Firsthand report of Trump’s exchange
Army colonel says he voiced concerns over talk with Ukraine president
WASHINGTON — Defying White House orders, an Army officer serving with President Donald Trump’s National Security Council testified to impeachment investigators Tuesday that he twice raised concerns over Trump’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and Joe Biden.
Alexander Vindman, a lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq and later as a diplomat, is the first official to testify who actually heard Trump’s July 25 call with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
He reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel, he said in prepared remarks.
His arrival in military blue, with medals, created a striking image at the Capitol as the impeachment inquiry reached deeper into the White House.
“I was concerned by the call,” Vindman said, according to his testimony obtained by The Associated Press. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”
Vindman, a 20-year military officer, added to the mounting evidence from other witnesses — diplomats, defense and former administration officials — who are corroborating the initial whistleblower’s complaint against Trump and providing new details ahead of a House vote in the impeachment inquiry.
“Every person has put it in higher resolution,” said Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., during a break in the daylong session.
The inquiry is looking into Trump’s call, in which he asked Zelenskiy for a “favor” — to investigate Democrats — that the Democrats say was a quid pro quo for military aid and could be an impeachable offense.
With the administration directing staff not to appear, Vindman was the first current White House official to testify before the impeachment panels. He was issued a subpoena to appear.
Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to denounce the probe as a “sham.”
Vindman, who arrived in the United States as a 3year-old from the former Soviet Union, said that it was his “sacred duty” to defend the United States.
Some Trump allies, looking for ways to discredit Vindman, questioned the colonel’s loyalties because he was born in the region. But the line of attack was rejected by some Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney, who said it was “shameful” to criticize Vindman’s patriotism.
The testimony came the day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House would vote on a resolution — released Tuesday — to set rules for public hearings.
The House vote is scheduled for Thursday.
The session Tuesday grew contentious at times as House Republicans continued trying to unmask the whistleblower and call him or her to testify. Vindman said he is not the whistleblower and does not know who it is.
In prepared remarks, Vindman testified that in spring of this year he became aware of “outside influencers” promoting a “false narrative of Ukraine” that undermined U.S. efforts, a reference in particular to Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
He first reported his concerns after a July10 meeting in which U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland stressed the i mportance of having Ukraine investigate the 2016 election as well as Burisma, a company linked to family of Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
Vindman said he told Sondland that “his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the NSC was going to get involved in or push.”
That differs from the account of Sondland, a businessman who donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and testified before the impeachment in
vestigators that no one from the NSC “ever expressed any concerns.” Sondland also testified that he did not realize any connection between Biden and Burisma.
For the call between Trump and Zelenskiy, Vindman said he listened in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and Vice President Mike Pence’s office. He said he again reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel.
He wrote, “I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine U.S. national security.”
Vindman served as the director for European affairs and a Ukraine expert under Fiona Hill, a former official who testified earlier in the impeachment probe. Hill worked for former national security adviser John Bolton.
He told investigators that Ukraine, in trying to become a vibrant democracy integrated with the West, is a bulwark against overt Russian aggression.
“I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or politics,” wrote Vindman, who was wounded in Iraq and awarded a Purple Heart.