Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is suing several allies and colleagues of former President Donald Trump for allegedly attempting to intimidate him over his 2019 testimony during Trump’s impeachment trial.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the D.C. District Court, listed Donald Trump Jr., Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and former deputy communication director Julia Hahn as defendants.
Vindman’s suit alleges these four individuals, alongside other unnamed conspirators, helped the former president “obstruct a constitutional proceeding by intimidating and retaliating against a key witness.”
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“We can’t have a functional government or healthy democracy if witnesses can’t testify and if federal officials can’t do their jobs, without fear of payback,” wrote Vindman in an op-ed published in USA Today on Wednesday. “I filed this lawsuit because I believe in the active role all citizens must play in upholding our democracy … I hope this lawsuit will shed more light on the abuses that are chipping away at our democracy and eventually bring a measure of justice to those who are responsible.”
Vindman alleges his decision to testify before Congress about Donald Trump’s call with Ukraine turned him into a “target of a dangerous campaign of witness intimidation by President Trump and a group of conspirators. The conspirators agreed on common, unlawful objectives — to deter [him] from testifying in the future and to retaliate against him after he did so.”
The suit argues the campaign included coordinating talking points to challenge the notion of Vindman being loyal to the United States, claiming he was a spy for Ukraine, leaking classified information to prove Vindman’s disloyalty, removing Vindman and his brother from White House jobs, and derailing the lieutenant colonel’s attempts to get promoted.
This campaign “destroyed Lt. Col. Vindman’s ability to serve in any national security position or foreign affairs role” and sent a message to other witnesses about the risks they may face if they testify, the suit concludes.
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Vindman’s suit requests the judge overseeing the trial declare the four plaintiffs guilty of conspiracy and that the court award Vindman compensatory and punitive damages.
Lt. Col. Vindman retired from the military in July 2020, citing the Trump administration’s campaign to spread disinformation about him.
