Rep. Eugene Vindman’s office said Friday that the congressman hasn’t heard any more from a federal prosecutor who requested information from him last month.
Edward R. Martin Jr., interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, sent a letter dated Feb. 4 to Vindman, a Democrat whose 7th Congressional District includes the Fredericksburg area, saying he had received “requests for clarification” of the lawmaker’s personal financial disclosures.
Martin wanted information on a business Vindman in which was an owner and on payment of “over $150,000 from Georgetown University.”
“Specifically, my questions focus on whether you are receiving payment for work done or for other reasons,” the prosecutor wrote.
Vindman didn’t take kindly to the inquiry, though, which he labeled a “retribution campaign” on the part of President Donald Trump.
The congressman worked in the first Trump administration as the National Security Council’s deputy legal advisor, and he and his twin brother, Alexander, played roles in Trump’s first impeachment. The Vindman brothers are former U.S. Army officers.
“Since he’s become president, Trump’s been focused on weaponizing government and lying to intimidate and silence public servants like me, and it’s not going to work,” Rep. Vindman said in a statement released recently. “He is punishing people who believe in democracy like my constituents — FBI agents, prosecutors, military officials, federal workers and intelligence agency leaders who disagree with him. It’s dangerous and deeply disturbing. He’s angry that we stand in the way and will hold him accountable.”
An attorney for Vindman responded to Martin’s letter earlier this month, but the congressman’s spokeswoman, Amanda Farnan, said there’s been no movement on the matter since.
The business Martin wanted to know about was called Trident Support LLC, and the Vindman brothers — who are Ukrainian immigrants — started it to aid their former home in its conflict with Russia. Rep. Vindman served as Trident’s president, and Alexander Vindman was chief executive.
Rep. Vindman divested his interest in the business Dec. 30 in compliance with House rules.
The Georgetown payment Martin referenced came for work Vindman did with the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, which the school carried out with a $10 million grant from the State Department.
“After [his military] retirement, Eugene investigated war crimes in Ukraine for 18 months, completing 14 trips as a senior consultant for a Department of State-funded program,” a biography on the lawmaker’s official website says.
In his letter to Martin dated March 11, Vindman attorney Eugene R. Fidell said that the U.S. attorney’s inquiry is “transparently part and parcel of a pattern of political retaliation against those who played a role in the first of President Trump’s impeachments and/or who are now engaged in oversight work to hold the executive branch of government accountable for what appears to be unlawful and/or unconstitutional policies.”
Fidell chastised Martin for beginning his letter to Vindman with “Dear Eugene” rather than “addressing him in the customary fashion for official United States Government correspondence to elected officials.”
He also asked that James “Clayton” Cromer, who “represented himself” as Martin’s executive assistant U.S. attorney, stop what Fidell described as repeated contacts with Vindman’s congressional office.
“He has claimed that your inquiry ‘is a big priority for the Department of Justice,’ or words to that effect,” Fidell wrote.
But, Vindman’s attorney continued, it was hard to tell whether that was the case because Martin’s letter asked for a response by “day, month, date, 2025” as if it was a form letter with the details not filled in.
A spokesman from Martin’s office declined to comment on the inquiry Friday.
