President Donald Trump on Friday criticized Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia for voting guilty on two articles of impeachment, aiming to weaken the senator's political standing in a state Trump carried by a whopping 42 percentage points in 2016. Trump tweeted that he was “very surprised & disappointed" with Manchin's votes. Trump asserted in a subsequent tweet that Manchin was “just a puppet" for the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a star witnesses in the inquiry that led to the impeachment of President Trump, was dismissed from his post on the National Security Council and escorted from the White House Friday, according to his lawyer.

A US Army officer who testified in President Donald Trump's impeachment probe was pushed out of his White House job on Friday, his lawyer said. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman was escorted out of the White House where he worked on the National Security Council, with his lawyer calling the move an act of revenge by the president. "Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth," lawyer David Pressman said.

The White House served up a double dose of seemingly vendetta-driven dismissals on Friday.Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert, was fired on Friday in what his lawyer says was a decision based on "revenge" for Vindman's impeachment testimony. Vindman's twin brother Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman also worked for the NSC and, despite giving no public statements about President Trump or impeachment, was fired along along with him, The New York Times reports.Alexander Vindman was escorted from the White House on Friday after Trump "decided to exact revenge," Vindman's lawyer wrote in a statement. That same revenge apparently extended to Yevgeny Vindman, who two sources say was escorted out at the same time as his brother, per the Times. Alexander Vindman's lawyer later confirmed Yevgeny Vindman's firing.> Full statement on Yevgeny here: pic.twitter.com/ykLR3TkqWL> > — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 7, 2020Alexander Vindman testified for Congress in Trump's impeachment inquiry, calling Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "improper" and saying he reported it to a White House lawyer. Yevgeny Vindman, by all public accounts, didn't do any of that.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's impeachment acquittal Every single film nominated for a 2020 Oscar, ranked Vanguard is an anomaly in the investment world. Can it stay that way?

Americans may not be betting on Michael Bloomberg yet, but betting markets still think he's got a chance.The former New York City mayor has totally leapfrogged former Vice President Joe Biden in an average of betting markets, RealClearPolitics' average shows. Bloomberg has a 19 percent chance of winning, per ElectionBettingOdds.com, while PredictIt's betting market gives Bloomberg a 23-cent "yes" price to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 43 cents.Bloomberg's rise coincides with a major drop in Biden's betting chances, likely stemming from the former vice president's dismal performance in Monday's Iowa caucuses. Even former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has come close to surpassing Biden in RealClearPolitics' average, and he did so decisively on PredictIt. Still, ElectionBettingOdds.com has President Trump with the best chance of winning the whole election this fall, giving him a 59.5 percent chance to Sanders' 14.8 percent and Bloomberg's 10 percent.The Biden drop was also good news for Sanders. He surpassed Biden on the betting markets in late January, and is now far and away the top candidate to win the Democratic nomination. Sanders, and according to RealClearPolitics' betting markets average, no top-ranking candidate has put that much space between themselves and second place since Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) bump in October of last year.More stories from theweek.com Elizabeth Warren's last chance Susan Collins says she's 'obviously' against Trump's payback targeting impeachment witnesses American democracy is dying

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top White House expert on Ukraine who testified in the House phase of the recently concluded impeachment trial, was fired from the White House Friday and escorted out, according to his attorney."LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth," Vindman's lawyer David Pressman said in a statement. "The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy."Vindman, a National Security Council official, testified to the House Intelligence Committee in November that he had discussed the controversial July 25 phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president with an unknown intelligence community member as well as State Department official George Kent, who also testified to lawmakers.Vindman listened to the call between Trump and Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelensky, during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Bidens. The White House meanwhile temporarily froze $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, prompting Democrats to accuse Trump of attempting a quid pro quo in which the release of the aid was contingent on Ukraine's agreement to investigate the former vice president.Vindman told Congress he felt it "improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent.""The most powerful man in the world - buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit" has "decided to exact revenge" on Vindman, his lawyer said.Trump had expressed frustration with Vindman's testimony and on Friday said he was "not happy" with him."You think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not. They'll make that decision. You'll be hearing," Trump said.Also on Friday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the Pentagon does not allow retribution against service members.“We protect all of our persons, service members, from retribution or anything like that," Esper told reporters. “We welcome back all of our service members wherever they served, to any assignment they are given.”Vindman was not scheduled to leave the White House until July. He is expected to return to work at the Pentagon.

