful he was.
“Actually, I don’t know him, never spoke to him, or met him (I don’t believe!) but, he was very insubordinate, reported contents of my ‘perfect’ calls incorrectly,” Trump said.
Trump added that Vindman was “given a horrendous report by his superior, the man he reported to, who publicly stated that Vindman had problems with judgment, adhering to the chain of command and leaking information. In other words, ‘OUT’.”
Hours after Vindman was escorted from the White House on Friday, Gordon Sondland, another key impeachment witness, said he had been ousted from his post as U.S ambassador to the European Union.
Vindman was among officials who listened to a July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodimir Zelenskiy. That conversation was at the center of the impeachment probe. Vindman testified that he went immediately to the NSC’s chief lawyer to express concern about it.
Vindman’s attorney, David Pressman, rejected the president’s statements about his client as “obviously false.”
“They conflict with the clear personnel record and the entirety of the impeachment record of which the President is well aware,” he said in a statement.
“While the most powerful man in the world continues his campaign of intimidation, while too many entrusted with political office continue to remain silent, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman continues his service to our country as a decorated, active duty member of our military.”The Pentagon referred a request for comment on Trump’s tweets to the Army, which repeated a statement from Friday that both Vindman and his brother had been reassigned to the Department of the Army.
“Out of respect for their privacy, we will not be providing any further information at this time,” an Army spokesman said
Vindman’s twin brother Yevgeny, who worked as a lawyer at the NSC and is also a lieutenant colonel, was also escorted out of the White House on Friday.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump, a Republican, on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his dealings with Ukraine, but he was acquitted by the Republican-dominated Senate on Wednesday.
Two days after his acquittal, Trump ousts two star impeachment witnesses
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday ousted the two witnesses who provided the most damaging testimony during his impeachment investigation: Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and Ambassador Gordon Sondland.
Two days after Trump was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate on charges of trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival, Vindman — the top Ukraine expert at the White House’s National Security Council — was escorted out of the building, according to his lawyer.
“Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth,” said his lawyer, David Pressman.
Hours later, Sondland said he had been fired from his post as U.S ambassador to the European Union.
The two men served as star witnesses during the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives’ impeachment investigation last year.
Vindman’s twin brother Yevgeny, who worked as a lawyer at the NSC, also was escorted out of the White House, according to Michael Volkov, who represented Vindman when he testified in the impeachment inquiry.
Trump has said he is still upset with Democrats and government officials involved in the impeachment investigation, even after he was acquitted on Wednesday.
“I’m not happy with him. You think I’m supposed to be happy with him?” he said of Vindman on Friday.
An NSC spokesman declined to comment.
Vindman, a decorated combat veteran, testified in November that he “couldn’t believe what I was hearing” when he listened in on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskiy that became the focus of the inquiry.
Trump asked Zelenskiy to launch investigations into both Democratic rival Joe Biden and a discredited theory that Ukraine, not Russia, colluded with Democrats to harm Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Sondland, a wealthy Republican donor and Oregon hotelier who served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, testified that he was following Trump’s orders when he pushed Ukrainian officials to carry out investigations sought by the president.
“I am grateful to President Trump for having given me the opportunity to serve,” he said.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sondland’s removal.
VIDEO https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVBZRCFKV
“This is as clear a case of retribution as I’ve seen during my 27 years in the Senate,” said Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Biden’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination suffered a serious setback when he came in fourth place at the Democrats’ first state contest in Iowa this week.
Vindman’s two-year stint at the White House had been due to end in July. An Army spokesperson said both brothers had been reassigned to the Army, but declined to give further information “out of respect for their privacy.”
Another senior White House aide who testified over impeachment, Jennifer Williams, left this week for a post at the U.S. military’s Central Command, according to Bloomberg News.
Vindman downplayed concerns that he would suffer payback for speaking out when he testified to Congress. “I will be fine for telling the truth,” he said.
Trump doesn't really respect members of the military. He uses them as props.
