Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert, has been removed from his position as his lawyer says President Trump "decided to exact revenge."
Reports emerged Thursday that the White House was considering dismissing several members of the National Security Council seen as disloyal to Trump including Vindman, who testified in the impeachment inquiry. On Friday, Vindman's lawyer said in a statement he had been escorted out of the White House.
"There is no question in the mind of any American why this man's job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House," Vindman's lawyer, Ambassador David Pressman, said. "LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth."
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Vindman drew Trump's ire after testifying in the impeachment inquiry, during which he described the president's July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "improper" and said he a "duty" to report it to a White House lawyer. Asked on Friday about Vindman, Trump said, "Well, I'm not happy with him. You think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not." The White House hasn't commented on Vindman's dismissal.
In his statement, Pressman said that Vindman "came into the public eye only when subpoenaed to testify before Congress, and he did what the law demanded." Pressman added that now, as Trump has "decided to exact revenge," Vindman has lost "his job, his career, and his privacy."
"Truth is not partisan," the statement concludes. "If we allow truthful voices to be silenced, if we ignore their warnings, eventually there will be no one left to warn us."
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