Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a member of the National Security Council as an expert on Ukraine matters, has been fired from his White House post, months after he delivered damning testimony in President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry, NBC News reported .
Vindman was escorted from the White House on Friday, his lawyer told NBC News.
"LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth," Vindman's attorney David Pressman said. "The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy."
Yevgeny Vindman, Alexander Vindman's twin brother, was also fired by the White House. Yevgeny Vindman also served as a national security aide in the White House.
Vindman said he listened in on a phone call, as part of his job, between Trump and newly-elected Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy last July. Despite Trump calling the call "perfect" when he asked for Zelenskiy to investigate Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, Vindman said he found the call was "improper."
Vindman said he defied White House orders not to testify out of a sense of duty.
“It is improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent,” Vindman said to members of the House Intelligence Committee in November.
“It was also clear that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma, it would be interpreted as a partisan play,” Vindman added.
