Comment by Jim Campbell
February 8th. 2019
Impeachment Witnesses Vindman, Sondland Removed From Posts
Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified about President Trump pressing Ukraine to probe Joe Biden
The Wall Street Journal
By Andrew Restuccia, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Gordon Lubold
Feb. 8th. 2020
WASHINGTON—Two central witnesses in the probe of President Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine were removed from their posts Friday, two days after Mr. Trump was acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial.
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland takes his seat to testify before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 20, 2019.
Jonathan ErnstLate Friday, Gordon Sondland said Mr. Trump ordered him removed from his post as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, effective immediately.
Mr. Sondland gave some of the most high-profile testimony in the impeachment inquiry.
He told House lawmakers that he had urged Ukraine to announce investigations that would benefit the president politically in this year’s election and that his actions were “at the express direction” of Mr. Trump.
Earlier, Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who voiced concerns about Mr. Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s leader, was removed from his White House post and escorted off the grounds.
Democrats said Mr. Sondland’s account backed up the central issue in the impeachment inquiry.
Republicans questioned his memory and truthfulness and said he was overstating the evidence for his conclusion.
“I am grateful to President Trump for having given me the opportunity to serve,” Mr. Sondland said in a statement announcing his dismissal.
“Our work here has been the highlight of my career.”
The White House declined to comment on the recall of Mr. Sondland.
Mr. Sondland was one of the few House witnesses who had direct interactions with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Sondland initially testified privately to investigators that Mr. Trump had told him that “I want nothing” from Ukraine and that there was no quid pro quo tying security aid to Ukraine with Kyiv launching the investigations.
In his public testimony, however, Mr. Sondland made a key revision, telling investigators that despite Mr. Trump’s words, he had understood the aid to be contingent on investigations and had relayed that information to a Ukrainian official.
The other dismissed official, Col. Vindman, the NSC’s Ukraine expert, had angered Mr. Trump over his testimony in the House impeachment probe.
Col. Vindman is expected to return to the Army, a U.S. official said, though his exact role is unclear.
Asked about reports of Col. Vindman’s possible dismissal, Mr. Trump told reporters Friday: “Well, I’m not happy with him.
You think I’m supposed to be happy with him? I’m not.”
He later retweeted tweets critical of Col. Vindman and last year called him a “Never Trumper” on Twitter.
People with insight into the White House’s thinking argued the moves were overdue and important for morale at the NSC, saying they were necessary even if they drew criticism.
One person said both Col. Vindman and Mr. Sondland had defied the president, characterizing Mr. Sondland as disloyal.
Col. Vindman’s lawyer, David Pressman, said his client “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.”
Mr. Pressman added: “And for that, the most powerful man in the world—buoyed by the silent, the pliable and the complicit—has decided to exact revenge.”
Also escorted from the White House was Col. Vindman’s twin brother, Yevgeny Vindman, a senior lawyer and ethics official on the NSC who is also an Army lieutenant colonel. Col. Yevgeny Vindman didn’t testify to House investigators. Yevgeny Vindman’s future role in the military wasn’t clear.
Mr. Pressman said Yevgeny Vindman was “deeply disappointed that he will not be able to continue his service at the White House.”
NSC spokesman John Ullyot said, “We do not comment on personnel matters.”
Trump on Impeachment: ‘We Went Through Hell.
Several other officials who testified to impeachment investigators have already left the administration.
Bill Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, left his post in December.
Marie Yovanovitch, whom Mr. Trump ordered recalled as ambassador to Ukraine last spring but who had remained a State Department employee, left the agency earlier this year.
Tim Morrison, a National Security Council official who testified about the conversation between Mr. Sondland and the Ukrainian official about aid, left his post shortly after testifying.
Mr. Trump’s allies said the president is feeling emboldened after being acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial, and he has lashed out at his adversaries in recent days.
Earlier this week, he called the Democrats who sought to impeach him “very evil and sick people.”
He accused Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the lone Republican who voted to convict him on one of the charges in the Senate trial, of using his religion as a “crutch” to justify his vote.
Earlier on Friday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon that Col. Vindman would be welcomed back from the White House like any other military official returning from an assignment.
Mr. Esper said Col. Vindman would be protected when a reporter asked if the Army would shield him from any possible retribution for his testimony against Mr. Trump.
The ranks of the White House National Security Council are made up of specialists from agencies such as the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon, and they rotate in and out for set periods.
The lengths of the appointments vary, but Defense Department personnel are often detailed for a period of one to three years.
Col. Vindman was detailed to the NSC in July 2018 as director for European affairs.
His two-year detail was slated to end in July, said a person familiar with the matter.
Col. Vindman, who listened in on Mr. Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told impeachment investigators last year that Mr. Trump’s request for an investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was “inappropriate and improper.”
He also said “there was no doubt” that Mr. Trump was asking on the call for an investigation from Kyiv as a condition for Mr. Zelensky to get a proposed White House meeting.
Col. Vindman testified that he had raised concerns about the call with an NSC lawyer. But he denied that he was the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment probe and said he didn’t know the identity of the whistleblower.
Mr. Trump has defended himself against the charges, calling the impeachment probe a Democratic “witch hunt,” and repeatedly describing his July call with Ukraine as “perfect.”
In November testimony before the House, Col. Vindman said he had reassured his father not to worry about the repercussions of his appearance before the committees investigating the president.
Asked by a lawmaker why he wasn’t worried, Col. Vindman said, “Congressman, because this is America. This is the country I’ve served and defended.
That all my brothers have served.
And here, right matters.”
Applause broke out in the hearing room.
THE END
JCscuba
Jim Campbell's 
The President is versed in things like classic economics and building codes. Machiavelli’s warnings to princes were never a part of his curriculum.
Obviously he should have (like those before him have done) replaced ALL the staff advisory personnel with competent and loyal individuals. But he always thinks like a businessman, not like a Chief of State of the most powerful nation in the globe.
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Absolutely correct Jim, he shit canned that Lt.col today, just watch who’s heads will roll after the election. Thanks Jim
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