- Trump's former Pentagon chief details a significant effort to punish an impeachment witness.
- Mark Esper writes in a new book that the Trump White House went to great lengths to punish Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.
- "He's a Never Trumper. We need to get rid of him," Esper says Trump told him of Vindman.
President Donald Trump and his White House engaged in a scorched earth campaign to purge Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the US military after Vindman became a key witness during Trump's first impeachment, Trump's former Pentagon chief details in a new book.
"'He lied about my great call,''" Trump reportedly told then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper during an April 21, 2020 White House meeting, according to Esper's new book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times."
Esper goes on to claim that Trump added, "[Vindman] made it all up. He's a Never Trumper. We need to get rid of him."
Esper's book includes new allegations of the White House effort to derail Vindman's career and block his Pentagon-endorsed promotion to colonel, with Trump's chief of staff at one point shouting at Esper that the Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient will "never get promoted."
Vindman responded to an early excerpt by tweeting out a photo of an angry Trump.
—Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) May 9, 2022
At the time, Vindman was a National Security Council staffer detailed to the White House. His shock and abhorrence to Trump's July 25, 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy was a major point in what became the first impeachment against the president for pressuring Ukraine to investigate then-former Vice President Joe Biden and his family. It was Vindman who insisted the White House record of the call should mention Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company on whose board Biden's son Hunter had served.
Trump, who was later acquitted by the GOP-controlled Senate, has never budged from his defense that it was a "perfect phone call" and that his request for Zelenskyy "to do us a favor" in return for military aid Trump ordered withheld was in no way evidence of a quid-pro-quo.
Vindman retired from the military after Trump's acquittal in the face of a massive pressure campaign. While some of these details were previously known, Esper meticulously documents alleged meetings and phone calls with Trump and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that underline the effort to punish Vindman. Both Vindman and his brother Yevgeny were fired from the National Security Council days after Trump's acquittal.
Yevgeny Vindman wrote on Twitter that Esper's lack of support "allowed our actions to be politicized." He said he would join his brother in retirement later this summer.
Esper writes that the White House's lust for revenge was not satiated with the Vindmans being ousted from the White House. Meadows, Esper claims, was engaged in an effort to deny Vindman a proposed promotion, strongly implying that the White House would find more witnesses to support a misconduct complaint filed against Vindman.
Esper takes particular issue with Meadows' handling of the complaint. Esper wrote that it became evident early on "that the NSC had no real evidence or witnesses to offer." Esper says this was later confirmed by an Army inspector general investigation.
But Meadows, Esper wrote, wasn't done yet. Neither side could drag out the issue forever as the Pentagon had to submit Vindman and other prospective promotions to the Senate for approval. In July 2020, the showdown Esper says he was expecting all along over Vindman's future finally came to a head.
"I told Meadows, 'Yes, the Army was done ...," Esper wrote of a July 6, 2020 call. "'Then why didn't you call me, Secretary? I would have had them get you something,'" Esper wrote that Meadows shouted back.
Meadows then asked for "another week or so" in what Esper described as an effort "to drum up more witnesses" for the complaint. Esper said that he again refused to drag out the process any longer.
"'If you don't want him on the list, then you should remove him, but I don't support it. It would be the wrong thing to do,'" I yelled into the phone. Meadows shouted back, 'He'll never get promoted!'"
Esper wrote that Meadows asked for and received a White House meeting the following day to discuss the situation. Flanked by Pentagon lawyers, Esper laid out the case that there was no credible evidence to deny Vindman a promotion. Esper said that Meadows finally relented in part due to a White House lawyer telling him that he could be accused of tampering with the investigation if he pressed too hard.
Spokespersons for Meadows and Vindman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump blasted Esper ahead of the book's publication, calling his former Pentagon chief "Yesper" and arguing that he was so ineffective that Trump himself had to effectively run the US military.