Payback: Trump ousts officials who testified on impeachment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate.

First came news Friday that Trump had ousted Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the decorated soldier and national security aide who played a central role in the Democrats’ impeachment case. Vindman’s lawyer said his client was escorted out of the White House complex Friday, told to leave in retaliation for “telling the truth.”

“The truth has cost Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy,” attorney David Pressman said in a statement. Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, also was asked to leave his job as a White House lawyer on Friday, the Army said in a statement. Both men were reassigned to the Army.

Next came word that Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, also was out.

“I was advised today that the President intends to recall me effective immediately as United States Ambassador to the European Union,” Sondland said in a statement.

The White House had not been coy about whether Trump would retaliate against those he viewed as foes in the impeachment drama. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Thursday that Trump was glad it was over and “maybe people should pay for that.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that Vindman’s ouster was “a clear and brazen act of retaliation that showcases the President’s fear of the truth. The President’s vindictiveness is precisely what led Republican Senators to be accomplices to his cover-up.”

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., called it “the Friday Night Massacre,” likening the situation to President Richard Nixon’s so-called Saturday night massacre, when top Justice Department officials resigned after refusing to do his bidding by firing a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. (The prosecutor himself was fired anyway.)

Speier added in her tweet, “I’m sure Trump is fuming that he can’t fire Pelosi.”

Senate Republicans, who just two days prior acquitted Trump of charges he abused his office, were silent Friday evening. Many of them had reacted with indignation during the Senate trial when Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor, suggested Trump would be out for revenge against the lawmakers who crossed him during impeachment.

Since his acquittal, Trump has held nothing back in lashing out at his critics, including Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican to vote against him. On Friday, he also took after Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia whom Trump had hoped would vote with the Republicans for his acquittal but who ended up voting to convict.

Trump tweeted that he was “very surprised & disappointed” with Manchin’s votes, claiming no president had done more for his state. He added that Manchin was “just a puppet” for the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.

It was Alexander Vindman who first told the House that in America “right matters” — a phrase repeated in the impeachment trial by lead prosecutor Schiff.

Sondland, too, was a crucial witness in the House impeachment inquiry, telling investigators that “Everyone was in the loop” on Trump’s desire to press Ukraine for politically charged investigations. He told lawmakers how he came to understand that there was a “quid pro quo” connecting a desired White House visit for Ukraine’s leader and an announcement that the country would conduct the investigations the president wanted.

Sondland “chose to be terminated rather than resign,” according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Alexander Vindman’s lawyer issued a one-page statement that accused Trump of taking revenge on his client.

“He 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,” Pressman said. “And for that, the most powerful man in the world — buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit — has decided to exact revenge.”

The White House did not respond to Pressman’s accusation. “We do not comment on personnel matters,” said John Ullyot, spokesman for the National Security Council, the foreign policy arm of the White House where Vindman was an expert on Ukraine.

The Democrats angling to replace Trump took notice of Vindman’s ouster during their evening debate in Manchester, New Hampshire. Former Vice President Joe Biden asked the audience to stand and applaud the lieutenant colonel.

Vindman’s status had been uncertain since he testified that he didn’t think it was “proper” for Trump to “demand that a foreign government investigate” former Vice President Joe Biden and his son’s dealings with the energy company Burisma in Ukraine. Vindman’s ouster, however, seemed imminent after Trump mocked him Thursday during his post-acquittal celebration with Republican supporters in the East Room and said Friday that he was not happy with him.

“You think I’m supposed to be happy with him?” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. “I’m not. ... They are going to be making that decision.”

Vindman, a 20-year Army veteran, wore his uniform full of medals, including a purple heart, when he appeared late last year for what turned out to be a testy televised impeachment hearing. Trump supporters raised questions about the immigrant’s allegiance to the United States — his parents fled the Soviet Union when he was a child —and noted that he had received offers to work for the government of Ukraine, offers Vindman said he swiftly dismissed.

In gripping testimony, Vindman told the House of his family’s story, his father bringing them to the U.S. some 40 years ago.

“Dad, my sitting here today in the U.S. Capitol, talking to our elected officials, is proof that you made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the Soviet Union and come here to United States of America in search of a better life for our family,” he testified. “Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.”’

Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, recalled Vindman’s testimony that he would be fine and tweeted, “It’s appalling that this administration may prove him wrong.”

