Decorated Army Officer Who Heard President Trump’s Ukraine Call: ‘I Did Not Think It Was Proper’
President Donald Trump will face more scrutiny over his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a decorated Iraq war veteran will tell Democrats in charge of the impeachment inquiry investigation that he was concerned with what he heard on the phone call.
According to MSN, top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman is set to testify today in front of House Democrats that Trump’s call with the Ukrainian leader was troubling — so much, in fact, that he reported the situation twice to his superiors, indicating that what occurred could possibly undermine national security.
Vindman, in an earlier statement, painted a grim picture of what took place during the phone 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,” Vindman wrote, in reference to the allegation that Trump pressured Ukraine for information on what could be his top 2020 political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
“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,” he added.
Burisma is a reference to the energy company where Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a member of the board while his father was still in office.
Vindman said that he felt compelled to provide his opinion of the phone call to Congress out of a “sense of duty.” He will spend Tuesday in front of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform Committees, and is one of the first witnesses in Trump’s circle to go against a White House directive forbidding anyone in that circle to assist House Democrats with the investigation.
As I discussed with @maddow tonight, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman would be the first white house official who would actually be defying the white house’s orders not to cooperate. His testimony is very important. pic.twitter.com/joo0FItIiR
— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) October 29, 2019
The Iraq war veteran will reportedly reveal that while he wasn’t the original, anonymous whistleblower, he relayed concerns over the phone call early on.
“I did convey certain concerns internally to national security officials in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to operate within the chain of command,” Vindman is expected to say during Tuesday’s hearings.
Vindman’s expected testimony comes in the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Monday announcement in a letter that Democrats were moving closer to their conclusion whether or not Trump’s phone call was an abuse of power. She also revealed that the House will take an official vote on opening an impeachment inquiry, as reported by The Inquisitr.