Anthony L. Fisher
Trump uses the military to polish his political credentials, but only when it suits him. Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Donald Trump loves military parades and quoting from the film "Patton," but when it comes to actually treating military personnel and their families with respect, he's got a mixed record.
He's insulted war heroes and their parents, lambasted generals as "dopes and babies," and blithely dismissed the symptoms of soldiers with traumatic brain injuries.
Trump also pardoned a convicted war criminal against the objections of the men and women he served with, who described him as "freaking evil."
Throughout his decades in public life, Trump has epitomized the idea of hollow, performative patriotism.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author
President Donald Trump isn't the first president to use the military as a prop, but it's become clear that he's the most brazenly cynical in doing so.
Ther latest examples of Trump's exploiting the military for his political benefit came at the State of the Union address this week.
Trump addressed Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Hake's widow, Kelli, relaying heartbreaking words from a letter Hake wrote to his then 1-year-old son, Gage, while on deployment to Iraq in 2008.
Hake never made it home. He was killed by a roadside bomb.
Trump told Kelli and Gage: "Chris will live in our hearts forever. He is looking down on you now. Thank you." That received thunderous applause from the chamber of a joint session of Congress.
The president then described giving the order to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who Trump said was responsible for the bomb that took Hake's life.
Minutes later, Trump used another military family as a prop, this time pulling an Oprah-style stunt where he surprised Sgt. 1st Class Townsend Williams' wife and children with the news that he was not only back from a deployment to Afghanistan — he was in the building and ready for an on-camera reunion.
Williams was one of the 14,000 US troops deployed to Afghanistan on Trump's orders as the administration has struggled to find a negotiated exit amid an upsurge of violence.
To recap: Trump used a Gold Star family as a prop to boast about an assassination that he ordered, then followed it up by using another family in a made-for-TV stunt to extol the sacrifices made by "extraordinary military families."
Nationally televised tributes to military families are lovely gestures, but by using what should have been a humble show of respect to a widow and her child to justify a military action he ordered, Trump explicitly politicized a soldier's death.
Trump's love for the military is fickle
Trump loves to bask in the reflected glory of veterans, but his tune changes as soon as military personnel don't conveniently fit with his narrative.
Throughout his decades in public life, Trump has epitomized the idea of hollow, performative patriotism.
He's had a lifelong love affair with military pageantry. Despite receiving five deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, Trump said he felt as if he truly was in the military because he attended an upstate New York military prep school. He's repeatedly touted the idea of military parades. As an adult, he was known to swoon in the presence of high-ranking generals. He's fond of quoting lines from the film "Patton."
But then Trump ran for president and his view of the institution changed, especially when it clashed with his ideas.
On the campaign trail, then candidate Trump infamously refuted pollster Frank Luntz in 2015 for calling Sen. John McCain a "war hero."
"He's not a war hero," Trump said. "He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
This was just the first time it became clear that Trump likes war heroes, unless they disagree with him.
In 2016 Trump lashed out at the parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan — a Muslim immigrant from Pakistan who was killed in Iraq in 2004 — after Khan's father, speaking at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, gave a stirring denunciation of Trump's call to bar immigrants from majority-Muslim countries.
Khan's mother, who did not speak while standing onstage at the DNC, was "devoid of feeling the pain of a mother who has sacrificed her son," Trump said.
And as reported in Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig's new book, "A Very Stable Genius," Trump in 2017 threw a fit at a meeting of the Joint Chiefs and other senior advisers, including then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis (a retired four-star Marine general), calling them "a bunch of dopes and babies" and declaring he "wouldn't go to war with you people."
What had they done to so offend Trump, who would normally fawn over such decorated veterans?
They were explaining things like the importance of the post-World War II international order as a security benefit for the US, and that it wasn't the military's job to act as the president's collection agent to shake down NATO allies who the real-estate mogul Trump believed weren't paying their "rent."
