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Saturday, November 16, 2024

Trump whistleblower ‘retires’ from army after smear campaign

An army veteran who aided the impeachment process, and testified against President Donald Trump has retired from the army after becoming a victim of a campaign of "bullying, intimidation and retaliation," his attorney said. Donald Trump is the third president to be impeached in the history of US, and it seems that his reelection campaign will also be resigned to the dustbin of history.

By AFP
By AFP
Vindman in Trump impeachment

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who provided damning impeachment evidence against President Donald Trump, retired from the US Army on Wednesday after being subjected to a campaign of “bullying, intimidation and retaliation,” his attorney said.

Vindman, 45, was fired from his position on the National Security Council at the White House in February, two days after Trump was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.

Army veteran bullied by Trump

He was up for promotion to full colonel, but his attorney, David Pressman, said in a statement that would clearly not be forthcoming.

Vindman is “retiring today after it has been made clear that his future within the institution he has dutifully served will forever be limited,” Pressman said.

“LTC Vindman’s patriotism has cost him his career,” he said.

“Through a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation, the president of the United States attempted to force LTC Vindman to choose: Between adhering to the law or pleasing a President. Between honoring his oath or protecting his career.

“These are choices that no one in the United States should confront, especially one who has dedicated his life to serving it,” Pressman said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, tweeted her support for Vindman.

“The President’s vindictiveness can’t erase the truth: history will remember Lt. Col. Vindman as an American patriot, who proved his heroism both on the battlefield when he earned a Purple Heart & in the House impeachment trial when he spoke truth to power,” she wrote.

Read more: Will Donald Trump Be Impeached Because He Ended US’ Favorite Sport: Waging Wars

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth — a combat veteran who is on the shortlist of candidates to be Joe Biden’s presidential running mate against Trump in the fall — said the resignation “puts the spotlight on Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s failure to protect a decorated combat Veteran against a vindictive Commander in Chief.”

She said she would continue to block Senate confirmation of 1,123 senior US Armed Forces promotions until Esper could give a “transparent accounting” of the situation.

House intelligence chief Adam Schiff released a letter he sent to Vindman thanking him for his service.

“You should not have been subjected to bullying and retaliation from this President. You should not have had to choose between your oath of office and your career. You followed your patriotic and legal duty to tell the truth,” the Democrat wrote.

Vindman testifying against Trump in impeachment process

Vindman was present during the July 25, 2019 phone call during which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into Biden.

Subpoenaed by Congress to testify at the House impeachment hearings, the Ukrainian-born Vindman, who received a Purple Heart for wounds suffered in Iraq, said Trump’s actions were “improper.”

Read more: Trump impeached in phase one of his trail

Testifying in his Army uniform as an active-duty soldier, Vindman invoked his father’s decision to leave the Soviet Union and come to the US, noting that the testimony he was giving would likely get him killed in Russia. “Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth,” Vindman said in a now well-known line.
But Vindman remained a focal point of Trump’s ire as impeachment proceedings moved to the Senate, facing a wave of unfounded attacks from the President and his allies during the trial portion.
During oral arguments in the Senate trial in late January, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, attacked Vindman in multiple tweets over several hours, going so far as to question the Purple Heart recipient’s patriotism.
She also repeated the unfounded claim that Vindman had leaked knowledge of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the whistleblower whose complaint initially prompted the investigation into the President’s conduct in Ukraine.

Vindman’s appraisal and subsequent removal

After he was fired from the NSC in February, an Army spokesperson told CNN that Vindman had been reassigned to the Department of the Army.
The President later defended Vindman’s firing from the National Security Council. Trump complained about news coverage of the firing in a tweet, saying reporting was done “as though I should think only how wonderful he was. Actually, I don’t know him, never spoke to him, or met him (I don’t believe!).”
That testimony helped build the case leading to Trump becoming only the third president ever impeached by Congress.
Vindman’s twin brother, a lawyer on the National Security Council, was not called to publicly testify but was also forced out of his White House position in February.
John Bolton, who served as Trump’s National Security Advisor when Vindman was at the White House, told MSNBC television that his performance had been “exceptional.”
“I think he merited promotion,” said Bolton, who recently published a tell-all book about his time in the Trump White House that is harshly critical of the president.
“And I’m sure that Congress is going to be very interested over the coming weeks as to exactly what factored into his decision,” he said.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk
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