Vindman’s bad luck was to be party to Trump’s call with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, on July 25, 2019. Vindman had compiled the talking points for the conversation. As the White House transcript later disclosed, Trump asked for a “favor” and urged the newly elected Ukrainian leader to launch a public investigation of the former Vice-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter— basically, to smear his political rival. None of it was in Vindman’s original memo. He testified that he viewed the request as “inappropriate,” and that it had “nothing to do with national security.” “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen,” he said. An investigation by Ukraine would be interpreted as “a partisan play” that could cost the besieged country bipartisan American support and ultimately hurt U.S. national-security interests in containing Russia. He reported his concern to three officials—one in the intelligence community, another at the State Department, and the National Security Council’s lawyer.
Over the summer, Vindman was alarmed by White House moves to freeze almost four hundred million dollars in military aid to Ukraine, the front line of the West’s showdown with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin had seized Crimea, a strategic peninsula, from Ukraine in 2014, and was arming and supporting separatists trying to grab other parts of the former Soviet republic. Vindman wrote a memo—later approved by Bolton—recommending that the White House release the military aid. Trump balked. He wanted Ukraine to announce the Biden investigation first.
After [Trump's quid pro quo call to Ukrainian president Zelinsky], Vindman went on vacation, in August. When he got back, he was increasingly marginalized at the National Security Council. After news broke of the President’s Ukraine dealings, Vindman was subpoenaed to testify to Congress. In his testimony, on November 19th, he expressed confidence that the fundamentals of American democracy would prevail. “In Russia, my act of expressing my concerns to the chain of command in an official and private channel would have severe personal and professional repercussions, and offering public testimony involving the President would surely cost me my life,” he said. Vindman expressed gratitude for the “privilege” of being an American citizen and a public servant “where I can live free of fear for mine and my family’s safety.”
It was an illusion. [...] Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist promised that the Department would protect Vindman from retaliation. That proved untrue. Two days after the Senate voted, on February 5th, to acquit Trump, the President fired Vindman. Trump also fired Vindman’s twin brother, Yevgeny, who worked as an ethics lawyer at the White House and held the same military rank. They were abruptly and unceremoniously escorted from the White House grounds.
The Vindman twins returned to the Pentagon, where they awaited new assignments and the promotions to colonel which had been recommended by their superiors. “Everyone acknowledged that the reality for Alex would forever be different in the Army,” a person familiar with Vindman’s thinking told me. “They articulated that reality in different ways. If Trump won reëlection, his career would go nowhere.” One superior quipped that Vindman would be manning a radar station in Alaska.
Vindman expected to go to the National War College this fall—a low-profile assignment—then take another foreign posting. But, in a final act of revenge, the White House recently made clear that Trump opposed Vindman’s promotion. Senior Administration officials told Esper and Ryan McCarthy, the Secretary of the Army, to dig for misconduct that would justify blocking Vindman’s promotion. They couldn’t find anything, multiple sources told me. Others in the military chain of command began to warn Vindman that he would never be deployable overseas again—despite his language skills and regional expertise.
[...]
In the face of an increasingly dark future, Vindman tweeted on Wednesday that he was retiring, after more than two decades of service to the United States. [...] Vindman did “what the law compelled him to do; and for that he was bullied by the President and his proxies.” In short, his patriotism cost him his career.
New Yorker
UPDATE 7/17:
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