Trump's disrespect of the military is more than just words
As commander-in-chief, Trump sent as many as 6,000 troops to the US-Mexico border, where he hoped he could use the military to detain illegal immigration. (It can't: That's forbidden by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the military from enforcing the law unless authorized by Congress or the Constitution.) But some of the troops who were deployed domestically were ordered to serve their country by painting portions of Trump's border wall.
More recently, he restored the rank of Eddie Gallagher, a convicted war criminal whose fellow Navy SEALs described as "freaking evil," "toxic," and "perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving." Trump invited him to his Mar-a-Lago resort for a personal meeting, which Gallagher has used as a springboard for TV appearances and apparel sales.
Against the objections of top Pentagon officials, Trump issued full pardons to two Army officers convicted of murder.
After the killing of Soleimani last month and Iran's retaliatory strike on an Iraqi base housing US military personnel, Trump said there were no US casualties. Two weeks later, the Defense Department said 34 troops had been diagnosed with concussions or brain trauma. Trump, normally one to luxuriate in the gory details of battle, downplayed their symptoms as "headaches" and "not very serious."
So while Trump attempts to use the military to polish his political credentials, he does so only when it suits him. When it doesn't, the president insults the dead, brushes off the wounded, uses the living as political pawns, and venerates the war criminal. It's a perverse way of showing respect for the military.
The Trump administration went back on its promise to protect whistleblowers' safety
Ellen Cranley
Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, testifies before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was escorted out of the White House on Friday, nearly three months after he testified against President Donald Trump in the impeachment inquiry.
Vindman was a key witness who voiced his concerns about Trump's contact with Ukraine while also addressing his worries about speaking out against the president.
In comments to reporters at the time, Defense Secretary Mark Esper vowed that Vindman was protected by guidelines meant to shield whistleblowers from retaliation.
Trump also fired Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the EU, in what appeared to be a sweeping act of personal vengeance once the impeachment process wrapped up in the Senate.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump's abrupt firing of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman appears to cross guarantees that Defense Secretary Mark Esper previously voiced, that vowed protections for whistleblowers.
In a Friday night segment, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow pointed to a November 2019 tweet from Marcus Weisgerber, an editor at military and defense outlet Defense One, which contained a transcript of an exchange with Esper, where the secretary said there was "no retaliation" allowed under the law against whistleblowers.
"All I'm saying is that if you come forward with information that you feel is, that you feel you are a whistleblower, then you are protected," Esper said, according to the transcript.
—Marcus Weisgerber (@MarcusReports) November 11, 2019
Maddow said Friday night that the comments deserved to be "re-upped in the public record," hours after Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, and his twin brother were fired from their posts in the White House.
Vindman openly voiced his concerns over retaliation
Vindman came into Trump's crosshairs last fall, when he testified in the House impeachment inquiry on November 19 about his firsthand knowledge of Trump's contact with Ukrainian authorities and his concerns over a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate his political rival, former President Joe Biden and his son.
During the opening statement in his testimony, Vindman compared the treatment of whistleblowers in America to how they might be treated in Russia before addressing his father, who came to America from the Soviet Union, and reiterating his commitment to "telling the truth."
"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 States of America in search of a better life for our family," Vindman said. "Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth."
Vindman's lawyer said in a scathing statement released Friday that Vindman was fired for "telling the truth," which stood in direct contrast to reports around the February 7 firing claiming the move was a "broader effort to shrink" the Trump administration's foreign-policy bureaucracy. Comments from Trump and his closest allies quickly undercut that already-shaky defense.
Trump told reporters hours before Vindman's departure that he was "not happy" with the official, who testified in compliance with a lawful congressional subpoena. Trump's comment came days after White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the president believes "people should pay for" the way Trump was treated.
Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., offered up perhaps the most damning comment on the background of the decision, tweeting, "Allow me a moment to thank—and this may be a bit of a surprise—Adam Schiff," referring to the House Intelligence Committee chairman who managed witness testimony in the impeachment hearings.
