Pentagon wants ethics inquiry on Rep. Vindman’s Ukraine business deals

The Department of War is calling for an ethics inquiry into Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., over business deals he and his brother — retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — struck in Ukraine while Eugene was simultaneously part of a State Department-funded inquiry into Russian atrocities in Ukraine. 

The Pentagon's General Counsel Earl Matthews sent the November letter to House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., as well as to the leaders of the House Armed Services and Oversight Committees.

The letters urged an ethics-related inquiry into the efforts undertaken by Eugene — elected to Congress in 2024 — and by his brother Alexander as the brothers each worked with U.S. defense companies and the Ukrainian government to pursue potentially lucrative contracts in the war-torn country at the same time as Eugene was also being funded by the State Department for Russian war crimes work in Ukraine.

Rep. Vindman's authorized biography says that "On July 25, 2019, Eugene's twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who also served on the NSC, listened in on President Donald Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky," during which time Vindman claimed that "Trump attempted to extort Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden. Alex reported the call to Eugene, and together they reported it up the chain of command. Trump was impeached for this attack on democracy but was never held accountable. Two days after he was acquitted by the Senate, he fired Alex and Eugene from the White House."

Brothers sought to perform services for Ukrainian government, Pentagon says

“They founded their company to perform services for the Ukrainian government in exchange for money and to represent American companies seeking to do business with the Ukrainian government for money,” Matthews wrote in his ethics letter. “They were required to seek the pre-approval of the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of State.”

Matthews added: “As retired U.S. Army officers, just as they could not become direct civil employees of the Ukrainian government without obtaining the prior approval of both the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of State, they could also not lawfully provide ‘consulting’ or ‘defense services’ through their ‘consulting firm’ to the Ukrainian government without first obtaining the permission of the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of State. If any U.S. military retiree could simply form a ‘consulting firm’ and immediately start providing services to a foreign government without the required Secretarial approvals, it would make a mockery of the law.”

The Vindman brothers also played key roles in the Ukraine-related Trump impeachment effort in 2019 and early 2020.

Eugene’s campaign website last year specifically touted the fact that he had worked for the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA) in Ukraine for a year and a half, and that he had done so as part of a “Department of State funded program.” Eugene was described in interviews as having been the Director of Military Analysis and Prosecution Support for the ACA.

Georgetown University was the organization designated by the State Department as the lead agency for the ACA, and the school has said it received $10 million in the fall of 2022, another $8.5 million in the spring of 2024, and another $3 million earlier this month.

The Vindmans and the shadowy "Trident Support" group

During interviews with Ukrainian government-linked outlets and with local Virginia newspapers, the overlap between Eugene’s work for the State Department-backed ACA and his role in a so-called Trident Support business effort in Ukraine run by himself and his brother was apparent, as he discussed both efforts in both interviews. 

During the April 2023 interview with Ukrinform — the Ukrainian National News Agency — Eugene also noted that “on my latest trip to Ukraine, very unexpectedly, I received an award from the Defense Ministry, the Badge of Honor. So once again, thank you to the Ukrainian people and Slava Ukraini!”

The apparent intersection of Eugene’s work on a State Department-funded contract and his connection with Trident in Ukraine has raised eyebrows. 

Although Trident describes itself a "non-governmental agency," Just the News was unable to directly locate any corporate records or reports indicating if Trident is recognized as a non-profit charity.

People familiar say Vindmans should have sought approval

A senior defense official who insisted upon anonymity due to the sensitivity of the inquiry told Just the News that the Vindman brothers were attempting to work with the Ukrainian government, and that whether or not they were successful, they should’ve gotten proper permission.

The defense official said the main focus by the Pentagon is on Eugene seeking to do work with a foreign government without seeking proper approval from the U.S. military as required, but that the fact that he was drumming up business while being funded by the State Department is certainly interesting as well.

Matthews said that “a preliminary review of Department of War records has found no indication” that Rep. Eugene Vindman nor his brother and business partner, retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, “sought or obtained the approval of the Secretary of the Army or the Secretary of State to provide defense services to the government of Ukraine over the course of the two and a half years that they operated Trident Support LLC.”

