Fox News host Laura Ingraham and two of her guests Monday night suggested that White House national security official Alexander Vindman, who is set to testify before Congress that he heard President Trump press his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate his political opponents, is guilty of “espionage” and could be a Ukrainian double agent.
During a panel discussion on The Ingraham Angle, Ingraham turned to law professor Alan Dershowitz and former Justice Department official John Yoo—author of the so-called “Torture Memos”—to weigh in on reports that Vindman will tell House impeachment investigators that he twice voiced objections to his superiors about Trump’s actions toward Ukraine.
According to Ingraham, however, the really interesting part of the New York Times report on Vindman wasn’t that he raised concerns over Trump attempting to pressure a foreign government to investigate American citizens but rather that Vindman is a Ukrainian-American immigrant.
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“He’s a decorated colonel, by the way, in the Iraq War,” she said. “But because Colonel Vindman emigrated from Ukraine along with his family when he was a child and is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, Ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with Mr. Giuliani, though they typically communicated in English.”
“Now, wait a second, John,” Ingraham continued, addressing Yoo. “Here we have a U.S. national security official who is advising Ukraine, while working inside the White House, apparently against the president’s interest, and usually, they spoke in English. Isn’t that kind of an interesting angle on this story?!”
Yoo replied that he found it “astounding” before offering his own bit of astounding speculation.
“You know, some people might call that espionage,” the former Bush administration official suggested.
After floating the possibility that Vindman—an Iraq War veteran with a Purple Heart—was a Ukrainian spy, Yoo said he thought Vindman’s upcoming testimony wasn’t “breaking news” because it didn’t add “any new facts” since we can “all make our judgment” on Trump’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president.
“I think that is something the American people should decide rather than just the House,” he added. “And that is the next election.”