"Were it not for his crack investigation skills, @realDonaldTrump might have had a tougher time unearthing who all needed to be fired. Thanks, Adam! #FullOfSchiff," Trump Jr. wrote.
SEE ALSO: Alexander Vindman believed he wouldn't be punished for telling the truth in America. Trump proved him wrong.
'He's trying to muzzle everyone': National security veterans were shaken by Trump's decision to 'purge' witnesses who testified against him
Sonam Sheth
Feb 7, 2020,
Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, testifies before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through Washington on Friday when he abruptly fired two key impeachment witnesses and a third official who wasn't involved in the impeachment inquiry but is related to one of the witnesses.
National security and intelligence veterans were stunned. A current FBI special agent characterized Trump's move as "appalling," adding, "He's trying to muzzle everyone who speaks out against him, even if they use the appropriate legal channels."
"We have every reason to expect that — far from having learned his lesson, as some would have us believe — Trump is in the midst of attempting to do away with potential witnesses who would be in a position to call out his wrongdoing," NSC veteran Edward Price told Insider.
"A purge is a good way to put it," Frank Montoya, Jr., a former FBI special agent, told Insider.
The rumblings of payback began almost as soon as the Senate acquitted President Donald Trump on Wednesday of the two charges against him following a bitter impeachment trial.
The next morning, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham gave the public a preview of the plan of action Trump would outline in a speech Thursday afternoon addressing his acquittal.
"He is going to be honest, going to speak with honesty and I think with a little bit of humility that he and the family went through a lot," Grisham told Fox News. "But I think he's also going to talk about just how horribly he was treated and, you know, that maybe people should pay for that."
The first person to pay the price was Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council. Vindman, a decorated war veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was abruptly fired and escorted out of the White House on Friday along with his twin brother, Yevgeny, who also served on the NSC.
Vindman was given no explanation for his dismissal, but his attorney made it clear in a statement to Insider that the army colonel was forced out as retaliation for testifying against Trump in the impeachment hearings after receiving a congressional subpoena.
Shortly after, Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the European Union and another pivotal impeachment witness against Trump, was recalled from his post.
It was something like a Friday Night Massacre, a peculiar reversal of the famous Saturday Night Massacre in the 1970s, when the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned in protest during the Watergate scandal after refusing to carry out President Richard Nixon's order to fire the special prosecutor investigating him.
"This is an unconscionable act of retaliation," Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School and an expert in criminal and constitutional law, told Insider.
He went on to excoriate Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lamar Alexander, who argued that Trump had learned his lesson from impeachment. But "the opposite is happening," Ohlin said. "Trump is emboldened, angry, unhinged, and vindictive."
President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through Washington on Friday when he abruptly fired two key impeachment witnesses and a third official who wasn't involved in the impeachment inquiry but is related to one of the witnesses.
National security and intelligence veterans were stunned. A current FBI special agent characterized Trump's move as "appalling," adding, "He's trying to muzzle everyone who speaks out against him, even if they use the appropriate legal channels."
"We have every reason to expect that — far from having learned his lesson, as some would have us believe — Trump is in the midst of attempting to do away with potential witnesses who would be in a position to call out his wrongdoing," NSC veteran Edward Price told Insider.
"A purge is a good way to put it," Frank Montoya, Jr., a former FBI special agent, told Insider.
The rumblings of payback began almost as soon as the Senate acquitted President Donald Trump on Wednesday of the two charges against him following a bitter impeachment trial.
The next morning, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham gave the public a preview of the plan of action Trump would outline in a speech Thursday afternoon addressing his acquittal.
"He is going to be honest, going to speak with honesty and I think with a little bit of humility that he and the family went through a lot," Grisham told Fox News. "But I think he's also going to talk about just how horribly he was treated and, you know, that maybe people should pay for that."
The first person to pay the price was Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council. Vindman, a decorated war veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was abruptly fired and escorted out of the White House on Friday along with his twin brother, Yevgeny, who also served on the NSC.
