Elon Musk on Wednesday urged retired Military Lt. Col Alexander Vindman “committed treason” and “will pay” after the previous Trump impeachment witness accused the tech billionaire and shut Trump ally of being unwittingly utilized by Russia.
“Vindman is on the payroll of Ukranian oligarchs and has committed treason against the United States,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, responding to feedback Vindman made in an interview about Musk’s reported conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Musk added that Vindman, who performed a central position within the first impeachment of then-President Trump, “will pay the appropriate penalty.”
The Hill has reached out to Vindman’s workforce for remark.
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Musk’s remarks vowing a penalty come as Trump has drawn scrutiny over his repeated pledges to take revenge on his perceived enemies as soon as again within the White Home. The previous president’s fixation on retribution has sparked concern amongst critics, a few of whom fear a second Trump time period will lack among the guardrails that existed in his first 4 years within the Oval Workplace.
The tech billionaire went after Vindman, who labored as a Ukraine professional on the Nationwide Safety Council and later testified in Trump’s 2019 impeachment hearings, after Vindman pointedly criticized Musk in an MSNBC interview circulated on-line.
“Clearly Putin has a type. He likes narcissists and egomaniacs that he knows as a case officer can easily pander to manipulate, to do his dirty work,” Vindman mentioned within the late October interview circulated on-line by X customers this week. “Russia has been using different levers — whether that’s corruption networks, in this case, its influencers like Donald Trump, like Elon Musk, to kind of sow discord.”
The Wall Avenue Journal reported final month that Musk had been in common contact with Putin since late 2022. Putin and Musk reportedly had numerous conversations on private issues, enterprise and geopolitical tensions, whereas generally involving different high-ranking Russian officers, together with Putin’s first deputy chief of employees, Sergei Kiriyenko.
Vindman mentioned Musk’s interactions with Putin are “particularly troubling” for the reason that tech entrepreneur has entry to state secrets and techniques and “Top Secret security clearance.”
“It’s possible that some of that is seeping through,” Vindman mentioned, including, “He’s [Putin] been using the richest man in the world to do his bidding. In some cases, that’s encouraging him probably to support Donald Trump.”
Musk’s aerospace firm, SpaceX, holds contracts with the Division of Protection and Intelligence Neighborhood value billions of {dollars}, whereas his electrical automobile firm Tesla receives federal subsidies.
The tech entrepreneur has reportedly claimed he holds a U.S. safety clearance as a part of these federal agreements.
Vindman has remained a vocal critic of Trump, stating earlier this yr Trump has “every intention” to undo American democracy if reelected.
This isn’t the primary time Musk and Vindman have clashed on social media. The 2 received right into a social media spat in 2022 when Vindman referred to as Musk a “purveyor of hate and division” in response to the X platform proprietor labelling him “both puppet & puppeteer.”
Vindman’s twin brother, Eugene Vindman, a retired Military officer, was elected to the U.S. Home earlier this month to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.).