Some of Trump’s backers cheered Vindman’s removal.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., tweeted that Vindman “should not be inside the National Security Council any longer. It’s not about retaliation. It’s because he cannot be trusted, he disagrees with the President’s policies, & his term there is coming to an end regardless.”

News that both Vindman twins had been ousted led Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., to tweet, “The White House is running a two for one special today on deep state leakers.”

Defense Secretary Mark Esper was asked what the Pentagon would do to ensure that Vindman faces no retribution. “We protect all of our service members from retribution or anything like that,” Esper said. “We’ve already addressed that in policy and other means.”

Alexander Vindman is scheduled to enter a military college in Washington, D.C., this summer, and his brother is to be assigned to the Army General Counsel’s Office, according to two officials who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

___

AP writers Lisa Mascaro, Matthew Lee, Zeke Miller, Eric Tucker and Bob Burns contributed to this report.

AOC, Omar, Jayapal say DNC boss Tom Perez should be ‘held accountable’ for Iowa failure

When snakes eat their own!

The drumbeat for Democratic National Committee boss Tom Perez to be “held accountable” for recent party failures appears to be getting louder.
The latest Democrats to criticize Perez include U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., all backers of 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Recent party setbacks have included the vote-count fiasco at Monday’s Iowa caucuses and Tuesday night’s disclosure that two officials on the host committee of the party’s upcoming national convention in Milwaukee had been fired over non-specified allegations that they oversaw a work environment where staff members were not being “respected.”
IOWA MESS HAS PEREZ FACING DEM PARTY STORM, RESIGNATION CALLS
Previously, Democrats such as former Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Washington state Democratic chairwoman Tina Podlodowski and party strategist Neil Sroka spoke out against Perez’s leadership.
“He doesn’t lead on anything,” Fudge told Politico.
On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Jayapal shared their views on the party chairman.
“What’s happened in Iowa is a complete disgrace and someone needs to be held responsible,” Ocasio-Cortez said outside the U.S. Capitol, according to the outlet. “I think there’s a conversation needed around taking responsibility for Iowa and ensuring that this bungled process never happens again.”

“What’s happened in Iowa is a complete disgrace and someone needs to be held responsible.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Queen Snake

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is seen in New York City, April 5, 2019. (Getty Images)

Omar mentioned Perez by name in her remarks.
“I would say Tom Perez should be held accountable for this failure,” Omar told The Hill. “I believe it all starts from the top. These are things that Tom should do and should have done. If this was happening in my home state, we would be having a very serious conversation about what accountability would look like for our own chair."

“I believe it all starts from the top. These are things that Tom should do and should have done."
— Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Princess Snake

​​​​​​​Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 6, 2019. (Associated Press)

Omar noted that the DNC had years to prepare for the Iowa caucuses and said it was “devastating” that more precautions weren’t in place to prevent this week’s vote-count situation.
Jayapal called the Iowa caucuses a “national embarrassment,” and said others deserved blame in addition to Perez.
“I’m sure there is shared blame to go around,” Jayapal told The Hill. “But Tom Perez is the head of the DNC, and I do think that there clearly was not the process in place to make sure all these [protocols] were going to be followed.”

"Tom Perez is the head of the DNC, and I do think that there clearly was not the process in place to make sure all these [protocols] were going to be followed."
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.

Mommy Snake

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 30, 2019. (Associated Press)​​

The criticism of Perez followed a Twitter message the DNC leader posted Thursday, in which he blamed Iowa’s state-level Democratic Party for the caucus problems.
“Enough is enough,” Perez wrote. “In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.”
Podlodowski accused Perez of throwing Iowa officials “under the bus” after a long silence from the national DNC amid the vote-counting problems.
Neither news organizations nor the Iowa Democratic Party have been able to call a winner in Monday's Iowa caucuses while Pete Buttigieg and Sanders are both claiming victory in the state.
As of late Friday, Buttigieg held a narrow lead in state delegate equivalents (SDEs), which help decide how many delegates a candidate gets to bring to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee later this year
Sanders, on the other hand, led in the popular vote from both the "first alignment" and the "second alignment" phases of the caucuses.
Those numbers could change, however, as the IDP has noted many irregularities in its vote count and it is highly likely candidates will call for reexaminations of the numbers, as Perez already has.
Meanwhile, DNC convention host committee members Liz Gilbert and Adam Alonso were fired Tuesday evening after initially being placed on leave following allegations made in a Jan. 30 letter signed by committee staffers, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
“Every employee has a right to feel respected in their workplace,” the host committee said in a statement, the outlet reported. “Based on the information we have learned to date, we believe the work environment did not meet the ideals and expectations of the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee Board of Directors. Accordingly, Liz Gilbert and Adam Alonso are no longer employed by the organization, effective immediately.”
The staffers alleged that Alonso “consistently bullied and intimidated staff members,” in particular the women, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, and accused Gilbert of allowing “a culture that coddles male senior advisers and consultants.”
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Tyler Olson contributed to this story.

