February 15, 2020

DONALD WHO?:

U.S. military isn't investigating Vindman, top Army official says (Paul Sonne, Feb. 14, 2020, Washington Post)

On Tuesday, when asked about Alexander Vindman's dismissal from the White House, Trump said that "the military can handle him." Asked what that meant, Trump replied, "If you look at what happened, they're going to certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that."

McCarthy, however, said Friday that there was no such move to look into Vindman, who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine as a child and went on to become a decorated combat veteran in his two decades in the U.S. military.

David Pressman, a lawyer for Vindman, rejected the notion that Vindman did anything wrong, noting in a statement last week that his client spoke publicly only once, pursuant to a subpoena from the U.S. Congress, and served in his post honorably.

"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," Pressman said. "LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth. His honor, his commitment to right, frightened the powerful."

"The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy. He did what any member of our military is charged with doing every day: he followed orders, he obeyed his oath, and he served his country, even when doing so was fraught with danger and personal peril," Pressman added.

Trump's former chief of staff, retired Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, earned the president's ire by defending Vindman in public remarks this week.

When Trump asked Ukraine's president to investigate Biden and his son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, it amounted to hearing an illegal order for Vindman, Kelly said.

Posted by at February 15, 2020 8:23 AM

  

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