A retired Army lieutenant colonel who was a pivotal witness in the first impeachment case against Donald Trump has sued the oldest son of the former president and other Trump allies, accusing them of participating in an “intentional, concerted campaign of unlawful intimidation and harassment” over his decision to testify.
The lawsuit from Alexander Vindman, who testified in 2019 impeachment proceedings about a phone call in which Trump pressed his Ukraine counterpart to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, was filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington. Trump was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate in February 2020.
The suit names as defendants Donald Trump Jr.; Rudy Giuliani, a longtime Trump adviser who has served as Trump’s lawyer; and former White House communications officials Dan Scavino and Julia Hahn.
It alleges that after Vindman was summoned by House lawmakers to testify, the defendants and others coordinated and advanced “false narratives” about him, including that he was a spy for Ukraine and had spoken pejoratively about the U.S. to foreign officials; leaked classified information about him; falsely accused him of lying under oath and worked to derail his expected promotion to colonel.
“The actions taken by Defendants against Lt. Col. Vindman sent a message to other potential witnesses as well: cooperate at your own peril,” the suit states, adding that “the message reverberates to this day” as witnesses in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol defy subpoenas at the Republican former president’s direction.
Vindman, an Iraq war veteran whose family fled the Soviet Union when he was a child, was a key impeachment witness, testifying that he twice raised concerns over the Trump administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and Biden. After listening to the July 2019 call between Trump and Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he said he reported his concerns to a lawyer at the National Security Council.
Vindman says he swiftly became a “household name” thanks to a intimidation campaign laden with falsehoods.
“The attacks on Lt. Col. Vindman did not simply happen by accident or coincidence, nor were they the result of normal politics or modern newscycles,” the lawsuit states.
“Rather,” it adds, “the coordinated campaign was the result of a common understanding and agreement among and between President Trump, Defendants, and others comprising a close group of aides and associates inside and outside of the White House, to target Lt. Col. Vindman in a specific way for the specific purpose of intimidation and retaliation.”
Lawyers for Trump Jr., Scavino and Giuliani did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Hahn also did not return an email seeking comment.
Vindman announced in July 2020 that he was retiring from the Army after more than 21 years and raised similar allegations of harassment, bullying and intimidation as in Wednesday’s lawsuit. He has since come out with a book about his experiences, titled, “Here, Right Matters: An American Story.”
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
Vindman is a traitor and a disgrace. He deserved much worse than was done to him.
Someone named Alexander Vindman has an interview on MSNBC calling for a pre-emptive , pro-active offensive, preparations (implying response) to Putin, with quotes “We are on the cusp of war” and “more likely than not there will be a major war” and “the Russians are in the final stages of preparing their forces”.
If George Washington were president, Vindman would have hanged long ago
To Milhouse: You left out the worst thing about Vindman – he weasled out of combat by claiming, falsely, that he had bone spurs on his feet.
Huju, as you well know, Trump got a medical exemption from the draft because of his heel spurs. He had a medical diagnosis, and there is no reason to believe that it was false. The doctor’s daughters’ claim, made decades later for blatant political purposes, is not credible. Even at the time, how could they possibly know?