A financial disclosure form filed by Eugene in August 2024 covering the time period from January 2023 to July 2024 stated the value of an entity called Trident was between $500,000 to $1 million. The disclosure form also said the future congressman’s salary from Trident had been $76,995 during the filing period and $125,000 during the prior year. The now-congressman filed in July 2025 a disclosure form where he said that he had resigned from Trident in 2024.

Eugene did not respond to a request for comment sent to him through his congressional office. Vindman did not respond to a request for comment sent to him through his Here Right Matters Foundation.

The Democratic congressman had responded to the letter from the Pentagon’s general counsel back in November by claiming that “unlike the President, I have nothing to hide. Donald Trump and his lackeys are working overtime to weaponize the government against his political opponents.”

Pentagon lays out its case against the Vindman brothers

Matthews, the Pentagon's top lawyer, wrote to the House Ethics Committee that “after a preliminary review of pertinent Department of War and Department of State records and publicly available information, I am writing to you in my official capacity as Designated Agency Ethics Official for the Department of War to refer to you an allegation that Representative Yevgeny Vindman, of the Seventh District of Virginia, in the years immediately prior to his assumption of his current elected office in January 2025, failed to obtain required approval prior to receiving an emolument from a foreign government.”

Matthews noted that Eugene “is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army” and argued that “the allegations involving” him, “if substantiated, would violate” three laws or rules — 37 U.S.C. 908, 22 C.F.R. § 3a, and Army Regulation (AR) 600-29 on Foreign Government Employment — “each of which applies the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution of the United States (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) to Department of War personnel and to retired military members.”

Matthews said that “in August 2022 when Trident Support LLC was first established and when Yevgeny Vindman was actively seeking defense contract opportunities with the Ukrainian military and government, he was still an active-duty Army officer, making his apparent failure to adhere to 37 U.S.C. 908 all the more glaring,” noting that Eugene “did not retire from the U.S. Army until September 1, 2022.”

The Pentagon lawyer stated that “I have determined the most prudent course of action is to refer the matter to the House Committee on Ethics to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest that might arise if the Department of War initiated a formal inquiry. I do so because the potential violations involve a retired military officer who is not only a sitting member of the Congress, but is also a member of a committee of jurisdiction over the Department of War, the House Committee on Armed Services.”

Matthews: "Awkward situation"

“The Department of War has a clear and unmistakable interest in knowing whether Rep. Vindman received remuneration, directly or indirectly, from the government of Ukraine, before he assumed his current office,” Matthews wrote. “It is important that the Department of War understand what, if any, monies were paid by the Ukrainian government, directly or indirectly, individually or collectively, to Rep. Vindman, LTC (Ret.) Alexander Vindman, or to Trident Support LLC for services rendered or contemplated. This is so because the Department of War cannot recoup monies that are being concealed from it.”

“To avoid the awkward situation presented by a Department of War investigation into the pre-congressional business activities and finances of a sitting member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am presenting this matter to you before any Department of War entity undertakes a formal inquiry,” the Pentagon's General Counsel told the House Ethics Committee. 

“Should the House Committee on Ethics believe that it has no jurisdiction over the matters raised herein, or if you indicate to me that you believe further inquiry by the Department of War is appropriate, I will refer these matters to the Department of the Army for an independent assessment of the questions raised and for potential investigation,” Matthews continued.

Matthews argued that Trident “was not a charitable entity or a philanthropic endeavor” but rather “it was a ‘consulting’ firm founded as a for-profit business concern” wherein “the Vindman brothers sought to leverage their extensive personal relationships within the Ukrainian national security establishment for financial benefit.”

The Pentagon's General Counsel also said that, between August 2022 and February 2025, the Vindman brothers' company “served as a broker for U.S. defense firms seeking lucrative contracts with the Ukrainian military and separately sought to provide logistical training, maintenance, repair support and other defense services directly to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, and the Security Service of Ukraine, among other Ukrainian governmental clients.”

