A top-ranking Army official who was removed from his position at the National Security Council after raising whistleblower concerns about officials in Donald Trump’s administration—and the former president himself—was the subject of wrongful retaliation, a Defense Department report has concluded.
The Inspector General for the Department of Defense on Wednesday released the results of its investigation into the whistleblower reprisal complaint that Col. Yevgeny Vindman filed almost two years ago.
Vindman, whose identical twin brother is Alexander Vindman, filed his complaint in August of 2020, months after being fired from the NSC.
Vindman has since been promoted to colonel via a March 2021 move by Joe Biden’s administration.
Vindman had raised several red flags to his superiors between July 2019 and January 2020. He first alleged that Trump had violated U.S. laws by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 2019 phone call to investigate Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate and Trump’s political rival. Alexander Vindman—as he memorably testified during Trump’s first impeachment trial—had heard the phone call, and the Vindman brothers had told John Eisenberg, then a top Trump adviser, as well as Deputy White House Counsel and NSC Legal Counsel, that they were concerned about the possible illegality of the call.
Michael Ellis, Yevgeny Vindman’s direct supervisor, who was also the Deputy Legal Advisor and Senior Associate White House Counsel,...
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