At nearly 10pm tonight in the East, a story broke that NSC Director of European Affairs, Alex Vindman had released a written statement prior to his Tuesday deposition. It corroborates quite a bit of Taylor’s statements about a few particular dates. This is a first hand account of someone who was on all the phone calls, and was also in the meeting that Bolton exploded in.
He is hoping that not much of his deposition gets out. My feeling is that the actions were so bad that it could undermine foreign policy elsewhere in addition to the damage it can cause to national security. He just tells them to ‘weigh’ anything he tells them, and claims he will answer everything they ask to the ‘best of his recollection’.
Here’s a link to the written statement:
Below is a breakdown of what’s in it, though it’s possible it might be faster for you to just read the just a bit over 5 page statement:
Background (order changed from writing)
-Immigrant (3.5 years old from Soviet Union)
-Times were tough, father said they must fully integrate into their new country. American dream built through long tough times over many years.
-Loves American values, ideals, power of freedom
-Says ‘I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or politics.’
-Army infantry officer with lots of tours and a purple heart in Iraq II
-Has rank of Lt. Colonel
-Foreign Area Officer specializing in Eurasia and served in Moscow and Kiev embassies
-He ‘was a politico-military affairs officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs where I authored the principle [sic] strategy for managing competition with Russia
-Asked to serve at National Security Council in July, 2018
-Over 20 years serving in a nonpartisan manner for Republican and Democratic administration with ‘the utmost respect and professionalism’ for both
Introduction
-Says he’ll answer everything he can to the best of his recollection, and that he’s there voluntarily ‘pursuant to a subpoena’
-Says he’s not the whistleblower, and won’t speculate about the WB identity
-Says ‘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.’
-Command structure super important to him
-Call to people to do the same as him, meaning ‘express my views and share my concerns with my chain of command and proper authorities’.
-Since he was a Director on the National Security Council one of his roles was providing readouts of ‘relevant meetings and communications to a very small group of properly cleared national security counterparts with a relevant need-to-know’
What He Does on the National Security Council
-First reported to Fiona Hill (John Bolton was her boss) who gave a deposition previously
-Role ‘includes developing, coordinating, and executing plans and policies to manage the full range of diplomatic, informational, military, and economic national security issues for the countries in my portfolio, which includes Ukraine’
-Coordinates with inter-agency partners and prepares ‘internal memoranda, talking points, and other materials for the National Security Advisor and senior staff’
-Most interactions are about national security issues, meaning especially sensitive
-Wants the committee to at least consider keeping a lot of what he says private (ominous) due to the ‘impact that disclosure would have on our foreign policy and national security’
-Says he’s never directly had any contact or communications with Trump
Ukraine and Its Importance
-Russia wants Ukraine under its power/influence, and a strong Ukraine is ‘critical to U.S. national security interests’ due to its proximity to Russia and Russia’s aggression
-Ukraine wants to integrate with the West. If Zelenskyy keeps on the goal of eliminating corruption then this will ‘lock in ‘Ukraine’s Western-leaning trajectory, and allow Ukraine to realize its dream of a vibrant democracy and economic prosperity’
Relevant Events
-Spring, 2019 Vindman ‘became aware of outside influencers promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency’
-He considers this ‘harmful to U.S. government policy’
-He and interagency colleagues were ‘increasingly optimistic on Ukraine’s prospects’, but the ‘alternative narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine’
Timeline
April 21, 2019
-Trump calls Zelenskyy to congratulate him on his victory
-Vindman is on this call among several other staff and officers
-Says the call was positive and Trump gave an invitation to visit the WH
May 21, 2019:
-Vindman is told to join the delegation attending Zelenskyy’s inauguration
-The delegation returned and ‘provided a debriefing to President Trump and explained their positive assessment of President Zelenskyy and his team. I did not participate in the debriefing.’
July 10, 2019:
-Meeting happens with Danyliuk (Ukraine national security adviser), Vindman, Bolton, Volker, Sondland, and Perry
-Meeting went fine until a meeting between the presidents was mentioned
-Ukraine felt it ‘critically important in order to solidify the the support of their most important international partner’
-Sondland starts talking about ‘specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the President, at which time Ambassador Bolton cut the meeting short’
-After this meeting, a scheduled debriefing happened. Sondland ‘emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma. I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the NSC was going to get involved in or push. Dr. Hill then entered the room and asserted to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate.’
-After the meeting Vindman raises his ‘concerns’ to NSC’s lead counsel (Eisenberg, who is not named). Dr. Hill also did the same.
July 25, 2019:
-The NSC proposed that Trump call Zelenskyy to congratulate him on his landslide parliamentary victory that happened on July 21. The call is scheduled for July 25.
-Vindman is on the call in the Situation Room with other colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President.
-He says all on the call were aware of what was said based on the transcript.
-Says he was ‘concerned by the call’. He thought the investigations referred to ‘would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would undermine U.S. national security. Following the call, I again reported my concerns to NSC’s lead counsel.’
Conclusion
-Re-iterates the importance of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. I could read more between the lines here, as it seems to be dripping with implications, but I won’t.