Matthews said State Department records indicate that, in 2023 and 2024, Trident “received authorization to serve as a broker for Navistar Defense, BAE Systems, Hawkeye 360, and AM General, among other firms, seeking to develop sales and advance business and contractual relationships between those companies and the Government of Ukraine.”

None of those defense companies returned a request for comment.

The Pentagon's top lawyer also wrote that, in December 2023, Trident “applied to the Department of State for a license to provide logistical training and maintenance to several departments of the Ukrainian government as part of a proposed $5 million deal.” Matthews said the license application was submitted by Eugene.

The letter said Trident's application was approved by the Biden State Department in March 2024, and that several broker authorizations which allowed Trident to “represent U.S. companies seeking sales opportunities with the Ukrainian military” were also issued by the State Department in 2024. Matthews wrote that, in February 2025, Alexander informed the State Department that “the proposed activities approved by the March 2024 license to Trident Support LLC would not be concluded.”

“Because the Vindman brothers, either individually or collectively through their for-profit company Trident Support LLC, were attempting to serve as paid brokers and representatives of U.S. companies seeking defense contracts with the Ukrainian military, and because they separately sought to establish paid consulting relationships with and to provide defense services directly to Ukrainian governmental entities, they should have obtained the pre-approval of the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of State in accordance with 37 U.S.C. § 908, 22 C.F.R. § 3a, and AR 600-291,” Matthews argued.

Eugene Vindman: "I never took a dime" 

The Pentagon added that Eugene “is a former Army ethics attorney and was fully cognizant of the requirements of these provisions.”

“I’ll save President Trump and Secretary Hegseth some time: I never took a dime from a Ukrainian citizen or government entity, directly or indirectly. I followed the law and properly complied with all relevant regulations,” Eugene said in a statement in November.

The congressman added at the time that “I have one message to Virginians and Americans: I never back down from a fight. Not now, not ever.”

“As a Member of the Committee on Ethics, Congressman Guest is bound by the Committee’s Confidentiality Rule and unable to comment on matters that are or could come before the Committee,” Guest's press secretary, Peyton Holliday, told Just the News.

The Vindman brothers and the Ukraine impeachment

Trump purportedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “to do us a favor” by looking into claims about CrowdStrike during their July 2019 phone call, which also included discussion of the U.S. provisions of Javelins to Ukraine. Trump also urged Zelensky to investigate “the other thing” — referring to allegations of corruption related to Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden stemming from the younger Biden’s lucrative position on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company, and the elder Biden's advocating for the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin.

“I was concerned by the call. What I heard was improper,” Alexander testified in November 2019.

Alexander also testified during the November 2019 impeachment proceedings that former Ukrainian National Security Secretary Oleksandr Danyliuk had offered him the position of Ukrainian Defense Minister three different times, but “every single time I dismissed it” and claimed that “upon returning I notified my chain of command.” Vindman said that “I think it would be a great honor” but added that “I’m an American, I came here as a toddler, and I immediately dismissed these offers.”

The Steady State, a group of hundreds of anti-Trump signatories claiming to be former U.S. intelligence officials, including some who signed the infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter, reemerged on the scene this year to attack FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard while handing out endorsements to Trump foes such as now-Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and now-Rep. Eugene Vindman.

The Vindman brothers in Ukraine

Although not entirely transparent, Trident Support LLC appears to be a vehicle by which Eugene and Alexander sought to conduct military maintenance and repair services inside Ukraine.

Alexander had co-authored a piece for Foreign Affairs in July 2022 titled “Build Ukraine Back Better.” He wrote in his Substack in March 2024 that “out of uniform ‘Trident Support’ and my nonprofit Here Right Matters Foundation are devoted to supporting Ukraine to both win the war and the peace.”

It was reported by Politico in March 2023 that “a group of former military officers and private donors is raising money to send Western mechanics close to the Ukrainian frontlines, where they will repair battle-damaged donated weapons and vehicles that have been flooding into the country” and that “leading the group is a familiar name in American politics: Alexander Vindman.”

“We’ve got all sorts of resources going into depots and advanced bases in Poland, mainly, and inside Ukraine basically they’re on their own,” Alexander told the outlet.

