Did Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Start This Coup?

During Tuesday’s impeachment hearing, Lt. Col. Vindman made a strategic error during his public testimony.  He appears to have perjured himself.

For the record, Vindman was on the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky.  When ranking member Devin Nunes pressed him on whether he discussed the call with anyone outside the White House, the good little soldier said he discussed the call with U.S. State Department Deputy Secretary George Kent and an “individual in the Intelligence Community.”

In a published report at The Washington Examiner, Byron York noted Vindman’s closed-door testimony in the bunker in the basement of the Capitol Building revealed he had “twice taken his concerns to Eisenberg [National Security Council Legal Advisor].  He also told his twin brother Yevgeny Vindman, who is also an Army lieutenant colonel and serves as a National Security Council lawyer. He also told another NSC official, John Erath, and he gave what he characterized as a partial readout of the call to George Kent, a career State Department official who dealt with Ukraine. That led to an obvious question: Did Vindman take his concerns to anyone else? Did he discuss the Trump-Zelensky call with anyone else? It was a reasonable question and an important one. Republicans asked it time and time again. Vindman refused to answer, with his lawyer, Michael Volkov, sometimes belligerently joining in. Through it all, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff stood firm in favor of keeping his committee in the dark.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked Vindman, "You never leaked information?"  He replied, "I never did. I never would. That is preposterous that I would do that."

"Your boss had concerns about your judgment, your former boss, Dr. [Fiona] Hill, had concerns about your judgment, your colleagues had concerns about your judgment, and your colleagues felt there were times when you leaked information," Jordan said. "Any idea why they have those impressions?"

It’s vital to remember Lt. Col. Vindman clearly stated in his public testimony he did speak to an “individual in the Intelligence Community” and when Nunes pressed him to identify the person his attorney intervened to say his client was not going to answer the question.  At that point Chairman Schiff gaveled in to stop the questioning, but Nunes countered asking the Chairman how it was possible to identify the whistleblower if no one knows the name.

“Under advice of my counsel and instructions of the Chairman, I have been advised not to provide any specifics on who I have spoken to inside the Intelligence Community,” Vindman said. “But I can offer that these people were properly cleared individuals with a need to know.”

Nunes said Republicans had tried to subpoena the whistleblower, but the motion was tabled by committee Democrats. Nunes ended his questioning by calling the hearings an “impeachment inquisition.”

Alexander Vindman looks really bad here as he gets grilled by Jim Jordan pic.twitter.com/3rq8qIGpM3

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 19, 2019

After being vaporized by Jordan’s questioning, Vindman snapped back saying, “I was doing my job.”

The “individual in the Intelligence Community” looks more and more like 33-year-old Eric Ciaramella, a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House who had worked with Joe Biden and John Brennan.  Ciaramella left his National Security Council post in the West Wing of the White House in mid-2017 amid concerns about leaks to the media.  He has since returned to Langley, VA where the CIA headquarters is located.

Earlier this year, Adam Schiff recruited two of Ciaramella’s closest allies at the NSC—both of whom were also Obama holdovers—to join his committee staff. He hired one, Sean Misko, in August—the same month the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s phone call was filed.

The graphic accompanying this blog post is Photoshopped®, but then you knew that already.  Photographs of Ciaramella are nearly impossible to find.  Most of the photographs you can find are blurry, but I lucked up and found four very interesting pictures of our whistleblower with Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.

I chose to create the above graphic of Ciaramella with Sen. Schumer to highlight his now-ominous warning from January 2017 on the Rachel Maddow Show:  “Let me tell you;  You take on the Intelligence Community—they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Schiff’s Commissariat And His Soviet-Style Impeachment Proceedings

For the unforgiveable sin of defeating Hillary Clinton and laying waste to the legacy of The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer, Democrats have rushed headlong into their extraordinary attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 Presidential Election by removing President Trump from office through what Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) described as “Soviet-style impeachment proceedings.”

Will this obsession paired with the polarization it has enflamed for three years become fatal to our republic?

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution establishing a framework for impeachment proceedings, belatedly granting Republicans the ability to subpoena witnesses, but only if House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff agrees—the same Adam Schiff who lied about evidence of Trump-Russia collusion for more than two years, lied about what President Trump said on the phone call with the president of Ukraine and lied about his committee meeting with the “whistleblower.”

Following the resolution vote, Republicans called an impromptu press conference during which Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) challenged Schiff to testify as a witness angrily saying, "Come to the Judiciary Committee and take every question asked of you. Be the first witness and take every question asked of you, starting with your own involvement with the whistleblower. Folks, this ain't over. Get ready. The cloud that is dropping will be dropping on their heads because process matters and substance will always win out in the end and this President has nothing to worry about on substance."

Process leads to substance.

Apart from a fair process, Congress will never find the truth. pic.twitter.com/J3KqgXcuOp

— Rep. Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) October 31, 2019

Why would Collins so brazenly call out Mr. Schiff?

