Replies to post #331221 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

National Sec Adviser: Top Impeachment Probe Witness Will Be Removed From WH Council
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/national-sec-adviser-top-impeachment-probe-witness-to-be-removed-from-wh-council

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who gave a bombshell testimony in the House impeachment investigation last month on President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scheme, will be removed from his post at the White House National Security Council.

“Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who has testified under oath, is serving on the National Security Council currently,” CBS News’s “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan said during her interview with O’Brien. “Will he continue to work for you despite testifying against the President?”

“Well look, one of the things that I’ve talked about is that we’re streamlining the National Security Council,” O’Brien replied. “It got bloated to like 236 people up from 100 in the Bush administration under President Obama.”

The national security adviser said Vindman, who currently serves as the council’s Director for European Affairs, will be removed as a part of the White House’s “streamlining” efforts.

“My understanding is he’s–that Colonel Vindman is detailed from the Department of Defense,” O’Brien said. “So everyone who’s detailed at the NSC, people are going to start going back to their own departments and we’ll bring in new folks.”

When Brennan asked O’Brien to confirm that the decision is not retaliation against Vindman, whom Trump has baselessly accused of being a “Never Trumper,” the national security adviser’s response was that he personally had never retaliated against anyone.

“I never retaliated against anyone,” he said. “There- there will be a point for everybody who’s detailed there—that their time, that their detail will come to an end.”

As the NSC’s expert on Ukraine who was also on Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president in July, Vindman provided key information to House impeachment investigators on Trump’s use of American foreign policy to obtain political assistance from Ukraine.

Trump has attacked him and other witnesses amid the investigation, baselessly claiming that they are “Never Trumpers.” Last week, Trump threatened to release information on Vindman “real soon” that supposedly proves that the colonel is anti-Trump.

Watch O’Brien below:

TPM Livewire
@TPMLiveWire
National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien says Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will be removed from the White House National Security Council

Video

National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien says Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will be removed from the White House National Security Council pic.twitter.com/otsHMgHTUR

— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) November 10, 2019

[fuagf]

Read Alexander Vindman’s full opening statement on Trump and Ukraine

Politics Updated on Oct 29, 2019 9:59 AM EST — Published on Oct 28, 2019 10:48 PM EST

[...]

Read the full statement here.
https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2019/10/Vindmanstatementfinal.pdf

[...]

The inquiry is looking into Trump’s call, in which he asked Zelenskiy for a “favor” — to investigate Democrats — that Democrats say was a quid pro quo that could be an impeachable offense.

Vindman, a 20-year military officer and decorated veteran, testify that he first reported his concerns after an earlier meeting July 10 in which U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland stressed the importance of having Ukraine investigate the 2016 election as well as Burisma, a company linked to the family of Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

Vindman says he told 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.”

That account differs from Sondland’s, a wealthy businessman who donated $1 million to Trump inauguration and testified before the impeachment investigators that no one from the NSC “ever expressed any concerns.” He also testified that he did not realize any connection between Biden and Burisma.

For the call between Trump and Zelenskiy, Vindman said he listened in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and Vice President Mike Pence’s office and was concerned. He said he again reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel.

He wrote, “I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it 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 all undermine U.S. national security.”

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-alexander-vindmans-full-opening-statement-on-trump-and-ukraine

See also:

Criminality Taints Giuliani Role In Trump Ukraine Scheme | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
Oct 11, 2019

MSNBC
Rachel Maddow reports on the arrests of two associates of Rudy Giuliani, Les Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were working on the Ukraine scheme that is now the subject of the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry, for FEC violations related to funneling foreign money to a Trump-supporting super PAC. Giuliani also consulted with convicted felon Paul Manafort and indicted oligarch Dmytro Firtash in his Ukraine work for Trump. Aired on 10/10/19.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tr1bGM_FFc
More - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=151668802