The outlet also wrote that “Vindman’s group has secured enough private funding to launch a pilot project in March, and has some backing from at least one company, which declined to be named but confirmed to Politico their interest in getting parts and material to Ukraine for more rapid repairs.”

“There is absolutely a way to do this and secure American contractors or Western defense contractors in-country,” Alexander said. “You could do this using what we call ‘third country nationals’ where it’s not American.”

The outlet wrote that “Vindman, for his part, said that … the repair project is a philanthropic effort at the moment” and quoted Alexander as saying that “this may become a viable business with government support… but we aren’t holding our breath or waiting for permission.”

The outlet also said that Ken Letcher, a retired Army colonel who specialized in logistics, “is helping on the project.” 

“It’s complicated, but not an intractable problem,” Letcher told the outlet, saying that he saw the project as “a fairly finite requirement of 12 to 18 months. At some point, either after the Ukrainians are caught up in maintenance, this capability will stand down, or at some point after the war, it is then handed over.”

Letcher did not respond to a request for comment sent to him through his business email at Deloitte, where he currently works.

Vindman: "Humanitarian efforts"

Eugene spoke with Ukrinform in April 2023 and discussed his Trident Support business efforts in detail, asserting he was seeking to work with the Ukrainian government in the venture.

“Trident Support is one of a number of different efforts that my brother Alex and I have been involved in,” Eugene said. “We’ve been involved in humanitarian efforts, we have benefactors that we're trying to put together for veterans services and prosthetics. We've supported the transfer of over $10 million of funds in frontline ambulance services. Within the next week, there's going to be a very large shipment of extreme cold weather gear to support the National Guard of Ukraine – over 37,000 items of equipment. Other areas that we're trying to assist Ukraine with is capacity building — be it about armored vehicles or satellite-based information.”

Eugene added: “There have been enormous amounts of equipment donated from the West, and Ukraine has had to deal with a variety of different tanks and artillery from many parts of the world, frequently provided without documentation, without manuals on how to maintain them, and without spare parts. So one of the projects that we're working on is trying to provide this organic maintenance, repair, and maintenance-repair training capability within Ukraine for Western-donated equipment — from F-16s to M1s and artillery, the M777s, and more. All these systems need to be maintained — not across the border in Poland a thousand kilometers from the front but inside of Ukraine in hubs manned by Ukrainian technicians and mechanics turning the wrenches, returning the vehicles back to combat.”

“This project is still in the early stages as we’re trying to put together the team of specialists, facilities, and locations in Ukraine, working with the Ukrainian government to make sure that this war effort could be sustained and Ukraine wins,” Eugene said.

Eugene told The Prince Williams Times in December 2023 that “he and his twin brother also started a consulting company called Trident Support LLC" that is “focused on helping bring technology to Ukraine and building capacity in Ukraine so they can win this conflict,” Vindman said. 

The outlet also reported that “they also created a nonprofit that has raised over $10 million to support front-line ambulance services in Ukraine that have saved over 10,000 lives, to train thousands of Ukrainian combat medics, and to provide high-quality, extreme cold-weather gear to soldiers [...] We pick objectives that are going to have strategic impacts,” Eugene said.

The Here Right Matters group run by the Vindman brothers says that it has sought to provide dozens of ambulances to Ukraine and that it was providing the Ukraine Medical Corps and Academy all dozens of classroom sets of medical education equipment, but Just the News could not independently confirm this.

The New York Post, citing records from Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, reported in October 2024 that Trident “uses the same PO box as Vindman’s congressional campaign.” The Matthews letter echoed that “Trident Support LLC was registered in Dumfries, Virginia and utilized the same street address as Rep. Vindman's congressional campaign headquarters, according to public records.”

Eugene’s business efforts in Ukraine through Trident became a point of contention during his congressional race.

“This is why Virginians can’t trust Yevgeny Vindman: He’s not transparent with voters. Vindman should tell voters how he makes money and let voters decide whether making money off the war in Ukraine is the type of person they want in office,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Delanie Bomar said in October 2024.

