White House ousts key impeachment aide to Democrats

WASHINGTON – The White House on Friday pushed out a top national security official whose House impeachment testimony bolstered Democrats’ case and infuriated President Donald Trump, his lawyer confirmed Friday.

Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman’s attorney David Pressman in a statement Friday said the decorated Army officer “was escorted out of the White House where he has dutifully served his country and his President.” Vindman was the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council.

Trump on Friday made clear his displeasure with Vindman.

“You think I’m supposed to be happy with him? I’m not,” Trump said Friday when reporters asked if he wanted Vindman out of the White House. “They’ll make that decision ... they’re going to be making that decision.”

Earlier, Trump shared a tweet in which the president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, tells Fox Business Network that Vindman “should be nowhere near any policy-making body for the government.”

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to acquit Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, and subsequent refusal to provide witnesses and evidence to House investigators.

Vindman, who was born in Ukraine, was among a dozen current and former administration officials who defied the White House to testify to the House about details in a whistleblower’s complaint, which first spurred the impeachment inquiry.

As part of his job, Vindman said he listened in on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and was so disturbed that he reported his concerns to his superiors “without hesitation.”

Vindman’s public testimony in November triggered an onslaught of personal attacks from Trump and his Republican allies. During the Senate trial, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-tenn., tweeted that Vindman “leaked the contents of the President’s July 25th phone call to his pal, the ‘whistleblower.’”

During his testimony, Vindman denied leaking and knowing the identity of the whistleblower, reportedly a CIA officer.

Vindman, a combat veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart after he was wounded in Iraq in 2004, asked the Army for security for his family after his testimony sparked death threats.

Army Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, arrives at a closed session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees in October at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.