Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman told Congress that the White House pressured him to not discuss the call between President Trump and Ukrainian officials.
In his testimony, Vindman described his interactions with White House attorney John Eisenberg. He claimed that when he expressed concern about Trump’s call to Eisenberg, the attorney moved the call’s transcript to a private server usually used only for highly classified information, as the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
At the time, Vindman didn’t think it was a suspicious decision by Eisenberg to move the transcript to the classified server.
That feeling changed when Vindman returned two days later and was told by Eisenberg to stop discussing the call. According to Politico, Eisenberg told him that discussing the call could be harmful because Vindman was in charge of interagency coordination for policy regarding Ukraine. Eisenberg demanded Vindman not discuss the call with anyone.
This has some wondering if Eisenberg intended to bury the call and silence those who expressed concern, despite the eventual release of the transcript to the public. Vindman, however, also testified that the transcript released by the White House omitted some references to former Vice President Joe Biden.
The totality of Vindman’s testimony, which was conducted behind closed doors, has not been made public.
Vindman served under Fiona Hill, who also testified as part of the impeachment hearings. Hill resigned a few days prior to the July phone call taking place.