Eugene was elected to the House the next month. The Washington Post reported in March that “Vindman disclosed his role in Trident in a campaign disclosure form early last year and divested his interest on December 30, before taking office, she [Vindman’s spokesman] said.”

Eugene Vindman and the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group

Eugene Vindman’s time with the U.S. government-funded ACA seems to have overlapped with his time helping lead Trident as it sought business in Ukraine.

Based on an interview that Eugene gave to the VFW Post 1503 in the summer of 2024, the group reported that “shortly after his retirement, Eugene immediately took a position with the State Department as the Director of Military Analysis and Prosecution Support for the Atrocity Crimes Advisory organization.”

The local VFW post stated that Eugene “traveled to Ukraine 14 times to investigate war crimes committed by individuals during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The Prince Williams Times interviewed Eugene in December 2023 and reported that “Vindman has made 14 trips to Ukraine, investigating war crimes through a program funded by the U.S. Department of State called the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group.”

Eugene gave an April 2023 interview to Ukrinform where he said that “I've been to Ukraine 14 times since June last year, I've been to most parts of the country except the far east. I've seen what to me is obvious evidence of war crimes.”

Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in May 2022 that the U.S. along with the United Kingdom and the European Union had created the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, a “joint initiative” which he said “will directly support the efforts” of the War Crimes Units of the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) of Ukraine “to document, preserve, and analyze evidence of war crimes and other atrocities committed in Ukraine, with a view toward criminal prosecutions.”

The State Department’s current website still discusses the ACA, saying that the group “deploys leading experts to provide training, consultation, and strategic guidance to the OPG and partner agencies.”

The ACA’s own website says that “to deliver coordinated expert support to the OPG, ACA brings together organizations with world-renowned experience in international criminal law, prosecution, and victim-centered justice.”

The now-congressman filed a disclosure form in August 2024 which covered the time period of January 2023 to February 2024, and it said he had pulled a $100,567 salary from Georgetown during the filing period and a $48,532 salary from the university during the prior year.

Former Ambassador Clint Williamson currently serves as the “Lead Coordinator” for the ACA, and he is also the “Senior Director for International Justice” at Georgetown University. The ACA again emphasizes that “Georgetown’s Lead for ACA is Ambassador Clint Williamson, who also serves as ACA Lead Coordinator.”

The university said it had received “an initial $10 million grant from the Department of State” for Georgetown’s law center to “serve as the lead implementing organization” of the ACA. The school said that “the ACA will bring together global teams of war crimes prosecutors, investigators, military strategists, strategic communicators and other international experts” — with one of them being Eugene Vindman.

The university announced earlier in December that the State Department “has granted a cost amendment for an additional $3 million in funding” for the Georgetown initiative “to advance accountability for atrocity crimes in Ukraine.”

The State Department told Just the News that “we'd refer you to ACA for comment.” The ACA did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Georgetown University.

Internal docs provide insight into Vindman brothers' business efforts in Ukraine

Internal records from Trident — some of which were first reported in the press, while others were included by Matthews in his letter — provide insights into the Vindman brothers and their apparent efforts to make Trident a de facto broker between U.S. defense companies and Ukrainian government defense and security agencies.

It was reported by Human Events in March 2023 that the Vindman brothers had been “pitching the government of Ukraine to obtain lucrative defense contracts,” according to documents the outlet had obtained. 

The outlet reported that Alexander “proposed that for $12 million in initial funding, his company Trident Support would bring support closer to the front lines by providing a logistical midpoint from which equipment could be distributed.” The letter from the Pentagon's General Counsel also included a copy of the Vindman brothers' slide presentation as an attachment.

A since-deleted tweet from Alexander in March 2023 responded to the Human Events story and seemingly confirmed the authenticity of the slide presentation made by the Vindmans which was contained within the outlet’s story.