Wisconsin teacher allegedly calls Rush Limbaugh's cancer diagnosis 'awesome,' gets placed on leave

A Wisconsin public school teacher was reportedly placed on leave this week after he allegedly called Rush Limbaugh's advanced cancer diagnosis "awesome" and said he hopes the radio host's death is painful.
"limbaugh absolutely should have to suffer from cancer. it's awesome that he's dying, and hopefully it is as quick as it is painful,” Travis Sarandos, who teaches in Milwaukee, allegedly tweeted Monday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
RUSH LIMBAUGH ECHOES LOU GEHRIG IN RETURN TO RADIO, SAYS HE'S ‘ONE OF THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE ALIVE’
Sarandos was replying to another tweet whose author said they hoped Limbaugh recovered quickly and would advocate for affordable health care for everyone, the newspaper reported.
The teacher's tweet sparked a backlash after local radio host Mark Belling posted it on his blog Tuesday.
Milwaukee Public Schools first said Sarandos did not speak for the district but later confirmed he had been placed on leave.
Limbaugh announced on his radio show Monday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
On Tuesday night, President Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, during the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol.
Limbaugh returned to his show Friday after missing three shows for treatments. He said those supporting him since disclosing his diagnosis have made him feel like "one of the luckiest people alive."
Sarandos has since deleted his Twitter account, the Journal Sentinel reported.

 And people wonder what the hell's wrong with the kids now a days?

 Travis Sarandos a piece of trash.

First American dies of coronavirus in China: US Embassy

A 60-year-old diagnosed with coronavirus in Wuhan, China, has reportedly become the first U.S. citizen to die of the novel virus.
The patient died at Jinyintian Hospital in Wuhan on Thursday, The New York Times reported.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing confirmed the patient’s death Friday night but gave few other details.
CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA GROW TO 722, MORE THAN 34,500 CASES REPORTED
“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” a spokesman for the embassy said, according to the Times. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.”
On Friday, the Chinese government reported 86 fatalities on the mainland in the viruses' deadliest day so far, the Washington Post reported.
The fast-spreading virus has killed more than 700 and infected more than 34,500 in China as of Friday.
A Japanese citizen "highly suspected" of having coronavirus has also died, Japan's foreign ministry reported, according to NBC News.
Chinese officials are still trying to stem the flow of infections in the mainland as the virus continues to spread globally. The country's ruling Communist Party is also dealing with public anger over the death of a doctor who was detained and threatened by authorities for spreading early warnings of the illness in December.
As of Friday, 72 countries have implemented travel restrictions, according to the World Health Organization.
So far 12 patients have been diagnosed with the virus in the U.S., but some have already been released from the hospital.
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President Trump on Friday tweeted that he had a “good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but he will be successful.”
Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

Alexander Vindman Cartoons

Trump acquittal confronts Dems with election-year choices

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a news conference the morning after the impeachment of President Donald Trump ended in acquittal, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s impeachment ended with a reminder of why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi resisted the idea for so long — an acquittal everyone saw coming, followed by a bombastic presidential victory lap and a bump in his poll numbers just as the 2020 campaign officially began.

Now Democrats have to decide how to navigate the legislative and political landscape that they’ve helped reshape.

Pelosi’s nationally televised ripping of her copy of Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night underscored the acrid atmosphere that will make partisan cooperation on any issue difficult. Major legislative compromises were always going to be hard this election year, but the impeachment fight only deepened partisan bitterness and made progress less likely.

“Because we have to,” No. 2 House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said when asked how Congress and Trump could cooperate on health care and other issues. He added, “I’d be foolish to be optimistic because we have not done that so far.”

Democrats must also decide how vigorously to continue investigations, including into impeachment’s focus: Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine’s leaders to bolster his reelection by seeking dirt on rival Joe Biden. The GOP-controlled Senate acquitted Trump on Wednesday of both articles of impeachment, with Utah Sen. Mitt Romney the sole lawmaker defying party lines.

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton could still have damaging information about Trump and has expressed a willingness to testify if subpoenaed. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday that House panels would likely summon Bolton and pursue other Trump probes as well.

“When you have a lawless president, you have to bring that to the fore, you have to spotlight that,” Nadler said.

Even as they consider the path ahead, neither Pelosi nor Democrats controlling the House are second-guessing their decision to impeach Trump.

Pelosi stood as a bulwark against impeachment for months as pro-impeachment sentiment rose steadily in her caucus, but when Trump’s dealings with Ukraine came to light in September, the floodgates were forced open.

“Once Ukraine happened, we had no choice but to proceed,” said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.

“And had we not (acted),” Welch added, “there would have been a huge price to pay politically.”

While that’s a popular view with Democrats’ dominant liberal wing, many think an overemphasis on Trump investigations risks feeding the Republican narrative that overreaching Democrats are obsessed with pursuing him. They also worry about detracting from Democrats’ focus on pocketbook issues that helped them capture House control in the 2018 elections.

“I’m hoping that’s a side show, and the big show is let’s work for the American people” on issues like health care and infrastructure,” said Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, which represents around 25 moderate House Democrats.

Assessing impeachment’s political impact ahead of November’s elections is at least as fraught.

Democrats say say despite Trump’s acquittal, the trial trained prolonged attention on his sordid behavior and lashed GOP senators to him with their votes absolving him. They say that will weaken their reelection bids of GOP senators in swing states like Colorado, Maine and Arizona.

“This reinforced the view that Trump is unethical and lacking in integrity,” said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin. “And it’s exposed a number of Republican senators as hacks beholden to the president and Mitch McConnell,” the Senate majority leader from Kentucky whom Democrats love to target.

Republicans counter that the effort has electrified GOP voters just months before Election Day, citing a Gallup Poll showing Trump with a 49% job approval rating, the highest of his presidency. They say Pelosi made tactical errors that exposed Democrats’ impeachment drive as a blatantly political exercise, in the process weakening more than two dozen House Democrats from Trump-won districts.

“The President has his highest approval rating since he’s been in office,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “I can tell you as a poll watcher who’s looking at polls in certain Senate races every one of our people in tough races, every one of them, is in better shape today than they were before the impeachment trial started.”

Republicans were especially critical of House Democrats’ decision to not fight more in the courts to obtain testimony and documents. Democrats said they dropped such efforts because Trump could have forced legal battles lasting months, effectively derailing the impeachment effort. Republicans said that decision made it easy to portray Democrats as caring less about a serious investigation than politics.

“You didn’t even bother to pull all the levers,” said Scott Jennings, a longtime political adviser to McConnell.

Many Democrats say there would have been no way to prevent Republicans from complaining that the investigation was political and lacked sufficient evidence.

“They’d have said that if you’d produced volumes more evidence,” said John Lawrence, Pelosi’s chief of staff for eight years ending in 2013.

And while Democrats collected compelling evidence against Trump, they made the mistake of thinking they’d win by appealing broadly to voters, said Brendan Buck, a GOP consultant who’s advised congressional leaders. Republicans prevailed by aiming their arguments at the GOP’s core conservative supporters, a tactic that has driven Trump’s presidency.

“Democrats seemed to play by the old rules and the president played by the new rules,” Buck said.

One moderate House Democrat said Democrats facing difficult reelection fights from Trump-leaning districts think Pelosi made tactical decisions that could jeopardize them.

That includes her one-month delay in formally sending the House’s impeachment articles to the Senate. That fed the GOP argument that the effort was political, said the Democrat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

This Democrat said lawmakers also recoiled at Pelosi’s decision to sign the impeachment articles and distribute pens as mementos to colleagues. The Democrat said voters in their districts often cited that televised ceremony as evidence that impeachment was politically motivated.

“They ran as, ‘I’m not just a regular Democrat, I’ll reach across party lines,’” said former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who once ran the House GOP’s campaign organization. “And here they are impeaching the president like this.”

