Blog Post 3.5 - Civil Servants
1. What was Lt Col. Alexander Vindman's job in the bureaucracy?
Lt Col. Alexander Vindman was a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council.
2. What did Vindman testify during the impeachment investigation?
He testified that he found the call inappropriate and that he saw it as “improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent.”
3. What did the White House do to Vindman and his brother?
Now Vindman has been removed from his post in the White House as of this Friday, according to his lawyer. His twin brother, a lawyer for the National Security Council, was also reassigned.
4. How is the White House justifying this action?
The White House is framing this not as payback against Vindman but as a broader shrinking of the NSC staff.
5. Why does the author argue that this creates a danger for other civil servants?
The danger here, of course, is that officials will be even more fearful to speak out or testify against the president if he acts inappropriately again.
6. What was Gordon Sondland's job in the Trump Administration?
Gordon Sondland was Trump's handpicked ambassador to the European Union.
7. What did Ambassador Sondland testify during the impeachment investigation?
Sondland’s testimony made it clear that the scheme to pressure Ukraine was not some rogue operation masterminded by Giuliani alone. The ambassador provided extensive documentation, including emails and text messages, showing that his own personal efforts in service of arranging the quid pro quo were authorized at the highest levels of the administration.
8. What was Sondland's background before becoming the ambassador?
Sondland is the founder and former chairman of Provenance Hotels.
9. Who else might the Trump Administration take action against, according to this article?
He might pressure Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to push out George Kent — one of the diplomatic corps’ top Ukraine experts who testified in the House impeachment investigation — or get Defense Secretary Mark Esper to kick out Laura Cooper, the Defense Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, who told investigators the White House directed the freeze on military aid to Kyiv.
Lt Col. Alexander Vindman was a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council.
2. What did Vindman testify during the impeachment investigation?
He testified that he found the call inappropriate and that he saw it as “improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent.”
3. What did the White House do to Vindman and his brother?
Now Vindman has been removed from his post in the White House as of this Friday, according to his lawyer. His twin brother, a lawyer for the National Security Council, was also reassigned.
4. How is the White House justifying this action?
The White House is framing this not as payback against Vindman but as a broader shrinking of the NSC staff.
5. Why does the author argue that this creates a danger for other civil servants?
The danger here, of course, is that officials will be even more fearful to speak out or testify against the president if he acts inappropriately again.
6. What was Gordon Sondland's job in the Trump Administration?
Gordon Sondland was Trump's handpicked ambassador to the European Union.
7. What did Ambassador Sondland testify during the impeachment investigation?
Sondland’s testimony made it clear that the scheme to pressure Ukraine was not some rogue operation masterminded by Giuliani alone. The ambassador provided extensive documentation, including emails and text messages, showing that his own personal efforts in service of arranging the quid pro quo were authorized at the highest levels of the administration.
8. What was Sondland's background before becoming the ambassador?
Sondland is the founder and former chairman of Provenance Hotels.
9. Who else might the Trump Administration take action against, according to this article?
He might pressure Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to push out George Kent — one of the diplomatic corps’ top Ukraine experts who testified in the House impeachment investigation — or get Defense Secretary Mark Esper to kick out Laura Cooper, the Defense Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, who told investigators the White House directed the freeze on military aid to Kyiv.
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