In the midst of one of the worst recruiting droughts in recent military history, the U.S. Army will complete the betrayal of American trust begun by a JAG Lawyer by the name of Yevgeny Vindmin. Yes, that name sounds familiar because Yevgeny is the twin brother of Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the key witness in the 2019 impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump.
After being fired by the Trump White House from a key position at the National Security Council, Yevgeny Vindman found a landing spot as the top lawyer for Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD, where the Army Public Health Center is located. Apparently out for vengeance for his perceived mal-treatment at the hands of the Trump Administration, he used his military position, his large social media following, and his command influence to push far-left political policies, particularly in the area of foreign relations and aggressive COVID-19 mitigation measures.
Not enough for him to simply encourage leftist policies, Vindman sought to punish service members under his charge who had religious objections and exercised their legal rights to refuse to go along with these leftist policies. The vindictive Vindman found his ideal victim in the form of one Lieutenant Mark Bashaw, an Army Public Health Officer stationed at the Army Public Health Center.
Bashaw’s duties at the Army Public Health Center included investigating potential risks to personnel from diseases and recommending risk mitigation strategies for his leadership to implement. Lieutenant Bashaw, an openly practicing Christian, was one of the first to identify the significant lies being perpetrated by the Army in the course of pushing various COVID-19 mitigation measures as safe and effective. When his leadership refused to listen to him, he became a congressional whistleblower and played a role in several investigations being run by Senator Ron Johnson. Knowing that the military masking and testing mandates were both ineffective and against the laws governing EUA products, Bashaw ultimately elected to exercise his legal right to refuse these products.
Aware of Bashaw’s Christian values from his Religious Accommodation Request, and seeing a potential political opportunity, Yevgeny Vindman sought to have Bashaw’s chain of command court-martial him for exercising of his rights. Nearly all JAG Lawyers knew the COVID-19 vaccine mandate was on such shaky legal grounds and that a conviction over a vaccine refusal would be nearly impossible. However, many left-leaning JAG Lawyers felt a court-martial conviction over masking and testing refusal was a much more likely outcome. On January 18, 2022, Vindman was finally successful in convincing Major General Robert Edmonson to order Bashaw’s court-martial.
On April 29, 2022 Bashaw was found guilty by Judge Robert Cohen in the special court-martial ordered by General Edmonson. Judge Cohen, likely understanding the politically-charged nature of this court-martial and the national security implications of discharging the conservative Christians who opposed the unlawful COVID-19 mitigation measures, elected to award “no punishment” to Bashaw at sentencing. He then highlighted Bashaw’s outstanding character, 16 years of honorable service, and even recommended that General Edmonson drop all charges and reverse Bashaw’s conviction.
The Army refused to drop the charges. They then inflicted additional harm by attempting to involuntarily separate Bashaw based on the unjust and unlawful court-martial conviction alone. Not to be outdone, the vindictive Vindman took a very public victory lap at Bashaw’s expense. The day of the conviction Vindman tweeted to his nearly 90,000 Twitter followers, “Proud of the prosecution team at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Secured a first in the nation conviction at court-martial of a lieutenant who failed to obey lawful orders re COVID mitigation measures. Guilty on all 3 counts.” On May 4, 2022, Colonel Vindman also retweeted an Army Times article about First Lieutenant Bashaw and added, “Army officer convicted in first known COVID court-martial – Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum [Let Justice be done though the heavens fall].”
Proud of the prosecution team at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Secured a first in the nation conviction at court-martial of a lieutenant who failed to obey lawful orders re COVID mitigation measures. Guilty on all 3 counts. #orderanddiscipline
— Y. Vindman (@YVindman) April 29, 2022
There was no reason for a senior Army officer to publicize such a conviction except to win political points and attempt to justify a politicized policy. What this conviction also did was to put conservative Christians in the military on notice. Stand up for your religious convictions and your legal rights and the force of the federal government would be brought to bear against you.
After the trial, Bashaw’s defense team took note of Vindman’s politically unrestrained social media commentary and filed a motion to have Vindman recused. Instead, the defense team was told that Vindman, in a surprise move, had gone on terminal leave in preparation for his retirement. The vindictive Vindman essentially abandoned his post immediately after betraying his ethical obligations as an officer of the court and doing so at the expense of a conservative Christian junior officer just trying to do his job.
This Monday, June 26, 2023, if the Secretary of the Army Wormuth does not take immediate action, Lieutenant Bashaw will involuntarily separated from the military after 17 years of honorable service. Bashaw will join the tens-of-thousands of other highly trained and morally courageous service members, who were unlawfully discharged for taking a stand in defense of the Constitution and their own legal rights. Most of these heroes received a vindictive general discharge from the military branches they had served so faithfully, making it incredibly difficult to obtain civilian employment and other benefits.
Despite a deepening recruiting crisis, the Biden Administration and the Department of Defense want nothing to do with these tens of thousands of service members. They have not been invited back even though the mandate they were kicked out over is no longer a requirement. The nefarious implication is chilling. The DoD wants only the malleable, the compliant, and those who will not stand up for constitutional or legal rights in their military. Readiness is no concern for those politicized leaders who wish to remake the military in their own political image. Although it will not be the first, it is the deepest betrayal of trust ever perpetrated by the DoD against the American people.
Coming this Independence Day, an explosive new tell-all book written by an Active Duty military officer and whistleblower will shed the light of truth on this entire sordid affair. The book, Defending the Constitution behind Enemy Lines, will detail Vindman’s actions as well as the unlawful actions perpetrated by numerous other DoD leaders these past three years. Lined with historical and legal analysis, the author tells the heartbreaking stories of those harmed by the DoD and how the military’s top leaders choose to prioritize their own careers rather than defending the Constitution as they swore to do.
The American people deserve a military they can trust. They have a right to know the truth. Trust cannot be restored until we right these wrongs and return to defending the Constitution rather than political narratives. Read this book review by the former Army Lieutenant Colonel Brad Miller to learn more.
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