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump mostly stifled his fury toward the impeachment witnesses who detailed, over hundreds of hours of testimony, the turmoil wrought by his handling of Ukraine policy. Now that he’s been acquitted of two impeachment charges, they’re bracing for payback.It may have begun on Friday. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council analyst who gave damning testimony in the House impeachment inquiry, was escorted out of the White House and removed from his post, hours after Trump told reporters “I’m not happy with him.”It’s not just the witnesses like Vindman who could face retribution for speaking out. The deeper anxiety among many career national security officials is that Trump, feeling vindicated by the Senate’s acquittal, will act on long-harbored suspicions that bureaucrats at the State Department and the NSC are out to undermine his agenda.Unburdened by impeachment, they fear that Trump could unleash his anger at the foreign policy establishment he’s long equated with what some of his advisers and supporters call the “Deep State.”The retaliation could come in any number of forms, according to numerous State Department staff who discussed their concerns about what comes next on condition of anonymity: firings or transfers, or the slashing of staff or budgets. Some fret that Secretary of State Michael Pompeo -- who throughout the impeachment process repeatedly declined to defend beleaguered department officials publicly -- won’t shield them.“Active-duty officers are scared of word getting out and then facing retribution, not just from the president but also from political ambassadors,” said Lewis Lukens, the former deputy envoy in London who was removed last year by Trump’s choice to lead the embassy there, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. “The president’s acquittal will reinforce in his mind that he can get rid of career people, not just at State, who he thinks are blocking or slow-rolling his agenda.”One of the most compelling narratives of the impeachment saga focused on the career officials who felt duty-bound to answer congressional subpoenas to testify at House hearings despite the State Department ordering them not to. Those officials detailed their shock at how the president and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, ran a parallel foreign policy centered on Trump’s domestic political needs.None of those witnesses were called before the Senate, and little about the president’s attitude toward Ukraine seems to have changed.The president says he’s convinced that Ukraine, not Russia, sought to undermine the 2016 election and did so to help Democrat Hillary Clinton, not him. He still believes that Joe Biden sought to quash an investigation into his son, Hunter. And he continues to shower praise on Giuliani, who the witnesses portrayed as an interloper who disrupted policy.“It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars,” Trump said of his critics Thursday in a “celebration” televised from the White House. “This should never happen to another president ever.”The result is that the disjointed policy style diplomats decried in their testimony continues. When Pompeo was in Ukraine last week, he affirmed U.S. support while declining to offer President Volodymyr Zelenskiy the invitation to visit the White House that he has long sought. Meanwhile, advisers like Giuliani continue to seek an investigation of the Bidens.‘Severe Disconnect’“It’s completely broken,” Kenneth Pollack, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and former National Security Council director, said of policy making under Trump. “You have this very severe disconnect between the Oval Office and the principals and the rest of the bureaucracy.”The first post-trial victims of Trump’s wrath was Vindman, who raised concerns to the top lawyer at the National Security Council over what he viewed as the president’s inappropriate demand that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic rival, during a July 25 call with Zelenskiy.Vindman’s DepartureVindman, the director of European Affairs on the National Security Council, testified before the House impeachment inquiry in full military uniform with the Purple Heart that he was awarded after being wounded in Iraq. “This is America, this is the country I’ve served and defended, that all of my brothers have served -- and here, right matters,” said Vindman, whose family came to America from the Soviet Union when he was a child.“Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth,” his attorney, David Pressman, said in a statement on Friday. “His honor, his commitment to right, frightened the powerful.”White House officials, who asked not to be identified, said that Vindman was simply on a roster of NSC staff to be removed as part of an effort to downsize the operation. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Friday that Vindman, who remains in the military, won’t face any retaliation from the Pentagon. Testimony IgnoredParticularly dispiriting for State Department officials during Trump’s Senate trial was the degree to which their testimony was ignored. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who ensured that no witnesses would be called, dismissed it as a “nonsense impeachment.” Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said the president’s behavior was “shameful and wrong” but argued for acquittal because the Democrats’ case was built on a “rotted foundation.”Trump’s defense team argued for an expansive view of presidential power and a vastly reduced role for civil servants, even in cases where Trump’s actions may have been inappropriate.“Our system is somewhat unique in the very broad powers that are assigned to the Executive,” Philbin said. Career staff, he argued, “have no accountability and they have no legitimacy or authority that comes from an election by the people.”Down to PompeoThe question of retaliation could ultimately come down to Pompeo, the top U.S. diplomat who championed the return of “swagger” to the State Department but whose reputation took a hit during the impeachment saga.So far the fallout from impeachment has been relatively muted. Gordon Sondland, the hotelier and U.S. ambassador to the European Union -- who testified there was a “quid pro quo” in Trump’s Ukraine dealings that everybody knew -- still held his post as of Friday afternoon. His Twitter feed is stuffed with pictures from his meetings with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, European parliamentarians and Venezuelan opposition leaders.Others are also getting on with it. David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, played a crucial role lifting a block on more than $100 million in aid to Lebanon. Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary for Europe, is in Europe for a conference.Others have been less fortunate. Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine at the center of so much of the saga, retired last week. Former Pompeo adviser Michael McKinley resigned as the impeachment drama began, partly in protest of how Yovanovitch was treated. The U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, departed, and no replacement has been named. Yovanovitch’s successor, acting Ambassador William Taylor, was handpicked by Pompeo but sent home days ahead of the secretary’s planned visit in early January.“If impeachment has shown us anything, it’s that it will chill anyone’s willingness to come forward,” said Emma Ashford, a research fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington. “If they keep their heads down, maybe they’ll survive. But if they stick their heads above the parapet, it could end really badly.”(Updates with Vindman pushed out of White House in second graf)\--With assistance from Justin Sink and Jordan Fabian.To contact the reporters on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

President Trump said Friday that Congress should expunge his impeachment from the congressional record since it was a "political hoax."“That's a very good question," Trump said when asked whether Congress should wipe the record clean. "Should they expunge the impeachment in the House? They should because it was a hoax. It was a total political hoax.”The Senate acquitted Trump on Wednesday of the two impeachment charges against him, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The president had blasted the impeachment process for months as politically motivated by Democrats to remove a duly elected president they oppose.House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy floated the possibility earlier this week, saying he would attempt to expunge Trump's impeachment from the House record should the GOP retake the majority in the lower chamber and elect him speaker.“This is the fastest, weakest, most political impeachment in history," McCarthy said. "I don’t think it should stay on the books."Other Republicans have backed the idea of expunging the record as well.Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, said holding a vote on a resolution that would seek to expunge the impeachment would "send a loud message that this was a political, partisan effort."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed the possibility of expungement later on Friday, adding a promise that Republicans would not take back the majority in the House this year.“They can’t do that,” Pelosi said. “First of all they’re not getting the chamber back, but apart from that, there’s no expunging. If they don’t want to honor their oath of office, then they’re going to expunge from their own souls the violation of the Constitution that they made.”

