Eugene Vindman

Yevgeny Semyon "Eugene" Vindman (Ukrainian: Євген Семенович Віндман; born June 6, 1975) is a retired United States Army colonel and a national security and international law expert.

After the death of their mother, the three-year-old twins and their older brother Leonid were brought to New York in December 1979 by their father, Semyon (Simon).

They grew up in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood.

The twins appear briefly with their maternal grandmother in the 1985 Ken Burns documentary The Statue of Liberty.

Vindman speaks fluent Russian.

He graduated in 1992 from Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School.

In 1997, Vindman graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton in Binghamton, New York with a bachelor of arts degree in history.

He took part in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps while in college and received a second lieutenant's commission in the Army's Infantry Branch in January 1997.

Vindman completed the Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC) at Fort Benning in 1998 and was sent to the 82D Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, NC, where he led both airborne infantry and airborne anti-armor platoons.

In addition to an overseas assignment to Germany, Vindman is a combat veteran of the Iraq War.

He later received a Master of Science degree from Central Michigan University in General Administration, a Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2006, and a Master in Legal Letters (LLM) from the Judge Advocate Generals Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS).

He was promoted to Major in 2006, to Lieutenant Colonel in 2016, and to Colonel in 2021.

During his Army career, Vindman earned the Expert Infantryman Badge, the Air Assault Badge, and the Parachutist Badge, as well as three Army Achievement Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, one Joint Service Commendation Medal, and six Meritorious Service Medals.

Vindman served in a variety of roles in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, including senior policy attorney-adviser for the labor and employment division at the Pentagon, senior prosecutor (DA equivalent) for Fort Hood, and operational law attorney for U.S. Forces-Iraq.

He served in Iraq from January 2011 to June 2011 in Operation New Dawn.

He served for 12 years as an infantry officer, including an assignment as an airborne infantry platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division.

He is an expert in the law of armed conflict, military law, government ethics, and national security law.

He is the author of multiple articles on national security, cyber, and international relations featured in Foreign Affairs magazine, Foreign Policy magazine, Lawfare, and Just Security blog.

Beginning in 2012, Vindman became an Army Judge Advocate.

In this capacity, he served as a brigade judge advocate in Germany and senior trial counsel/ chief of justice for Fort Hood, Texas, at the time the busiest court martial judication in the world.

As senior trial counsel, he tried 7 serious felony cases including kidnapping, sexual assaults, and fraud.

Returning to Washington, D.C. he was then a senior labor attorney-advisor for the Department of the Army.

Vindman was on the Army Staff at the Pentagon from July 2016 to July 2018.

In July 2018, Vindman accepted an assignment with the National Security Council.

In his role on the NSC, Vindman became a deputy legal advisor.

He was later promoted to agency ethics official on the NSC and became the senior ethics official on the NSC.

While he was assigned to the NSC, his portfolio included work with international organizations such as NATO, the International Criminal Court, African affairs, emerging technologies, international humanitarian law, human rights, and ethics.

Vindman came to national attention in October 2019 when his twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, testified before the United States Congress regarding the Trump–Ukraine scandal.

Yevgeny received the report of President Trump's phone call from Alex and reported the call to senior White House Lawyers.

Alex's testimony provided evidence that resulted in a charge of abuse of power in the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Yevgeny Semyon Vindman (né Yevgeny Semyonovich Vindman) and his identical twin brother Alexander were born in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union to a Jewish family.

On July 25, 2019, Alex Vindman listened to a phone call between Presidents Trump and Zelensky and was concerned by the contents, saying that he "did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen," and "was worried about the implications for the U.S. Government's support of Ukraine."

Alex believed that the call would "undermine U.S. national security."

Alex immediately reported the call to Y. Vindman, who was the lead ethics attorney and a deputy legal advisor.

Vindman recognized the serious legal ramification of the call, including violations of law, and the legal/political jeopardy President Trump faced.

Vindman advised that they both further report the call through channels to the NSC's lead counsel, John Eisenberg.

Vindman had two more conversations with Mr. Eisenberg about the July 25, 2019, phone call.

The first follow-up conversation occurred on August 1, 2019.

Vindman sought to clarify with Mr. Eisenberg their role and obligations as attorneys, and whether as attorneys they were duty-bound to represent the Office of the President of the United States or the individual serving as President.

He was a deputy legal advisor for the United States National Security Council (NSC) until he was reassigned on February 7, 2020.