Alexander Vindman Sues Trump Allies For Alleged Conspiracy To Intimidate Him During Ukraine Impeachment

Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who was a star witness against Donald Trump during the 2019 Ukraine impeachment, is suing the former President's allies. He alleged that they conspired against him.

In his civil lawsuit filed Wednesday, he accused Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and two ex-White House staffers of engaging in an "intentional, concerted campaign of unlawful intimidation and retaliation" against him for testifying before Congress in 2019. Julia Hahn, a former Breitbart editor who worked in the Trump White House, and former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino are also named in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.

In the lawsuit, he accused the defendants of meeting to coordinate targets and talking points aimed at pushing false narratives about Vindman. These included the baseless claim that he lied under oath and he was a Ukrainian spy, according to NPR.

In the lawsuit, he said that Trump's family, his lawyers, others in the White House and right-wing media tried to intimidate him because he was willing to call out Trump's entreaties of Ukraine for his personal political gain. Vindman, who served on the National Security Council, called the efforts to intimidate him obstruction, reported CNN.

The lawsuit aims to capture the plight whistleblowers face after standing up to a powerful political person. The former director of European Affairs at the US National Security Council is seeking an unspecified amount in damages. He said that his complaint aims for "long-overdue accountability."

Trump is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. In the former President's 2019 impeachment trial, Vindman was a witness as he was on the phone when Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to probe Democrats, including Joe Biden. Vindman testified that he was concerned about the phone call between the two leaders, and when he raised those concerns, he was told not to discuss the call.

In February 2020, Vindman was fired from the National Security Council by Trump, and he was consequently reassigned to the Army. In his lawsuit, Vindman said that non-government organizations like speakers bureaus and think tanks have also shied away from associating with him. According to the lawsuit, these organizations "did not want to risk losing part of their audience or find themselves on the receiving end of the same harassment and intimidation that were directed toward him."