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump beat back a lawsuit by 215 congressional Democrats who say he has been violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause by profiting from foreign government spending at his Washington hotel and other properties, capping a triumphant week for the president.A 3-0 federal appeals court in Washington on Friday said the House and Senate members lack legal standing to sue the president because they had not been injured by his alleged conduct. None of the judges was appointed to the court by Trump.The ruling is the latest victory for Trump, who was acquitted in the Senate Wednesday on articles of impeachment brought by the Democratic-controlled House and found his opposition in disarray following their botched Iowa Caucus.Trump addressed the ruling as he departed the White House for a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s another phony case and we won it three to nothing,” the president said.The court left open the possibility that a congressional lawsuit might be able to move forward if a majority of either house authorized it. House Democrats are still reviewing the ruling and have yet to decide whether to hold a vote on a new suit, according to a senior aide. Nevada Democrat Dina Titus, one of the House members who participated in the dismissed suit, on Friday tweeted her support for such action.Supreme CourtFriday’s decision was the second by a federal appeals court throwing out an emoluments lawsuits against the president. Another appeals court allowed a third case to proceed though, potentially setting the issue up for consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.The Constitution bars presidents from accepting things of value, or emoluments, from foreign governments without congressional consent. The Democrats who filed the lawsuit had sought an order requiring the president to get approval to keep any profits from foreign governments and state-controlled companies.The appeals court overturned an earlier ruling that found the Democrats had standing because the president deprived them “of the opportunity to give or withhold their consent [to foreign emoluments], thereby injuring them in their roles as members of Congress.”Trump opted to retain his domestic and international business holdings, including the luxury Trump International Hotel located just blocks from the White House, after winning the presidency. In lieu of divestiture, he said he was transferring control of those entities to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric and to Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.In their lawsuit, the Democrats claimed the president has been enriched by foreign governments including those of Saudi Arabia and China.Limited DecisionThe judges did not address Trump’s argument that profits from an ongoing business shouldn’t be considered emoluments. His family-owned company opened the Washington hotel, in a building leased from the government, a few months before the 2016 election.The lawyer who represented Congress stressed the decision’s limited nature. “It is important to recognize that today’s ruling is not a decision on the merits,” Elizabeth Wydra, of the Constitutional Accountability Center, said in a statement. “The Court of Appeals did not in any way approve of President Trump’s repeated and flagrant violations of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause.”U.S. Circuit Judges David Tatel, a nominee of President Bill Clinton, Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was named to the bench by George H.W. Bush and Thomas Griffith, an appointee of George W. Bush, issued the ruling. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, last year dismissed an emoluments suit filed jointly by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia, though the court agreed in October to reconsider their decision An appeals court in New York revived a third suit in September, after a lower court dismissed it.The case is Blumenthal v. Trump, 19-5237, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington).(Updates with comments from Democrats)\--With assistance from Jordan Fabian and Erik Wasson.To contact the reporters on this story: Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net;Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net;Andrew Harris in federal court in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Anthony LinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump moved swiftly on Friday to exact retribution on those he blames for his impeachment, purging his administration of two witnesses who testified against him in the House inquiry just two days after his acquittal by the Senate.Gordon Sondland announced he’d been ousted as U.S. ambassador to the European Union just hours after the White House dismissed Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council. Both offered damaging details about Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine.In his first comment on the matter, Trump on Saturday lashed out at Vindman on Twitter, terming the decorated military veteran “very insubordinate.”Vindman was escorted from the White House in the afternoon, along with his twin brother, Yevgeny a senior lawyer and ethics official on the NSC, Alexander Vindman’s lawyer said. The lawyer, David Pressman, said Alexander Vindman “was asked to leave for telling the truth.”“The truth has cost Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy,” Pressman said in a statement.Hours later, Sondland announced that he, too, was no longer a member of the Trump administration.“I was advised today that the president intends to recall me effective immediately as United States ambassador to the European Union,” he said in a statement.The removal of Sondland and the Vindmans -- two days after Trump’s acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial -- suggests Trump is feeling emboldened to retaliate against people whom he thinks betrayed him.Sondland ultimately decided to leave his post, but departed amid intense pressure from officials at the White House and in the upper echelons of the State Department intent on purging people seen as disloyal, according to two people familiar with the matter.Trump appeared to telegraph the moves earlier Friday. Asked at the White House whether he wanted Alexander Vindman to leave, Trump said: “Well, I’m not happy with him.”White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Thursday on Fox News that Trump believes he was treated “horribly” during impeachment and “maybe people should pay for that.”Reaction to the abrupt departures came swiftly from Capitol Hill.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that Vindman’s firing “was a clear and brazen act of retaliation that showcases the president’s fear of the truth. The president’s vindictiveness is precisely what led Republican senators to be accomplices to his cover-up.”“The administration’s dismissal of Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, his brother and U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland is clear political retaliation, the likes of which is seen only in authoritarian countries around the world,” Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee New Jersey Democrat, said in a statement.Trump has repeatedly slammed his critics since his acquittal on Wednesday. He accused Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican who voted to convict, of using “religion as a crutch” in justifying his vote. Romney, a devout Mormon, cited his “promise before God to apply impartial justice” as he explained on the Senate floor why he decided Trump was guilty.The president tweeted on Friday that he was “very surprised & disappointed” with Senator Joe Manchin’s vote to convict. The White House hoped that Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, would vote for acquittal.“No President has done more for the great people of West Virginia than me,” Trump wrote. “I was told by many that Manchin was just a puppet for Schumer & Pelosi. That’s all he is!”Sondland, a hotelier from Portland, Oregon, who contributed $1 million to the Trump inaugural committee before being nominated to the prestigious post in Brussels, offered some of the most damning testimony of the impeachment saga.He confirmed there had been a “quid pro quo” regarding Trump demands that Ukraine investigate his political enemies and that top aides, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, knew exactly what was going on.Vindman, a decorated officer who testified in his Army dress uniform, raised the alarm over the president’s July 25 telephone call with Ukraine’s new leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Before his testimony to House Democrats, the only account of that call came from an anonymous whistle-blower whose identity has remained largely hidden, and a partial transcript released by the White House.At the State Department, diplomats fear that Trump could unleash his anger at the foreign policy establishment he’s long equated with what some of his advisers and supporters call the “Deep State.”“Active-duty officers are scared of word getting out and then facing retribution, not just from the president but also from political ambassadors,” said Lewis Lukens, the former deputy envoy in London who was removed last year by Trump’s choice to lead the embassy there, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.“The president’s acquittal will reinforce in his mind that he can get rid of career people, not just at State, who he thinks are blocking or slow-rolling his agenda,” Lukens added.Sondland insinuated himself into Ukraine policy, although that country is not part of the EU, and played a key role in conveying the demands to Ukraine for political investigations in exchange for military aid.He testified that Rudy Giuliani -- the president’s lawyer -- had demanded a quid pro quo from Ukraine by holding up a White House meeting unless the country’s leader announced investigations against Trump’s political enemies.“I know that members of this committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’ As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes,” Sondland said in his opening statement.After his explosive testimony, in which he often seemed almost jovial, he returned to Brussels, but numerous people at the State Department say he was sidelined and no longer had a hand in important policy matters -- like Ukraine.“I am grateful to President Trump for having given me the opportunity to serve, to Secretary Pompeo for his consistent support, and to the exceptional and dedicated professionals at the U.S. Mission to the European Union,” Sondland added in his statement.Calls to Sondland went unanswered on Friday night.The White House was preparing to portray Vindman’s departure as part of a broader downsizing of the NSC staff, not retribution, according to people familiar with the matter. NSC spokesman John Ullyot said he couldn’t comment on personnel matters.Some other officials are being targeted for removal from the NSC would be reassigned because they’re perceived as being disloyal to the president, three people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity, owing to the sensitivity of personnel moves.Senior staff were informed on Thursday that some aides would be leaving the White House, the people added. The moves have been in the works since at least last week and could come as soon as Friday.Vindman, a Ukraine expert and the director of European Affairs on the NSC, became a target of Trump’s ire because he raised concerns to the top lawyer at the National Security Council over what he viewed as Trump’s inappropriate demand that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic rival, during the call with Zelenskiy.Vindman testified that Trump exerted “inappropriate” pressure on Zelenskiy. Vindman said he felt a responsibility to come forward.Promise From PentagonVindman said the Trump-Zelenskiy call so alarmed him that he reported it through the administration’s legal channels.After his appearance, Vindman was assailed on Twitter by Donald Trump Jr., who called him “a low level partisan bureaucrat and nothing more.”Vindman’s rotation at the NSC was supposed to end this summer. His next rotation would likely be at the Pentagon. In November, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that Vindman wouldn’t face any retaliation from the Pentagon over his testimony.(Updates with Trump tweet in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Josh Wingrove, Roxana Tiron and Billy House.To contact the reporters on this story: John Harney in Washington at jharney2@bloomberg.net;Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.