“Thanks for the advert. I’m trying to get logistics in place to help Ukraine win the war and secure America. Looking for philanthropic contributions to get it going,” Alexander tweeted at the time. “Reach out if you support the cause of democracy and US National Security. #FASTERPROJECT”

One option was that Trident would use a “MOD [Ukrainian Ministry of Defense] facility being used as [sic] support depot for all Ukrainian artillery systems.” Another option was that Trident would use a “commercial facility” which was “co-located w[ith] [Ukrainian] military base.”

The letter from Matthews also included an attachment laying out Trident’s “Application for Permanent Export of Unclassified Defense Articles, Related Technical Data, and Defense Services” made to the State Department by Alexander in December 2023.

The Pentagon’s letter also included a memo sent by Eugene on behalf of Trident to the State Department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls Licensing in December 2023, providing a “proposed Technical Assistance Agreement” between Trident, Navistar Defense, and another U.S.-based company called 77 Construction USA Corp — collectively dubbed the “U.S. Parties” — and PE Company Autoland, Protect LLC, LLC Ukrainian Armor, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and the Security Service of Ukraine.

Eugene said in that December 2023 memo that the value of the proposed “Technical Data and Defense Services” was $5 million.

77 Construction USA Corp did not respond to a request for comment. The Ukrainian Embassy in the United States also did not respond to a request for comment.

Pentagon not the first to scrutinize Vindman efforts in Ukraine

Then-Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin had sent a “Dear Eugene” letter to Vindman in early February, scrutinizing his Trident business and his payments from Georgetown, as first reported by InsideNoVa.

“I have received requests for clarification of your personal financial disclosures over the past year. Disclosures reveal payments from an ownership in an LLC called Trident Support LLC,” Martin wrote early this year. “You also received over $150,000 from Georgetown University. Specifically, my questions focus on whether you are receiving payment for work done or for other reasons.”

Martin asked: “First, will you please clarify the work Trident Support LLC does? Please describe in detail any financial support Trident has received from government entities. Second, please detail the ownership structure of Trident Support LLC and any beneficiaries — including all staff and consultants, Americans and all other nationalities — paid by your company.”

Eugene Fidell — Eugene Vindman’s lawyer — sent a letter back to Martin in mid-March, with Fidell saying that he represented Vindman along with lawyers Stephen Kuperberg and Mark S. Zaid, the latter of whom also represented Ukraine whistleblower Eric Ciaramella in 2019.

“In the future, please have the professional courtesy of respectfully addressing him in the customary fashion for official United States Government correspondence to elected officials,” Fidell wrote, telling Martin that “your 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.”

Eugene Vindman also released a mid-March statement calling Martin’s letter part of a “retribution campaign.” Vindman’s spokesperson Amanda Farnan said in March that “the only people who have a problem with the congressman investigating Russian war crimes are Putin and Trump.”

VoteVets, Eugene, and claims of serving “in combat”

The Trident saga is not the only military-linked controversy for which Eugene is being scrutinized.

The VoteVets group previously collaborated with the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, including an October 2020 ad titled “American Family” which featured Alexander Vindman and his wife, Rachel, in an ad opposing Trump’s reelection. The Lincoln Project ominously said that “what happened to Rachel Vindman’s family could happen to anyone” and said the ad was made “in collaboration with @VoteVets.”

Alexander has been listed as a “senior adviser” at VoteVets since 2022.

Eugene, who did a tour in Iraq, tweeted in December 2023 that “I served our nation in combat.” The Daily Mail had reported in 2019 that in fact, Eugene “has not seen combat.”

The Free Beacon wrote in August 2024 that the outlet “asked the campaign to explain the discrepancy. Vindman's campaign manager, Jeremy Levinson, responded by introducing a third party, the employee of a political action committee.

Vindman's proxies claim that legal work is the same as "combat" duty

"All future questions," he said, could be directed to him. ‘Him’ is Travis Tazelaar, the political director of VoteVets PAC, a group that endorsed Vindman, contributed $10,000 to his campaign, and spent more than $400,000 on outside ads supporting his candidacy, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and lawyers and ethics experts say the campaign's decision to defer communications inquiries to him is a violation of the law.”

“Shortly thereafter, Tazelaar, identifying himself as ‘Political Director, VoteVets,’ responded with a statement lauding Vindman's 2011 deployment to Iraq as an operational law attorney,” the outlet wrote. 

