Army officer testifies he raised concerns about Ukraine, Trump
WASHINGTON
(AP) — 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 the
administration’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 his 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.
“That’s
the story: There’s not like a new headline out of all of these,” said
Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J. “Every single witness, from their own
advantage point, has corroborated the central facts of the story we’ve
heard.”
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 Tuesday to denounce the probe as a “sham,” adding: “Why
are people that I never even heard of testifying about the call. Just
READ THE CALL TRANSCRIPT AND THE IMPEACHMENT HOAX IS OVER!”
Vindman,
who arrived in the United States as a 3-year-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 his patriotism.
Sen. Mitt
Romney, R-Utah called the slams on Vindman “absurd, disgusting and way
off the mark. This is a decorated American soldier and he should be
given the respect that his service to our country demands.”
The
testimony came the day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House
would vote on a resolution to set rules for public hearings and a
possible vote on articles of impeachment.
Thursday’s vote would be
the first on the impeachment inquiry and aims to nullify complaints
from Trump and his allies that the process is illegitimate and unfair.
White
House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said the resolution merely
“confirms that House Democrats’ impeachment has been an illegitimate
sham from the start as it lacked any proper authorization by a House
vote,”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he and other
GOP lawmakers will review the resolution to see if it passes a “smell
test” of fairness to Trump.
The session Tuesday grew contentious
at times as House Republicans continued trying to unmask the
still-anonymous whistleblower and call him or her to testify. Vindman
said he is not the whistleblower and does not know who it is.
GOP
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio acknowledged Republicans were trying to get
Vindman to provide the names of others he spoke to after the July 25
phone call, in an effort to decide whom to call to testify. “He
wouldn’t,” Jordan said.
In his 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 July 10 meeting in which U.S.
Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland stressed the importance
of having Ukraine investigate the 2016 election as well as Burisma, a
company linked to the family of Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential
candidate.
Vindman says 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 wealthy businessman who donated $1 million to Trump inauguration and testified before the impeachment investigators
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.
Vindman attended Zelenskiy’s inauguration
with a delegation led by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and he and Hill
were both part of a Ukraine briefing with Sondland that others have
testified irritated Bolton at the White House.
“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.
“For over twenty years as an
active duty United States military officer and diplomat, I have served
this country in a nonpartisan manner, and have done so with the utmost
respect and professionalism for both Republican and Democratic
administrations,” he wrote.
___
Associated Press writers
Zeke Miller, Padmananda Rama, Matthew Daly, Laurie Kellman, Eric Tucker
and Alan Fram contributed to this report.