Impeachment inquiry: Trump attempted Ukraine ‘partisan play’

Alexander Vindman refuses to name the whistleblower, claiming the US President engaged in an improper actions.

Alexander Vindman testifies before the house intelligence committee on Capitol Hill. Picture: Getty Images

Donald Trump engaged in an improper attempt to secure a “partisan play” from Ukraine in investigating his political opponent, Joe Biden, a National Security Council official has told the impeachment inquiry.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman’s comments came as the US President’s former special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, used the hearing to revise his previous testimony, saying he now ­realised that some US officials were seeking to pressure Ukraine to investigate Mr Biden and his son Hunter, something he said was “unacceptable”.

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Mr Volker had previously played this down and had said there was no quid pro quo between the provision of US aid to Ukraine and an investigation.

“In hindsight, I now understand that others saw the idea of investigating possible corruption involving the Ukrainian company Burisma as equivalent to investigating former vice-president Biden,” Mr Volker said. “I saw them as very different — the former being appropriate and unremarkable, the latter being unacceptable.”

Mr Volker was critical of the role playing behind the scenes by Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and he said any allegation that Mr Biden did anything wrong in Ukraine was not credible.

Colonel Vindman, dressed in his military uniform draped with medals, said he immediately ­reported Mr Trump’s “demand” in his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine investigate the Bidens because he believed the President’s request could undermine US national security.

“I was concerned by the call, what I heard was improper, and I reported my concerns,” Colonel Vindman told the house intelligence committee.

“It is improper for the President of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a US citizen and political opponent. 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.

“My intent was to raise these concerns because they had significant national security implications for our country.”

Colonel Vindman gave testimony alongside Jennifer Wil­liams, a Ukraine expert in Vice-President Mike Pence’s office who said she found the President’s July call unusual because it “involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter”.

The ranking Republican on the committee, Devin Nunes, also used the public hearing to try to unmask the unnamed intelligence whistleblower whose complaint about the President’s July phone call with Ukraine’s leader triggered the impeachment inquiry.

Under questioning from Mr Nunes, Colonel Vindman testified he had spoken to an intelligence official about the Trump call but declined to name the person and said he didn’t know the identity of the whistleblower.

Colonel Vindman then replied that he was under legal advice not to answer further questions on the issue, prompting the Democrat committee chairman, Adam Schiff, to stop the questions, saying “these proceedings will not be used to out the whistleblower”.

When Mr Nunes earlier ­addressed him as “Mr Vindman”, the colonel asked to be addressed by his rank.

Colonel Vindman lashed out at attacks on his credibility and that of other witnesses in the impeachment hearings.

Mr Trump has ­labelled witnesses at the inquiry as “never Trumpers” and last week tweeted an attack on the former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as she was giving public evidence to the inquiry.

“I want to take a moment to recognise the courage of my colleagues who have appeared and are scheduled to appear before this committee,” said Colonel Vindman, a 20-year decorated army veteran. “I want to state that the vile character attacks on these distinguished and honourable public servants is reprehensible. It is natural to disagree and engage in spirited debate — this has been the custom of our county since the time of our Founding Fathers — but we are better than personal attacks.”

Mr Trump did not tweet during the early stages of the hearing but then posted a short video attacking the Democrats over the inquiry.

He later tweeted about Colonel Vindman: “I don’t know him. I don’t know, as he says, ‘Lieutenant ­Colonel’. I understand somebody had the misfortune of calling him ‘Mister’ and he corrected them. I never saw the man.”

Colonel Vindman laid out a timeline of events, saying he ­became aware earlier this year that Mr Giuliani was undermining US policy by giving “false narratives” on Ukraine.

He said he first became aware that the US government was pressing Ukraine about the Bidens during a meeting in Washington on July 10 between Ukraine’s then national security adviser, Oleksandr Danylyuk, and US officials including then national security adviser John Bolton and ambassador Gordon Sondland.

“Ambassador Bolton cut the meeting short when Ambassador Sondland started to speak about the requirement that Ukraine ­deliver specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with President Trump,” Colonel Vindman said.

“Following this meeting, there was a short debriefing during which Ambassador Sondland emphasised the importance of Ukraine delivering the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma.

“I stated to Ambassador Sondland that this was inappropriate and had nothing to do with ­national security.”

Former NSC official Tim Morrison also appeared in the hearing and gave testimony that elevated the role played by Mr Sondland in dealing directly with Mr Trump on Ukraine.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia