Yevgeny Vindman is now on a list of colonial promotions approved by the White House and is going to the Senate for formal confirmation, according to the two people familiar with the matter. The list was recently circulated by senior leaders in the military and is expected to be released on Tuesday.
Lt.col. Gabriel Ramirez, a spokesman for the army, asked in a statement to comment: “It is the policy of the army not to discuss the results of the council which have not yet been made public.” Vindman declined to comment. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Vindman filed a complaint with the Pentagon inspector general last August, alleging that he was retaliated against by his former White House officials, John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis, for reporting misconduct by Trump. He also filed allegations of ethical violations by former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien because he allegedly used the official time of the NSC staff for personal assignments and ‘degrading and demoralizing sexist behavior against … female NSC professionals. ‘ ‘time, and calls Vindman’ a disgruntled former detail at junior level. ‘ This investigation continues.
Eisenberg and Ellis submitted an evaluation of Vindman last year, according to the complaint filed by Vindman, he said he did not judge and lost the confidence of senior NSC leadership. According to the two people who know the case, the promotion board first met about two months after the negative evaluation.
But Major General Michel Russell, an assistant deputy chief of staff in the army, conducted research according to the people and found that the evaluations are not objective. In mid-January, his findings were approved by Lieutenant General Gary Brito, chief of staff of the army, which led to the evaluations being scrapped and, according to the two people, never getting into the official records of the promotion council. .
Eisenberg disputes that he submitted the negative evaluation in a way that harmed Vindman’s career. and said there are strict deadlines for reviews. He declined to comment further, except that the military “conducted their process”. Ellis did not respond to a request for comment.
The year before the harsh revision, Eisenberg wrote in July 2019 that Vindman ‘was a top 1% military lawyer and officer’ and ‘he can do any job in the legal field under unusual and constant pressure and investigation. Choose SSC now [Senior Service College] and promotes immediately to COL. Absolutely unlimited potential! ”
But after the Vindman brothers expressed concern about Eisenberg over Trump’s actions in the Ukraine call, which took place later in July, both were fired and Yevgeny Vindman was fired in April last month, ‘months ago’ as’ considered unsatisfactory ‘and’ unqualified ‘. according to the charge sheet, he left the NSC.
In the evaluation in April 2020, Ellis writes that Vindman ‘was a hard-working officer, but he often does not have a judgment and struggles to understand the appropriate role of a lawyer in an organization. … On several occasions, his unprofessional attitude made NSC staff feel uncomfortable. “Eisenberg wrote that Vindman” would benefit from extra experience in a slower work environment subject to less pressure and investigation. ” He noted that “over time, he could become a better lawyer.”
However, former Trump security adviser John Bolton and deputy national security adviser Charlie Kupperman said the opposite, and Bolton even praised Vindman’s work on cable news.
Vindman, who joined the Army in the infantry in 1997 and served as a legal adviser in Iraq, is currently an attorney and deputy attorney general at the Army’s leading research, development and technology engineering in Aberdeen, MD.