After more than 21 years of service with the US Army, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman has announced his retirement. The 45-year-old decorated war hero endured numerous attacks by Donald Trump leading up to, during and following his key witness account in Trump’s impeachment inquiry last November.
In February, Trump fired Vindman as the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council. Vindman’s twin brother, Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was escorted off White House grounds at the same time and apparently dismissed from his post at the National Security Council.
Allegations in recent weeks suggested the White House was attempting to block Vindman’s upcoming military promotion to the rank of colonel.
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton was promoting his new book “In the Room Where It Happened” when he told Jake Tapper, “Based on not just his service, but his twin brother’s service at the NSC, both of whom were pushed out of their assignments early, I think they certainly deserve promotion based on what I saw. They shouldn’t be discriminated against.”
He added, “I hope there’s nobody in the White House who’s holding this up or putting bureaucratic obstacles in the way. I think this is something, this kind of corruption of this promotion process, unfortunately, typical of a number of things that have happened in the administration, I think it’s a bad signal to all of our military.”
Legal representative for Vindman, Amb. David Pressman, said Trump’s vendetta against his client was a campaign filled with “bullying, intimidation and retaliation.”
“The President of the United States attempted to force LTC Vindman to choose: Between adhering to the law or pleasing a President. Between honoring his oath or protecting his career. Between protecting his promotion or the promotion of his fellow soldiers,” Pressman said in a statement to CNN. “These are choices that no one in the United States should confront, especially one who has dedicated his life to serving it,” he added, noting that Vindman “did what the law compelled him to do; and for that he was bullied by the President and his proxies.”
Vindman received the Purple Heart for his service in the Iraq War.