Commissioned in 1999 as an infantry officer,Vindman received a Purple Heart medal for wounds he received from an IED attack in the Iraq War in 2004.[6][7] Vindman became a foreign area officer specializing in Eurasia in 2008,and assumed the position of Director for European Affairs with the NSC in 2018. In July 2020,Vindman retired after 21 years in the military. He cited vengeful behavior and bullying by President Trump and administration officials after he complied with a subpoena to testify in front of Congress during Trump's impeachment hearings. At the time of his retirement,Vindman's promotion to the rank of colonel had been stalled abnormally by the administration.[8][9]
In February 2022,he unsuccessfully sued several Trump allies,alleging that they had intimidated and retaliated against him while he testified in Congress.[10][11][12]
In 2020,Vindman was appointed the inaugural Pritzker Military Fellow at the Lawfare Institute.[20] For two years,this fellowship supported Vindman's research,writing,and public discourse on subjects including national security,defense,civil-military relations,and public service.[21] Starting in 2023,Vindman took on roles as a Hauser Leader and Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership.[22][23]
Career
Vindman completed the Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC) at Fort Benning in 1999. The next year he was sent to South Korea,where he led both infantry and anti-armorplatoons.[7] In addition to overseas assignments to South Korea and Germany,Vindman is a combat veteran of the Iraq War,and he served in Iraq from September 2004 to September 2005.[6] In October 2004,[6] he sustained an injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq,for which he received a Purple Heart.[7] He was promoted to the rank of major in 2008,[24] and to lieutenant colonel in September 2015.[25]
On October 28,2019,Vindman's opening statement to a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee,House Foreign Affairs Committee,and House Oversight Committee was released,ahead of his testimony on the following day. Vindman testified that:"In Spring of 2019,I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false and alternative narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency",which was "harmful to U.S. national security" and also "undermined U.S. Government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine".[26]
Opening Statement of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander S. Vindman Before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform October 29,2019 (released October 28,2019)
Vindman stated additionally that he was concerned by two events,both of which he objected to with senior officials in real time,and which he reported to the National Security Council's lead attorney. The first event occurred at a July 10 meeting between Ukraine's then Secretary of National Security and Defense CouncilOleksandr Danylyuk,and then US National Security AdvisorJohn Bolton,at which Ambassadors Volker and Sondland,and Energy Secretary Rick Perry were in attendance,and at which Sondland asked Ukraine to launch investigations into the Bidens in order to get a meeting with President Trump. Vindman states that Bolton cut the meeting short,and that both Vindman and Hill told Ambassador Sondland that his comments were inappropriate and reported their concerns to the lead counsel of the NSC.[32]
The second event occurred on a July 25 telephone call between Presidents Trump and Zelenskyy. Vindman states, "I was concerned by the call. 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. 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 also stated that he reported his concern to the NSC's lead counsel, John Eisenberg.[26]
Vindman later testified in person before the US House of Representatives on November 19, 2019.[33] In his testimony, Vindman stated that he made a report to an intelligence official about what he heard during Trump's call with the Ukrainian president and felt what the president mentioned during the telephone conversation was "improper".[34][35] Because of his testimony, Vindman was denounced by Trump and repeatedly attacked by Republican lawmakers and television commentators. As a result, he reached out to the Army regarding his and his family's safety.[36]
In his opening statement, Vindman assured his father that he had made the right decision in emigrating from the Soviet Union to the United States. Vindman stated, "In Russia, my act of ... 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 [sic] and my family's safety. Dad, my sitting here today, in the U.S. 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. Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth."[37]
On February 7, 2020, Vindman told NSC colleagues he expected to leave the White House's National Security Council to return to the Department of Defense.[38] Trump had earlier implied he might remove Vindman from his post.[39] According to his attorney, later that day Vindman was escorted out of the White House. At the same time, his twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Vindman, also was escorted off the White House grounds. Both had been slated for reassignment within the Army.[40] Subsequent news reports indicated that Vindman had been chosen to attend the in-residence course at the United States Army War College during its 2020–2021 session.[41]
On February 10, 2020, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter in an apparent response to the removal of the two brothers that requested federal Inspectors General investigate possible retaliation against "anyone who has made, or in the future makes, protected disclosures of presidential misconduct".[42][43] On February 13, Trump's former chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, defended Vindman's actions and testimony. "He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave. He went and told his boss what he just heard", Kelly said.[44]
