National security adviser Robert O’Brien denied allegations that the Trump administration retaliated against two former National Security Council officials last week.
O’Brien defended stripping Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, of their White House assignments at an Atlantic Council event on Tuesday. The Vindmans were escorted out of the White House on Friday.
“We are not a country where a group of lieutenant colonels can get together and dictate what the policy of the United States is. The policy of the United States is formulated and decided by an elected president of the United States,” O’Brien said. “The president is entitled to a staff that he has confidence in.”
“I can absolutely tell you they were not retaliated against,” O’Brien continued.
Alexander Vindman served as the National Security Council’s European affairs director until he was removed from his post. Vindman had testified against Trump in the Democrat-led impeachment proceedings in the House last year.
The Senate acquitted the president on two impeachment charges on Feb. 5.
