The top Ukraine expert at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC), Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, intends to testify on Oct. 29 before congressional investigators about what he heard during the July 25 phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The now-infamous Trump-Zelensky phone call is central to the whistleblower scandal that led the U.S. House of Representatives to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump.
Vindman’s draft opening statement before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform was first published by New York Times on Oct. 29.
“I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend our country, irrespective of party or politics,” wrote Vindman in his prewritten testimony, elaborating that the privilege of serving the U.S. is rooted not only in his military service, but also in his family history. Vindman and his family fled the Soviet Union as Ukrainian-Jewish refugees when he was only three.
Previously, American media reported that Trump used the call to pressure Zelensky to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s major competitor in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and Biden’s son Hunter, who served as an advisor to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
“I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine,” Vindman wrote in his statement.
As the White House’s top expert on Ukraine, Vindman listened to the July 25 phone call between Zelensky and Trump and found the nature of the conversation concerning enough to merit filing a report to a superior.
Vindman will be the first official present during the phone call to testify in the ongoing impeachment investigation, although he writes in his statement that he was not the whistleblower who originally reported concerns about the conversation.
“I did convey certain concerns internally to national security officials in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to operate within the chain of command,” Vindman plans to say in his testimony.
Vindman will also give his appraisal of the actions of Gordon Sondland, the wealthy hotelier turned U.S. Ambassador to the European Union who twice urged a Ukrainian delegation in Washington to deliver “specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the president” on July 10.
“I stated to Ambassador Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security,” Vindman said.
President Trump has already reacted to the news on Vindman’s testimony.
“Why are people that I never even heard of testifying about the call. Just read the call transcript and the impeachment hoax is over! Ukraine said no pressure,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
In the conclusion to his written testimony, Vindman expressed his personal vision about how relations between Ukraine and the United States will unfold.
“The United States and Ukraine must remain strategic partners, working together to realize the shared vision of a stable, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine that is integrated into the Euro-Atlantic community,” Vindman wrote.