During a panel discussion held on February 11, 2020, at the Atlantic Council, the president's National Security Advisor, Robert C. O'Brien said that it was his decision to transfer both Vindman brothers back to the Army for re-assignment and he denied that the move was ordered by Trump in retaliation for Vindman's testimony. "I can absolutely tell you that they were not retaliated against", O'Brien told the panel. O'Brien also disputed the move as being characterized as "fired" since both brothers remained on active duty. O'Brien noted that their transfer was part of a larger NSA staff reduction.[45] He was contradicted Trump, who tweeted that he had ousted Vindman for insubordination and for doing "a lot of bad things".[46]
Retirement and post-military career
On July 2, 2020, Senator Tammy Duckworth announced her intention to block Senate confirmation of more than one thousand military promotions unless defense secretary Mark Esper provided written confirmation that the Trump administration would not block Vindman's promotion to colonel.[47] Less than a week later, Vindman announced through his attorney that he would be retiring from the U.S. military. Vindman's attorney, David Pressman, described "a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation" by the Trump administration as the reason for his client's retirement.[48][49][50] On August 1, 2020, Vindman authored an opinion piece in the Washington Post addressing his retirement.[51]
In 2021, Vindman published a memoir entitled Here, Right Matters that quickly became a New York Times bestseller.[52] In his memoir, Vindman elucidates his role as a primary witness in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. He accentuates that speaking out about the July 25 call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not merely a decision, but a duty rooted in his citizenship and service in the armed forces.[52] In February 2022, Vindman filed a lawsuit alleging that the defendants disseminated false allegations about him, including claims that he was a spy for Ukraine, leaked classified data to damage his reputation, falsely charged him with perjury, and orchestrated the dismissal of both him and his twin brother Eugene from their positions at the White House.[53] The defendants in the lawsuit were Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and former White House deputy communications director Julia Hahn.[10] On November 8, 2022, the lawsuit was dismissed by Federal Judge James E. Boasberg, noting that "political hackery alone" isn't a violation of the law.[53][11]
In November 2020, Vindman joined the staff of the national security blog, Lawfare, with a fellowship of the Pritzker Military Foundation.[54] Along with pursuing a Doctor of International Affairs degree at the Johns Hopkins UniversityPaul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, in 2021, Vindman assumed the position of an executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative.[55] After January 2022, Vindman served as a senior advisor for VoteVets and he directs the Vet Voice Foundation’s national security and defense think tank, the Institute for Informed American Leadership (IIAL).[56]
Following Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, Vindman repeatedly expressed support for effectively countering Russian malign influence and Russia's military aggression by fully supporting Ukraine. He also conducted lectures on the Russo-Ukrainian War at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute,[57] Ford School at the University of Michigan,[58] and the University of Alberta.[59]
In 2022, with Daniel Lubetzky, Alexander Vindman became the co-chair of the Global Democracy Ambassador Scholarship, which helps Ukrainian students who pursue their undergraduate degrees in the United States and abroad.[60] The objective of the scholarship is to help Ukrainians continue their studies and educate their global peers on the fragility and importance of democracy. The program granted $1 million to support an initial group of Ukrainian scholars.[61]
In March 2023, the Vindman brothers launched project Trident Support, the primary objective of which is to establish a weapon maintenance and training facility within Ukraine.[62] In Trident Support, the Vindman brothers hope to recruit 100–200 skilled Western contractors who will work alongside Ukrainian troops near the front lines, providing training on how to repair battle-damaged equipment donated by Western nations.[62] The goal of the project is to build Ukraine’s defense capacity and accelerate the repair of military equipment which, as of now, has to be taken from Ukraine to Poland or other NATO countries for major repairs.[62]
Vindman is married to Rachel Vindman, née Cartmill.[65] In 2020, Vindman and his wife Rachel appeared in an advertisement [66] created by The Lincoln Project and VoteVets supporting Joe Biden's presidential campaign.[67] The couple has one daughter, born in 2011.
His identical twin brother, Yevgeny S. "Eugene" Vindman, is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Judge Advocate General's Corps officer who was assigned as an attorney on the National Security Council staff handling ethics issues, until he was dismissed from that post on February 7, 2020, at the same time as Alexander was removed from his NSC post;[7][68][40] The Army promoted Yevgeny to colonel on March 16, 2021.[69] The Defense Department inspector general found in May 2022 that the Trump administration unlawfully retaliated against Yevgeny for his role in revealing the Trump-Ukraine scandal.[70] Their older brother, Leonid Vindman, also served as an Army officer.[68]
William Brockenbrough Taylor Jr. is an American diplomat, government official, and former military officer. He served as the 6th United States ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and as chargé d’affaires to Ukraine from June 2019 to January 2020 under President Donald Trump.
Marie Louise "Masha" Yovanovitch is a Canadian-American former diplomat and retired senior member of the United States Foreign Service. She served in multiple State Department posts, including Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (2004–2005), U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan (2005–2008), U.S. Ambassador to Armenia (2008–2011), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (2012–2013), and Ambassador to Ukraine (2016–2019). Yovanovitch is a diplomat in residence at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. On January 31, 2020, it was reported that she had retired from the State Department.