Vindman was given no explanation for his dismissal, but his attorney made it clear in a statement to Insider that the army colonel was forced out as retaliation for testifying against Trump in the impeachment hearings after receiving a congressional subpoena.
Shortly after, Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the European Union and another pivotal impeachment witness against Trump, was recalled from his post.
It was something like a Friday Night Massacre, a peculiar reversal of the famous Saturday Night Massacre in the 1970s, when the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned in protest during the Watergate scandal after refusing to carry out President Richard Nixon's order to fire the special prosecutor investigating him.
"This is an unconscionable act of retaliation," Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School and an expert in criminal and constitutional law, told Insider.
He went on to excoriate Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lamar Alexander, who argued that Trump had learned his lesson from impeachment. But "the opposite is happening," Ohlin said. "Trump is emboldened, angry, unhinged, and vindictive."
U.S. President Donald Trump campaign rally in Wildwood Reuters
'He's trying to muzzle everyone who speaks out against him'
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, hours before Alexander Vindman was dismissed, that the White House planned to package his removal as part of a broader effort to slim down bureaucracy in the foreign policy apparatus
But Trump "taking direct aim at his perceived critics is something that much more closely resembles a purge than an orderly streamlining," Edward Price, the former senior director of the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, told Insider.
He added: "We have every reason to expect that — far from having learned his lesson, as some would have us believe — Trump is in the midst of attempting to do away with potential witnesses who would be in a position to call out his wrongdoing."
One current FBI special agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly comment on the matter, characterized Trump's actions as "appalling."
"He's trying to muzzle everyone who speaks out against him, even if they use the appropriate legal channels," the agent told Insider.
Asked whether there could be any motivation for ousting the Vindmans that wasn't rooted in political vengeance, Price deadpanned, "Two brothers from different Directorates with different responsibilities sacked on the same day, at the same time, in the same unusual way? No."
Frank Montoya, a former FBI special agent, echoed that point, telling Insider, "A purge is a good way to put it. The fact that [Vindman's] brother got the axe, too, seals it."
Vindman is fluent in English, Russian, and Ukrainian and brought a deep knowledge of the US-Ukraine and US-Russia relationship with him to the NSC when he joined in 2018.
"It's a loss to the nation when the White House gets rid of a subject matter expert as highly qualified as [Lt. Col.] Vindman simply because they don't like that he speaks truth to power," Montoya said. "That makes us weaker, not stronger."
'He's trying to muzzle everyone who speaks out against him'
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, hours before Alexander Vindman was dismissed, that the White House planned to package his removal as part of a broader effort to slim down bureaucracy in the foreign policy apparatus
But Trump "taking direct aim at his perceived critics is something that much more closely resembles a purge than an orderly streamlining," Edward Price, the former senior director of the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, told Insider.
He added: "We have every reason to expect that — far from having learned his lesson, as some would have us believe — Trump is in the midst of attempting to do away with potential witnesses who would be in a position to call out his wrongdoing."
One current FBI special agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly comment on the matter, characterized Trump's actions as "appalling."
"He's trying to muzzle everyone who speaks out against him, even if they use the appropriate legal channels," the agent told Insider.
Asked whether there could be any motivation for ousting the Vindmans that wasn't rooted in political vengeance, Price deadpanned, "Two brothers from different Directorates with different responsibilities sacked on the same day, at the same time, in the same unusual way? No."
Frank Montoya, a former FBI special agent, echoed that point, telling Insider, "A purge is a good way to put it. The fact that [Vindman's] brother got the axe, too, seals it."
Vindman is fluent in English, Russian, and Ukrainian and brought a deep knowledge of the US-Ukraine and US-Russia relationship with him to the NSC when he joined in 2018.
"It's a loss to the nation when the White House gets rid of a subject matter expert as highly qualified as [Lt. Col.] Vindman simply because they don't like that he speaks truth to power," Montoya said. "That makes us weaker, not stronger."