A protégé of former CIA Director John Brennan has been identified by Paul Sperry of Real Clear Investigations as the so-called “whistleblower” whose claims were the proximate cause of the Schiff–Pelosi impeachment proceeding against Trump. Eric Ciaramella (pronounced char-a-MEL-ah), the son of a bank executive and a 2008 Yale graduate, was evidently handpicked by Brennan in 2015 for the National Security Council as an expert on Ukraine policy.

At the White House, Ciaramella worked closely with Susan Rice, President Obama’s National Security Adviser and also with Vice President Joe Biden. Perhaps the most troubling revelation in Sperry’s article was that Ciaramella also worked closely with Alexandra Chalupa, a Democratic National Committee operative who, in 2016, left her DNC job to pursue her own “investigation” of the Trump campaign.  

Sperry goes on to reveal, “…with Ciaramella’s name long under wraps, interest in the intelligence analyst is so high that a handful of former colleagues have compiled a roughly 40-page research dossier on him. A classified version of the document is circulating on Capitol Hill, and briefings have been conducted based on it.”

“Everyone knows who he is. CNN knows. The Washington Post knows. The New York Times knows. Congress knows. The White House knows. Even the President knows who he is,” said Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and national security adviser to Trump, who has fielded dozens of calls from the media.

Perry’s exposé further states, “Earlier this year, Schiff recruited two of Ciaramella’s closest allies at the NSC—both whom were also Obama holdovers—to join his committee staff. He hired one, Sean Misko, in August—the same month the whistleblower complaint was filed.”

Even more intriguing, Republicans participating in the restricted inquiry hearings have been asking witnesses about Ciaramella and repeatedly injecting his name into the deposition record, angering Schiff and Democrats, who sources say are planning to scrub the references to Ciaramella from any transcripts of the hearings they may agree to release.

It is abundantly clear the most important witness of all is being protected from scrutiny and the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), steadfastly believes the American people have the right to know who is trying to bring down the president for whom 63 million voted.

UPDATED to include information from Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel.

Pelosi’s impeachment resolution was supposed to deprive the GOP of its complaint that the process wasn’t formal. But it just formalized a rigged process, writes @KimStrassel https://t.co/rcmWLBU3e8 via @WSJ

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 31, 2019

Lanny Must Be Pleased

A giant rat got stuck inside a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.  It struggled mightily to free itself.

Democrat animal rescuers was dispatched to liberate the rat writhing in ignominy when it became clear it could not free itself from a gap in the sewer cover.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), ranking member of the Committee, was the epitome of an angry prosecutor as he verbally disemboweled the rat.

Jordan argued in his opening statement, “I want everyone to think about this: Michael Cohen, the first announced witness for the 116th Congress, is a guy who’s going to prison for lying to Congress. Mr. Chairman, you will always be identified with this hearing and we all need to know what this is.  This is the Michael Cohen hearing presented by Lanny Davis.  That’s right. Lanny Davis choreographed the whole thing, the Clintons’ best friend, loyalist, operative.  Lanny Davis put this all together.  He said the hearing was his idea, he selected this hearing, he had to talk Michael Cohen into coming and most importantly he had to persuade the chairman [Elijah Cummings] to actually have it.”

“I’ll say one thing about the Democrats, they stick to the playbook. So now, Clinton operative Lanny Davis has persuaded the chairman of the Oversight Committee to give a convicted felon a forum to tell stories and lie about the United States so that they can all lie about their impeachment process.”

Everything you need to know about Cohen’s testimony is sitting behind him: Lanny Davis. This is about revenge for Clinton’s 2016 loss in 2020. pic.twitter.com/i84Ks8Pttt

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) February 27, 2019

The rat’s legal team includes Michael Monico, partner in the Chicago law firm Monico & Spevak, who practices high-stakes white collar litigation.  Monico told WGN’s The Roe Conn Show he is representing Empire star Jussie Smollett.

Attorneys spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.  They thrive on attention; just like a child.

Cohen will surrender to federal authorities on May 6 to begin his three-year sentence for lying to Congress in Otisville Federal Correctional Institution.  Forbes magazine ranked it as one of America’s “Ten Cushiest Prisons”.  It’s been referred to as a “castle behind bars.” 

Rep. Jordan ans Rep. Meadows are referring Michael Cohen to the Justice Department on allegations he lied during his testimony yesterday. They wrote a 30-page letter to AG Barr outlining several statements they say were false https://t.co/XGAPP9Lryw pic.twitter.com/IrFaOubRRk

— Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) February 28, 2019

As Andrew Klavan humorously wrote, “I sit before you today as a man who pled guilty to lying to Congress under oath—to testify to Congress under oath that I am not lying this time but lied last time—unless I’m lying this time too in which case forget I said anything.”

UPDATE:  Welcome readers of Bad Blue Uncensored News.  We’re glad you’re here and we thank Doug Ross for linking to this post.