Ronald Harold Johnson is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, defeating Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold. He was reelected in 2016, defeating Feingold in a rematch, and in 2022, narrowly defeating Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.
Gordon David Sondland is an American businessman. He is the founder and chairman of Provenance Hotels. Sondland is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 2018 to 2020. In November 2019, he testified as a witness at the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. After refusing to resign, Sondland was fired by Trump on February 7, 2020, two days after the conclusion of Trump's impeachment trial.
The following is a timeline of the presidency of Donald Trump during the fourth and last quarter of 2019, from October 1 to December 31, 2019. To navigate quarters, see timeline of the Donald Trump presidency.
Charles Martin Kupperman is a former United States Deputy National Security Advisor for President Donald Trump, a position he held from January to September 2019. He also was the acting United States National Security Advisor for eight days in September 2019 between John Bolton and Robert C. O'Brien.
The Trump–Ukraine scandal was a political scandal that arose primarily from the discovery of U.S. President Donald Trump's attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and thus potentially damage Biden's campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Trump enlisted surrogates in and outside his administration, including personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, to pressure Ukraine and other governments to cooperate in supporting and legitimizing the bogus Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories concerning US politics. Trump blocked payment of a congressionally-mandated $400 million military aid package, in an attempt to obtain quid pro quo cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Contacts were established between the White House and government of Ukraine, culminating in a call between Trump and Zelenskyy on July 25, 2019.
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John A. Eisenberg is an American lawyer who served as a deputy counsel to the President of the United States and legal advisor to the U.S. National Security Council during the first presidency of Donald Trump. He was selected by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Earlier in his career, from 2006 to 2009, he served in the Department of Justice.
Laura Katherine Cooper is an American civil servant. Ms. Cooper is the 2023 Federal Employee of the Year, awarded by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service to celebrate excellence in the U.S. federal civil service. She is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs in the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and a career member of the Senior Executive Service (SES). In 2023, she was honored with the Presidential Rank Distinguished Executive Award, the highest annual award for career SES members. She previously served as principal director in the office of the Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs.
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Andrew P. Bakaj is a Washington, D.C. attorney and former intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was the principal attorney representing the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint that led to the launch of multiple investigations by the United States Congress into the Trump–Ukraine scandal, the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, and, ultimately, the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
Kashyap Pramod Vinod "Kash" Patel is an American attorney and former government official. He served as a U.S. National Security Council official, senior advisor to the acting Director of National Intelligence, and chief of staff to the acting United States secretary of defense during the Trump presidency. A member of the Republican Party, Patel previously worked as a senior aide to congressman Devin Nunes when he chaired the House Intelligence Committee. He was previously a federal public defender, a federal prosecutor working on national security cases, and a legal liaison to the United States Armed Forces.
Jennifer Leigh Williams is an American United States Department of State official who has served as a special advisor to U.S. vice president Mike Pence on European and Russian affairs. Williams testified under subpoena, in the impeachment hearings of Donald Trump, in closed-door hearings before the House intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees on November 9, 2019. She gave public testimony to the House of Representatives ten days later.
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The first impeachment of President Donald Trump occurred on December 18, 2019. On that date, the House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5, 2020, the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
The first impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, began in the U.S. Senate on January 16, 2020, and concluded with his acquittal on February 5. After an inquiry between September and November 2019, President Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 18, 2019; the articles of impeachment charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. It was the third impeachment trial of a U.S. president, preceded by those of Andrew Johnson and of Bill Clinton.
Eugene Semyon Vindman is an American politician, attorney, and retired U.S. Army officer. He was a deputy legal advisor for the United States National Security Council (NSC) until he was reassigned on February 7, 2020.
The Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory is a series of false allegations that Joe Biden, while he was vice president of the United States, improperly withheld a loan guarantee and took a bribe to pressure Ukraine into firing prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to prevent a corruption investigation of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the Burisma board. As part of efforts by Donald Trump and his campaign in the Trump–Ukraine scandal, which led to Trump's first impeachment, these falsehoods were spread in an attempt to damage Joe Biden's reputation and chances during the 2020 presidential campaign, and later in an effort to impeach him.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2019 related to the investigations into the myriad links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, and the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and the first half of 2019, but precedes that of 2020 and 2021.
↑ Ramirez, Jeanine (November 19, 2019). "Before His Impeachment Testimony, a Lieutenant Colonel Was Raised in Brooklyn". NY1. Archived from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2019. Vindman graduated from FDR High School in Bensonhurst in 1993, then went on to SUNY Binghamton and the Army, earning a Purple Heart after a roadside bombing in Iraq.
↑ American Military News, "Gen. John Kelly: Vindman 'did exactly what we teach;' was right to testify in Trump impeachment" Feb 13, 2020 Archived February 14, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
↑ Restuccia, Andrew (February 12, 2020). "Official Defends Vindman Removal". The Wall Street Journal. No.Page A6. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
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