Defying White House orders, a US Army officer serving on the National Security Council testified to impeachment investigators that he twice raised concerns over the administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and former US vice president Joe Biden.
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who served in Iraq and later as a diplomat, was the first official to testify who actually heard US President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
He reported his concerns to the council’s lead counsel.
Photo: AP
Vindman on Tuesday also told US House of Representative investigators that he tried to change the White House’s rough transcript of the call by filling in at least one of the omitted words, “Burisma,” a reference to the company linked to Biden and his son, according to people familiar with his testimony.
However, Vindman was unsuccessful.
His concerns, though, were far bigger than the transcript.
Lawmakers said that his failed effort to edit it did not significantly change their understanding of what transpired during Trump’s call that sparked the impeachment inquiry.
Vindman’s arrival in military blue, with medals, created a striking image at the Capitol as the impeachment inquiry reached deeper into the White House. He testified for more than 10 hours.
“I was concerned by the call,” Vindman said, according to prepared remarks obtained by reporters. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a US citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the US government’s support of Ukraine.”
Vindman, a 20-year officer, added to the mounting evidence from other witnesses — diplomats, defense and former administration officials — who are corroborating the initial whistle-blower’s complaint against Trump and providing new details ahead of a House vote in the impeachment inquiry.
“Every single witness, from their own vantage point, has corroborated the central facts of the story we’ve heard,” said US Representative Tom Malinowski, a Democrat.
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.
Some Trump allies, looking for ways to discredit Vindman, questioned the colonel’s loyalties because he was born Ukraine and moved to the US at age three, but that line of attack was rejected by some Republicans, including US Representative Liz Cheney, who said it was “shameful” to criticize his patriotism.
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