AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER at AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump’s team, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter. At least some of these nonpolitical employees have begun packing up their belongings since being asked about their loyalty to Trump — after they had earlier been given indications that they would be asked to stay on at the NSC in the new administration, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters. Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, in recent days publicly signaled his intention to get rid of all nonpolitical appointees and career intelligence officials serving on the NSC by Inauguration Day to ensure the council is staffed with those who support Trump’s agenda. A wholesale removal of foreign policy and national security experts from the NSC on Day 1 of the new administration could deprive Trump’s team of considerable expertise and institutional knowledge at a time when the U.S. is grappling with difficult policy challenges in Ukraine, the Mideast and beyond. Such questioning could also make new policy experts brought in to the NSC less likely to speak up about policy differences and concerns. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that he has not been told by Waltz or Trump transition team officials that the incoming team has conducted or planned on conducting such vetting. But Sullivan in recent days has made a robust case for the incoming Trump administration to hold over career government employees assigned to the NSC at least through the early going of the new administration. He called the career appointees “patriots” who have served “without fear or favor for both Democratic and Republican administrations. ”

[...] The NSC staff members being questioned about their loyalty are largely subject matter experts who have been loaned to the White House by federal agencies — the State Department, FBI and CIA, for example — for temporary duty that typically lasts one to two years. If removed from the NSC, they would be returned to their home agencies. Vetting of the civil servants began in the last week, the official said. Some of them have been questioned about their politics by Trump appointees who will serve as directors on the NSC and who had weeks earlier asked them to stick around. There are dozens of civil servants at the directorate level at the NSC who had anticipated remaining at the White House in the new administration. A second U.S. official told the AP that he was informed weeks ago by incoming Trump administration officials that they planned on raising questions with career appointees that work at the White House, including those at the NSC, about their political leanings. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, however, had not yet been formally vetted.

[...] Trump, during his first term, was scarred when two career military officers detailed to the NSC became whistleblowers, raising their concerns about Trump’s 2019 call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which the president sought an investigation of Biden and his son Hunter. That episode led to Trump’s first impeachment. Alexander Vindman was listening to the call in his role as an NSC official when he became alarmed at what he heard. He approached his twin brother, Eugene, who at the time was serving as an ethics lawyer at the NSC. Both Vindmans reported their concerns to superiors. Alexander Vindman said in a statement Friday that the Trump team’s approach to staffing the NSC “will have a chilling effect on senior policy staff across the government.” He added, “Talented professionals, wary of being dismissed for principled stances or offering objective advice, will either self-censor or forgo service altogether.” The two men were heralded by Democrats as patriots for speaking out and derided by Trump as insubordinate. Eugene Vindman in November was elected as a Democrat to represent Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.

The Trump campaign team is conducting an authoritarian purge of civil servants working at the National Security Council by letting only loyal Trumpists serve on the Council as part of the MAGA cult’s war on expertise.

See Also:

Raw Story: Security experts grilled on how they voted as major White House cull begins: insiders

The New Republic: Trump Appointee Has Unhinged Plan for Purging Government Workers

PROTECT Alexander’s twin brother Lt. Col. Yevgeny (Eugene) Vindman who also works for Trump’s National Security Council from retribution.

Now

“Trump asked the colonel to join the energy secretary, Rick Perry, to travel to Ukraine to attend the new president’s inauguration.“

“Alexander’s twin brother Yevgeny, who goes by Eugene, is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army”

“Eugene also serves on Trump’s National Security Council, as a lawyer handling ethics issues”

“The twins both married and they have offices across from one another in the West Wing of the White House“

Background

Alexander S. Vindman and his twin brother, Yevgeny, were 3 years old when they fled Ukraine with their father and grandmother, Jewish refugees with only their suitcases and $750, hoping for a better life in the United States.

In the 40 years since, he has become a scholar, diplomat, decorated lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and Harvard-educated Ukraine expert on the White House National Security Council.

Along with their older brother, Leonid, the twins left Kiev with their father, Semyon, shortly after their mother died there. 

Their maternal grandmother came along to help care for them.

The family sold its possessions to survive in Europe while waiting for visas to the United States.

Grew up in the “Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn — known as Little Odessa for its population of refugees from the former Soviet Union”

“Upon arriving in New York City in 1979, my father worked multiple jobs to support us, all the while learning English at night,” Colonel Vindman told House lawmakers on Tuesday. 

“He stressed to us the importance of fully integrating into our adopted country. For many years, life was quite difficult. In spite of our challenging beginnings, my family worked to build its own American dream.”

Military Service and Credentials

In his testimony, the colonel mentioned his “multiple overseas tours,” including in South Korea and Germany, and a 2003 combat deployment to Iraq that left him wounded by a roadside bomb, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart.

Since 2008, he has been an Army foreign area officer — an expert in political-military operations — specializing in Eurasia. 

has a master’s degree from Harvard in Russian, Eastern Europe and Central Asian Studies. 

He has served in the United States’ Embassies in Kiev, Ukraine, and in Moscow

Was the officer specializing in Russia for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before joining the National Security Council in 2018. 

“I am a patriot and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend our country irrespective of party or politics.”

Photographer Carol Kitman’s website has photos that tells the story of the Vindman’s.