One thing many from both parties agree on: By November, impeachment could well be superseded by other issues and will likely be conflated into an overall referendum on Trump.

“My honest guess is that the public will very rapidly turn to kitchen table issues,” said former Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.

Treasury complies with GOP Senate inquiry, hands over highly confidential info on Hunter Biden, report says

The Treasury Department complied with a Republican-controlled Senate inquiry into Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and handed over highly sensitive financial records and "evidence' of questionable origin," a report on Thursday said.
Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, has been a favorite target for President Trump and other Republicans who use him as an example of an extreme case of crony capitalism. He once held a $50,000-a-month job with Ukrainian gas giant, Burisima Holdings while his father served under then-President Obama. His father was tasked with handling Ukraine policy at the time.
SEE IT: JOE BIDEN HAS TENSE EXCHANGE WITH NBC'S SAVANNAH GUTHRIE
Joe Biden, who is running for president, has consistently said his son did nothing wrong.
Yahoo News first reported that the Treasury Department began to turn over the documents related to the Senate inquiry late last year.
Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Ron. Johnson, R-Wisc., the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, requested the records in the form of a suspicious activity report, also known as a SARs. They also requested financial records through FinCEN, which is a branch of the Treasury Department that eyes money laundering.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who sits on the Finance Committee, told Yahoo News that the swift response from Treasury is a "blatant double standard" considering how the Trump administration responded to Democrats' effort to obtain documents and witness testimony in his impeachment trial.
"The administration told House Democrats to go pound sand when their oversight authority was mandatory while voluntarily cooperating with the Senate Republicans’ sideshow at lightning speed," a spokesman from Wyden told the website.
Grassley refused to identify what information Treasury provided when reached by the New York Times, but said through a spokesman, "It's unfortunate that Democrats whom we’ve kept in the loop on our investigations would recklessly seek to interfere with legitimate government oversight."
Grassely and Johnson announced in a letter Wednesday they are also seeking “records of Hunter Biden’s travel while he was under U.S. Secret Service protection as they continue to investigate potential conflicts of interest to boost his business ventures in Ukraine and China."
TUCKER CARLSON SAYS HUNTER BIDEN CASE JUST A SLICE OF BROADER PROBLEM IN DC
"We write to request information about whether Hunter Biden used government-sponsored travel to help conduct private business, to include his work for Rosemont Seneca and related entities in China and Ukraine," the senators wrote, referring to the company co-founded by the younger Biden.
Trump's impeachment trial was based on a phone call he had with his Ukrainian counterpart where he asked him to investigate the Bidens' dealings in the country. Democrats alleged that Trump withheld military funding in order to put pressure on Kiev. Trump denied any wrongdoing, was impeached in the House and acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ALL-NEW FOXBUSINESS.COM
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News.
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report

White House considering plan to dismiss Alexander Vindman: report

The White House is reportedly weighing options to dismiss Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council (NSC) in an effort to shrink its foreign policy bureaucracy, a report said.
Bloomberg reported that the White House plans to frame it as part of an NSC staff downsizing, not a retaliation. Vindman gave testimony last year during President Donald Trump's impeachment proceedings.
Vindman was an important witness for the Democrats in July and raised concerns over Trump's phone call with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
VINDMAN ACCUSES TRUMP OF MAKING IMPROPER UKRAINE 'DEMAND,' SAYS HE ALERTED INTEL OFFICIAL

National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is sworn in to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, during a public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump's efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Vindman had drawn applause from spectators during his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee -- after expressing his love for America when asked how he overcame his fear of retaliation.
ALEXANDER VINDMAN DRAWS APPLAUSE DURING IMPEACHMENT HEARING TESTIMONY: 'THIS IS AMERICA ... HERE, RIGHT MATTERS'
"Congressman, because this is America. This is the country I have served and defended, that all of my brothers have served. And here, right matters," Vindman said. "I knew I was assuming a lot of risk. [My father] deeply worried about [my testimony]. Because in his context, it was the ultimate risk."
CNN reported that Vindman has been telling colleagues that he expects to be leaving the NSC and return to work at the Department of Defense.
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His departure is expected to be soon after Trump was acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial.
Fox News' Alex Pappas, Nick Givas and the Associated Press contributed to the report