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Opinion: Two men whose fates differed under Trump’s twisted take on justice

Opinion: Two men whose fates differed under Trump’s twisted take on justice




“What happened to us could happen to anyone,” Rachel Vindman calmly warns listeners in a new political ad by The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump Republican campaign organization. This steadfast former Army wife, who represents the best in American values, never imagined she would be speaking in such an antagonistic public arena.

Polar opposites in every way, the Vindmans and Stone represent the best and worst of America at a deeply painful moment in our nation’s history. President Trump’s unjustified pardon of a convicted liar and his vindictive treatment of a career military family should offend anyone who values integrity, backbone and the courage it takes to speak truth to power — especially when that power is exercised by a vengeful and petty President who utterly lacks all three qualities.

Alexander Vindman worked for me earlier in his career and is hands-down one of the finest and principled officers I’ve had the privilege of knowing. He’s also the quintessential American self-made success story. His widowed father emigrated with his three young sons to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn from then Soviet Ukraine in 1979. Vindman learned English, excelled in school, put himself through college (State University of New York at Binghamton and Cornell, where he chose the military as a career and joined the ROTC). Years later the Army sent him to Harvard for graduate school. In Iraq in 2004, he was wounded by a roadside bomb and received the Purple Heart. In 2008, he became a Foreign Area Officer, serving with me in challenging Moscow as an Army attaché and later was elevated to high-level roles with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Security Council.

No one should have to pay the heavy price that Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and his family have for fulfilling his oath to “uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.”

On October 28, 2019, Vindman testified before the House Intelligence Committee and the nation that he heard President Trump demand Ukraine investigate Joe Biden, a political opponent, to gain advantage in an upcoming election. Shocked by Trump’s impropriety, Vindman did exactly what he was trained to do: go to White House lawyers and report his concerns. When asked to testify about what he heard, he did his duty.
'Originalism' isn't what you think it is
Sadly, the administration’s response to Vindman’s public testimony was swift and punitive. He and his identical twin brother, Yevgeny, who also served on the National Security Council as a legal affairs officer, were removed from their White House jobs — in essence, summarily fired, and reassigned to the Army. The move was transparently vindictive and intentionally demeaning.
Last summer, Vindman announced his retirement after an exemplary 21-year career serving the United States. His lawyer issued a statement saying that Vindman did so only because of a high-level campaign of bullying and intimidation by the Trump White House. Since the hearings, the Vindmans have been hounded and menaced by Trump followers.
Stone, in contrast, has to date mainly profited from his long, if rocky, relationship with the President. Ever boastful of his knack for “dirty tricks,” Stone was one of Trump’s longest-serving political consultants, and served in Trump’s 2016 campaign until he quit (according to Stone) or was fired (according to Trump). In 2019, Stone was unanimously convicted of seven felonies for illegal activities following the 2016 campaign: five related to lying under oath and two for tampering with witnesses.
In July 2020, an unrepentant Stone enjoyed the windfall of a presidential “Get Out of Jail Free” card. What was once a solemn and rare honor bestowed by a sitting president, Trump has turned presidential pardons into a personal magic wand to subvert the justice system. The cynical move to free Stone was an affront to millions of military and law enforcement personnel who value due process and the rule of law. It also demonstrated unequivocally that our current president’s priorities are an appalling perversion of the values of justice and personal responsibility that most Americans hold dear.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election led to Stone’s arrest, noted in a Washington Post opinion article after the pardon that “Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”

We face a clear choice in 2020. Reelect Trump, who abuses his position, privilege and powers to punish truth-tellers and reward his friends, or elect Joe Biden, an experienced statesman and decent human being, who has stood for the rule of law throughout his career. Our history, our values and our nation’s honor all point to one answer.







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