Donald Trump was rocked by another impeachment blow today as a White House official prepared to testify that he raised concerns over pressure allegedly piled on Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
Alexander Vindman was set to tell the House impeachment inquiry that he listened to Mr Trump’s now notorious July phone call with new Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the call, Mr Trump asked Mr Zelensky to investigate his Democratic 2020 election rival Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, the former vice-president’s son. Hunter Biden had held a board position with Burisma, a Ukrainian oil and gas company.
According to a draft of Mr Vindman’s statement, first published by The New York Times, he reported it to a lawyer at the National Security Council (NSC).
“I was concerned by the call,” Mr Vindman was expected to say. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a US citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the US government’s support of Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian-born army lieutenant colonel, who was decorated with a Purple Heart after being wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, is a military officer at the NSC. He becomes the first current White House official to appear before the impeachment inquiry.
Mr Vindman was also expected to describe a July 10 meeting in Washington involving Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Danylyuk, the US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, US energy secretary Rick Perry, then-US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and then-US national security adviser John Bolton.
He claims the meeting was “cut short” by Mr Bolton after Mr Sondland “started to speak about Ukraine delivering specific investigations” to secure a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky.
According to Mr Vindman, Mr Sondland “emphasised the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 [US presidential] election, the Bidens and Burisma”.
Mr Vindman was set to testify that he is not the still-unnamed whistleblower who filed the initial complaint over Mr Trump’s conversation with the Ukraine president that sparked the House impeachment inquiry.
“I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or politics,” he wrote.
Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a vote on a resolution to affirm the impeachment investigation will be held on Thursday.
Mr Trump, who has repeatedly called the impeachment probe a “Witch Hunt”, launched a fresh attack today, writing on Twitter: “… the Whistleblower disappeared after I released the transcript of the call. Where is the Whistleblower? That is why this is now called the Impeachment Hoax! The Do Nothing Dems are Doing Nothing!”
