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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020
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World
Trump impeachment witnesses lose their jobs
WASHINGTON (AFP) - United States
(US) President Donald Trump on
Friday ired twoof thehighest proile
witnesses in his impeachment
probe, sparking accusations that
he is on a campaign of revenge.
Trump recalled his ambassador
to the European Union (EU),
Gordon Sondland, just hours after
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander
Vindman, a decorated soldier who
worked at the National Security
Council, was ordered out of the
White House.
The irings came two days after
the Republican-majority Senate
acquitted Trump of charges that he
abused his ofice and one day after
he gave a victory speech branding
his opponents as “evil.”
Sondland, a political appointee
whogothispostafterdonatingUSD1
million to Trump’s inauguration, said
in a brief statement, “I was advised
today that the president intends to
recall me effective immediately.”
The ouster of Vindman,
a respected oficer who was
wounded in Iraq, was even more
abrupt, when he was ordered out
of his NSC ofices at the White
House. He was “escorted out of
the White House where he has
dutifully served his country and
his president,” his lawyer David
Pressman said in a statement.
“Vindman was asked to leave for
telling the truth,” Pressman said.
Vindman’s
twin
brother
Yevgeny, also a lieutenant colonel
who worked as an attorney in the
NSC, was ired simultaneously, US
media reported.
Trump has described the im-
peachment process as a hoax, de-
nying there was anything wrong in
his push for Ukraine to open a po-
litically embarrassing investigation
into Democratic presidential candi-
date Joe Biden’s family.
On Friday, Trump told reporters
that he wants Republicans to
retake control of the lower house of
Congress in the next election and
to “expunge” his impeachment.
When asked earlier Friday
whether he wanted Vindman gone,
Trump responded with a veiled
threat.
“I’m not happy with him,” he
said.
“You think I’m supposed to be
happy with him?” Trump said.
Pressman said there was
“no question in the mind of any
American” why Vindman had been
ousted.
“The truth has cost LTC
Alexander Vindman his job, his
career, and his privacy,” he said in a
statement. “He served his country,
even when doing so was fraught
with danger and personal peril.”
Pressman said this was why “the
most powerful man in the world...
decided to exact revenge.”
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden
echoed this, tweeting that the two
irings were “petty retaliation”
carried out “for telling the truth.”
There was also outrage from
Biden, who interrupted a debate
with other presidential hopefuls in
New Hampshire to encourage the
audience onto its feet in honour of
Vindman.
Vindman served as director of
European affairs on the National
SecurityCouncil, with responsibility
for Ukraine.
Crucially, he was present during
a July 25 phone call during which
Trump asked Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky to open an
investigation into Biden.
House Democrats argued that
the call was part of a plot to coerce
a foreign ally into helping him ruin
Biden’s chances in November’s
presidential election.
Subpoenaed by Congress to
testify at the House impeachment
hearings,
the
Ukrainian-born
Vindman gave damning evidence.
“It is improper for the president
of the United States to demand a
foreign government investigate a
US citizen and a political opponent,”
File photo of then National Security Council aide Lieutenant Colonel
Alexander Vindman (L) with his twin, Army Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny
Vindman on Capitol Hill in Washington. PHOTO: AP
Vindman said in testimony that
riveted television viewers.
Sondland told lawmakers he
followed the president’s orders
in seeking a “quid pro quo” deal
for Ukraine to investigate Biden in
exchange for getting Zelensky a
coveted White House visit.
Sondland said Trump’s personal
lawyer Rudy Giuliani led the effort
at Trump’s direction to pressure
Zelensky for the investigation
and that top oficials in the White
House and State Department knew
about it.
That testimony helped build the
case leading to Trump becoming
only the third president ever
impeached by Congress, before his
acquittal this week.
LOUISVILLE
(AP)
-
Extreme
wind gusts, blowing snow and
widespread loodingmade traveling
treacherous on Friday as a storm
systemmoved into the northeastern
United States (US), leaving rising
water and at least ive deaths in its
wake across the South.
More than 400,000 homes and
businesses were without power
Friday after the National Weather
Service warned of gusts up to
60 mph from Virginia into New
England. Falling trees damaged
homes and power lines in many
places. North Carolina and Virginia,
where hundreds of people had to be
pulled from looded homes, had the
most customers without electricity,
according to
poweroutages.us.
Withwater levels were rising fast
after up to eight inches of rain in just
three days, the Tennessee Valley
Authority said it began making
controlled releases from some of
its 49 dams in Tennessee, Georgia,
Alabama and North Carolina.
That could lead to more looding
downstream, so people who live
near the water should be wary, said
James Everett, senior manager of
the utility’s river forecast centre in
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Creek water was still raging on
Friday in Alabama’s Buck’s Pocket
State Park, where a person was
seen inside a car as it disappeared
under the surface two days earlier.
Rangers walked for miles
above the swollen creek but
found no trace of the vehicle, so
authorities sent up a state heli-
copter crew on Friday.
“The weather is better, but the
water is not. The water is several
feet higher than normal. It’s
extremely high and fast.” Alabama
Trooper Chuck Daniel told The
Associated Press. “Until that water
slows down, nobody’s going to get
in that water.”
Bad weather moves into
Eastern states; five dead in South
Emergency responders survey damage on West Main Street after a powerful storm swept through in Westminster,
Md. PHOTO: AP
ATHENS (AFP) - Police on the
Greek island of Lesbos on Friday
said they had arrested seven
people on suspicion of planning
attacks on migrants in the wake
of anti-camp demonstrations
this week.
The seven men, aged 17 to
24, were arrested on Thursday
in possession of makeshift clubs
and a metal rod, police said.
“An investigation showed
that the suspects had banded
together to carry out illegal acts
mainly against foreign migrants,”
the police said in a statement.
Two more minors are sought
in connection with the case.
Overpopulation in migrant
camps on Lesbos and other
islands near Turkey has led to an
outpouring of anger in recent
days, with locals accusing asylum-
seekers of stealing livestock and
damaging agricultural property.
On Monday, hundreds of
migrants on Lesbos staged
a protest against tougher
new asylum rules and camp
conditions, demanding to be
allowed to leave.
When some of the protesters
neared the village of Moria -
which is close to Greece’s largest
migrant camp - residents called
on the police to deny them entry.
Seven arrested for planning to
beat migrants on Greek island
Riot police observe migrants in Mytilene port on the northeastern
Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece. PHOTO: AP