Trump Fights Back After John Kelly Defends Vindman

WASHINGTON — John F. Kelly, the former White House chief of staff, expressed support for one of the key impeachment witnesses who President Trump abruptly fired last week, drawing a swift response from the president, who tweeted Thursday morning that Mr. Kelly “misses the action & just can’t keep his mouth shut.”

Mr. Kelly said in a speech Wednesday evening that Lt. Colonel Alexander S. Vindman, an expert on Ukraine for the National Security Council removed from his post last week, was right to raise questions about a telephone call with the president of Ukraine in which Mr. Trump pressed for investigations of his political rivals.

“He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave,” Mr. Kelly said. “He went and told his boss of what he just heard. We teach them: ‘Don’t follow an illegal order. And if you’re ever given one, you’ll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then you’ll tell your boss.’”

Mr. Trump quickly responded to his former top adviser, writing on Twitter that Mr. Kelly was “way over his head” as chief of staff and suggesting that his public comments violated a “military and legal obligation” to remain silent. The president also renewed his criticism of Mr. Vindman.

The response to Mr. Kelly came just hours after the president lashed out on Twitter against a member of the jury that convicted his friend Roger J. Stone Jr., saying the jury was tainted by prejudice in the president’s latest attempt to undermine the case against his friend.

Mr. Trump raised the question of a biased juror in the trial a day after the judge overseeing the Stone proceedings, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, ruled against a previously sealed motion from Mr. Stone that claimed a different juror was biased and therefore he deserved a new trial.

By late morning, Mr. Trump’s focus was on Mr. Kelly, after news reports about his remarks in a speech at Drew University in New Jersey, as well as Mr. Vindman.

During an appearance on Geraldo Rivera’s radio show, Mr. Trump described Mr. Vindman as “very insubordinate” and claimed that Mr. Vindman’s colleagues applauded his departure last Friday when he was escorted out of the White House.

“Vindman was the guy that, when we took him out of the building, the whole building applauded,” Mr. Trump said. “Many people applauded.”

“No, I didn’t want him in,” Mr. Trump said of his decision to oust Mr. Vindman, who testified in the impeachment inquiry about his concerns when he listened to the call between Mr. Trump and his counterpart in Ukraine. “I watched his testimony. Don’t forget he was the one who thought my call was bad and he ran in and started saying terrible things about the call.”

Mr. Trump also suggested that he could stop the tradition of allowing numerous national security officials to listen to his phone calls with foreign leaders. “I may end the practice,” Mr. Trump said. “I may end it entirely.”

The president’s involvement in the Stone case has also roiled his Justice Department. After the department overruled their sentencing recommendation, four prosecutors abruptly withdrew from the case.

In raising the possibility of another biased juror, Mr. Trump was responding to a Fox News report on Wednesday that the forewoman of the Stone jury was an anti-Trump Democratic activist. His complaints about the handling of Mr. Stone’s case have raised concerns from Democrats and critics that he was improperly influencing Justice Department matters.

On Wednesday the president praised Attorney General William P. Barr, for an extraordinary decision to override a sentencing recommendation for Mr. Stone.

That highly unusual decision, when the Justice Department replaced the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, caused the prosecutors to leave the case and raised fears that the president was undermining the Justice Department’s independence.

The charges against Mr. Stone stem from the special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, an inquiry that Mr. Trump has dismissed as an illegitimate witch hunt led by senior law enforcement officials who did not want him to be elected.

Michael Crowley contributed reporting.