‘Dad, do not worry,’ impeachment witness says amid reports of concern for his safety

A White House national security adviser testifying Tuesday before the U.S. House Intelligence Committee addressed his father over fears for his safety.

“Dad, my sitting here today, in the U.S. Capitol talking to our elected officials is proof that you made the right decision forty years ago to leave the Soviet Union... Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth,” said Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

In a later exchange with Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., Vindman said he knew he “was assuming a lot of risk” in testifying and that his father had been “deeply worried” by it.

“This is America,” Vindman said. “This is the country I’ve served and defended, that all my brothers have served, and here, right matters.”

Vindman, a U.S. Army officer, has faced incessant attacks since coming forward with his concerns about a July 25 call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The U.S. Army is prepared to move Vindman and his family to a military base for their protection if needed, CNN reported. Both the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have also reported the security concerns.

Trump has denounced Vindman as a “never trumper,” and Fox News host Laura Ingraham derided him as “a U.S. national security official ... working inside the White House, apparently against the president’s interests,” The Washington Post reported.

“It is natural to disagree and engage in spirited debate, this has been our custom since the time of our Founding Fathers, but we are better than personal attacks,” Vindman told the panel Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, began testifying at 9 a.m. Eastern time.

Vindman and Williams are firsthand witnesses to the pivotal July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky, NPR reported.

At 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a former National Security Council aide, are scheduled to testify. Both witnesses were requested by Republicans on the committee, NPR reported.

What’s Trump accused of doing?

Trump is accused of withholding $400 million in military aid to Ukraine — which Congress had already approved — to get the Eastern European country to investigate the son of political rival and former Vice President Joe Biden. The Associated Press reports a whistleblower complaint revealed a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when the American president asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Biden’s family and Ukraine’s possible role in influencing the 2016 election.

Ukraine was, and still is, fighting with Russian-backed separatists in a war that has lasted five years and killed 13,000, PBS News Hour reports.

Democrats say the withholding of aid is evidence of a “quid pro quo.” It’s illegal “to solicit anything of value from a person from a foreign country in U.S. elections” under federal law, as noted by The Associated Press.

A whistleblower complaint filed by a member of the CIA on Aug. 12 gave details about the president and his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani’s moves to get Ukraine to investigate unfounded allegations of corruption against Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, The Washington Post reported. “The complaint also alleges that the White House moved to ‘lock down’ the details of a July 25 call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart,” The Post reported.

What do Trump’s defenders say?

A Republican strategy memo released last Tuesday argues the evidence doesn’t show Trump tried to pressure Ukrainian leaders into investigating Biden’s family by holding up military aid, CBS News reported.

The strategy memo says Zelensky has denied feeling pressured in the July 25 call and that Ukrainian officials were unaware at the time that the aid had been put on hold, though this has been disputed by U.S. officials testifying in the inquiry, according to the network. The memo also says the U.S. released the aid package in September without any Ukrainian investigation of Biden’s family taking place.

Trump, who has frequently described the July 25 call as “perfect,” has denounced the impeachment inquiry as a “witch hunt” and demanded lawmakers instead investigate his accusations against Biden’s family, Fox News reported.

What happens next?

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee, led by committee chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., began open hearings on the impeachment inquiry last Wednesday following a series of closed-door depositions.

William Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent testified Wednesday before the committee and took questions from representatives. Both said withholding desperately needed military aid for partisan reasons damaged U.S. relations with Ukraine and other nations.

Marie Yovanovitch, who testified Friday, served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to May, when she was removed by Trump. Yovanovitch told the panel Trump axed her in part because she resisted efforts by Giuliani and others to get Ukrainian officials to investigate unfounded allegations of corruption against the Bidens.

During Yovanovitch’s testimony, Trump tweeted that “everywhere (she) went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.” Schiff said that tweet constitutes “witness intimidation.”

Lawmakers have not outlined a timeline for the impeachment inquiry, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to move through it “expeditiously,” The Associated Press reports. Democrats have said they hope to complete the inquiry by the end of the year.

The full House of Representatives would then vote on whether or not to impeach Trump. The matter would then go to the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate for trial, with Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court presiding.

This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 7:47 AM with the headline "‘Dad, do not worry,’ impeachment witness says amid reports of concern for his safety."