WHILE THE GENERALS COLLABORATED:

"He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave," Kelly said at an event at Drew University in New Jersey, according to The Atlantic. "He went and told his boss what he just heard."

The remarks from Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, come after Vindman was removed Friday from his role as the top Ukraine specialist on the NSC and escorted from the White House grounds. Vindman's twin brother Yevgeny, who served as a senior lawyer on the NSC, was also forced from his post.

Their removals were widely viewed among Democratic lawmakers and administration critics as an act of political retribution after Vindman informed White House lawyer John Eisenberg of Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and proceeded to cooperate with the House impeachment investigation.

Kelly, who served as White House chief of staff from 2017 until early last year, said Vindman's decision to escalate his concerns about the call were in line with military training.

"We teach them, Don't follow an illegal order. And if you're ever given one, you'll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss," Kelly said Wednesday of Vindman's flagging of the call, during which Trump pressured Zelensky to open foreign probes into his domestic political rivals.

Kelly also appeared to affirm that he believed Trump did indeed condition hundreds of millions of dollars in vital military aid to Ukraine on Zelensky's agreement to assist in the investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

"Through the Obama administration up until that phone call, the policy of the U.S. was militarily to support Ukraine in their defensive fight against .... the Russians," Kelly said. "And so, when the president said that continued support would be based on X, that essentially changed. And that's what that guy [Vindman] was most interested in."

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