Donald Trump’s Kiev call a partisan play, says aide

A White House aide plans to testify he feared Donald’s Trump call to Ukraine’s leader was a partisan play.

Alexander Vindman, right, with Volodymyr Zelensky, left, and US Energy Secretary Rick Perry in May. Picture: US State Department

A top official with the US National Security Council plans to tell House of Representatives impeachment investigators he was concerned by Donald Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Alexander Vindman, an Iraq war veteran who oversees Ukraine policy at the NSC, said the President’s request to have the Ukrainians investigate Joe Biden and his son may have been interpreted as a “partisan play”.

Lieutenant Colonel Vindman will be the first official with first-hand knowledge of the phone call at the heart of the impeachment inquiry to testify when he appears before house investigators on Wednesday.

He will give evidence ahead of a formal vote on Friday on the impeachment inquiry as Democrats forge ahead with a process that ­includes public hearings.

The move to hold a vote marks a shift in strategy by Democrats who had insisted that they did not need a floor vote to proceed with the investigation, a posture that angered Republicans who ­attacked the process as unfair.

The chamber will go on record for the first time to “lay out the next steps for the inquiry”, a senior Democratic aide said after house Speaker Nancy Pelosi informed fellow Democrats of the plan.

The effort appears aimed in part at pushing back against ­Republican criticism the investigation was not providing Mr Trump with due process. “This week, we will bring a resolution to the floor that affirms the ongoing, existing investigation that is currently being conducted by our committees as part of this impeachment inquiry,” Ms Pelosi said in a letter to her caucus.

The measure is likely to pass in the Democratic-controlled house given that 228 Democrats, out of a total 435 members, are on the ­record as supporting impeachment or an impeachment inquiry.

The measure “establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, ­authorises the disclosure of deposition transcripts (and) outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the judiciary committee as it considers potential articles of ­impeachment,” Ms Pelosi said.

To date, all witness testimony in the month-long inquiry has been taken behind closed doors, leading Republicans to slam the process as secretive and illegitimate.

According to a statement ­obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Colonel Vindman also plans to tell investigators the US ­ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, told a Ukrainian delegation in early July that the government in Keiv needed to deliver specific investigations to secure a meeting with Mr Trump.

According to his prepared testimony, that July meeting was cut short by then-national security adviser John Bolton, which corroborates others’ testimony.

“Following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which ­Amb Sondland emphasised the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma,” it says. “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.”

Colonel Vindman’s statement notes he listened in on the call in the White House situation room with colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice-President, adding: “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 role of former vice-president Joe Biden’s son Hunter at the gas company Burisma has come under intense scrutiny following unsupported accusations by Mr Trump that the Democratic frontrunner improperly tried to help his son’s business interests in Ukraine.

Mr Trump, in a July 25 call, asked Mr Zelensky, to “look into” Mr Biden and his son and said he would direct his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney-General William Barr to contact Mr Zelensky to help him in a possible investigation, according to a rough transcript released by the White House.

Before asking Ukraine to examine actions by Mr Biden’s son, Mr Trump reminded Mr Zelensky the US sends security aid to Ukraine, according to the transcript released late last month.

Colonel Vindman says that an investigation into the Biden family and Burisma “would likely be interpreted as a partisan play” which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. As a result, he reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel.

The Wall Street Journal, AFP