National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is sworn in to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, during a public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump's efforts to tie US aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents. Andrew Harnik/AP
Trump 'is now getting rid of war heroes and not some D-list star' on 'The Apprentice'
The way the Vindmans were fired also set off alarms.
"It's incredibly unusual," Price said. The Obama administration downsized its NSC staff just like the Trump administration claims to be doing now. But in the former case, "zero staffers were escorted off the premises, and it happened through natural attrition, as was supposed to have been the case in this process."
Vindman catapulted into the national spotlight when he testified last year about his firsthand knowledge of Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and White House lawyers' subsequent efforts to cover up records of the conversation after Vindman reported his concerns.
During the call, Trump repeatedly asked Zelensky to launch politically motivated investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Biden — a 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner — and the Democratic Party as a whole. Trump made those demands while withholding vital military aid and a White House meeting that Zelensky desperately wanted and still hasn't gotten
Vindman listened in on the phone call and testified that he immediately reported what had taken place to the NSC's top lawyer, John Eisenberg, because he was "concerned" and found Trump's "demand" both "inappropriate" and "improper."
Sondland, meanwhile, was one of Trump's handpicked agents in charge of running what witnesses characterized as the administration's "irregular" foreign policy channel that sought to carry out a "domestic political errand." Specifically: investigations in exchange for military aid and a White House meeting.
The now-former EU ambassador testified that there was a "quid pro quo" in which Trump leveraged a White House meeting in exchange for investigations. Sondland also told Congress that "everyone was in the loop," including top brass at the White House and State Department.
Trump 'is now getting rid of war heroes and not some D-list star' on 'The Apprentice'
The way the Vindmans were fired also set off alarms.
"It's incredibly unusual," Price said. The Obama administration downsized its NSC staff just like the Trump administration claims to be doing now. But in the former case, "zero staffers were escorted off the premises, and it happened through natural attrition, as was supposed to have been the case in this process."
Vindman catapulted into the national spotlight when he testified last year about his firsthand knowledge of Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and White House lawyers' subsequent efforts to cover up records of the conversation after Vindman reported his concerns.
During the call, Trump repeatedly asked Zelensky to launch politically motivated investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Biden — a 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner — and the Democratic Party as a whole. Trump made those demands while withholding vital military aid and a White House meeting that Zelensky desperately wanted and still hasn't gotten
Vindman listened in on the phone call and testified that he immediately reported what had taken place to the NSC's top lawyer, John Eisenberg, because he was "concerned" and found Trump's "demand" both "inappropriate" and "improper."
Sondland, meanwhile, was one of Trump's handpicked agents in charge of running what witnesses characterized as the administration's "irregular" foreign policy channel that sought to carry out a "domestic political errand." Specifically: investigations in exchange for military aid and a White House meeting.
The now-former EU ambassador testified that there was a "quid pro quo" in which Trump leveraged a White House meeting in exchange for investigations. Sondland also told Congress that "everyone was in the loop," including top brass at the White House and State Department.
Price told Insider that Friday's developments indicate that there is "every reason to expect that — far from having learned his lesson, as some would have us believe — Trump is in the midst of attempting to do away with potential witnesses who would be in a position to call out his wrongdoing.
Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Justice Department, skewered the president for his actions, telling Insider, "He has the right and power to be a vindictive accused who was let off the hook by a gaggle of politicians afraid of his tweets."
What Trump is doing is "a far cry from when he was on his game show," "The Apprentice," Cramer added. "He is now getting rid of war heroes and not some D-list star."
Vindman's ouster, in particular, could have other far-reaching consequences.
Price said he believed Vindman should have been afforded whistleblower protections, as Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer requested of the Department of Defense last year.
But rather than protecting Vindman, the NSC terminated him, "sending a clear signal not only to Vindman but to all would-be whistleblowers throughout the administration that protections won't apply to them," Price said. "The implication from that is clear."
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