"There was no front line in Iraq — and the Vindman family was grateful that Eugene was able to return home unscathed while so many other of our brothers and sisters in arms did not," the VoteVets political director said on behalf of Eugene's campaign in August 2024.

The outlet added: “The statement was unremarkable, but the campaign's decision to use Tazelaar to handle its communications is a big deal. It baffled ethics experts, who say it is almost certainly a violation of campaign finance laws.”

The Free Beacon and The Washington Examiner then reported on the FEC complaints filed against Eugene and VoteVets over the controversy.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed an August 2024 complaint with the FEC against Eugene and VoteVets. The group said that “there is reason to believe Eugene Vindman and Vindman for Congress have unlawfully accepted contributions from VoteVets PAC in violation of the contribution limits under the Federal Election Campaign Act.”

"The bottom line is that we worked with the coordinated side of the VoteVets organization on the response to the Free Beacon outreach," a spokesperson for Eugene’s campaign told Fox News at the time. "The FEC rules are clear that this interaction does not violate its rules and would not constitute an in-kind contribution."

David Mitrani, the general counsel to VoteVets, also denied any FEC violations, telling the outlet that the claims in the complaints were “simply false” and that "VoteVets’ activities are in full compliance with campaign finance laws."

A reporter for WUSA9 interviewed Eugene in November 2024, asking him, “Did you fight in combat?”

“My answer to that is I deployed to Iraq, a combat zone, and I’m proud of my record,” Vindman replied. “Yes or no, you fought for your nation in combat?” the reporter asked in a follow-up.

“I stand by what I said,” Eugene replied.

A spokesperson for the FEC told Just the News that “due to confidentiality requirements, we are unable to provide any information or comment on possible complaints that may be filed with the agency.”

The Democratic congressman did not respond to a request for comment about this, nor did VoteVets.

Election opponent disputes Eugene’s claimed credentials: "Disrespectful"

Eugene Vindman’s 2024 Democratic primary opponent, Carl Bedell, also argued that Vindman had mischaracterized his retirement military rank during the campaign.

The Independent reported in June 2024 that Bedell “took issue with how Vindman has characterized his rank in campaign literature, which has often referred to him as a ‘colonel (ret.)’, or a retired colonel. While it’s true that when Vindman retired in 2022 he was at the rank of colonel, having been promoted a year prior, he had not served the required three years in rank necessary under Army protocols to retain that rank upon retirement; as a result, he was bumped back to lieutenant colonel for his retirement rank.”

“His decision to continue to wear a Colonel’s insignia and refer to himself as a retired Colonel is disrespectful to all those that honorably served — especially those whose service entitled them to that rank in retirement, and wrong according to Army regulations,” Bedell told the outlet.

A law firm representing Eugene’s campaign reportedly contacted the outlet “threatening litigation.” The outlet said the campaign lawyer’s letter insisted that Eugene “is a Colonel and correctly identifies himself as such”, and that “Pursuant to Army Custom and Regulation 25-50, the proper mode to address Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels is Colonel.” The outlet added that “the letter also claimed that reporting Bedell’s statement would be defamatory.”

The Vindman campaign lawyer reportedly also stated that Eugene “does not dispute that he retired at the grade of O5 [Lieutenant Colonel]. However, his pay grade at retirement has no impact on either pay or entitlements and on whether he is in fact a retired Colonel.”

Eugene was interviewed by a reporter for WUSA9 in November 2024 and was asked, “Did you retire at the rank of lieutenant colonel, yes or no?”

“I am a retired colonel,” Eugene replied. “Did you retire officially at the rank of lieutenant colonel, even though you hadn’t yet hit the requirement for colonel?” Vindman was asked.

“I am entitled to be called ‘colonel’ and that’s all there is to it,” Eugene replied.

Vindman did not respond to a request for comment.

With these controversies yet lingering, it remains to be seen whether the House Ethics Committee will take up an investigation into Eugene over his Ukraine work, or if the Pentagon will decide to handle the inquiry itself.