Indian-American White House official caught in crossfire of internal politics
According to sources the expertise of Kashyap patel, the National Security Council’s (NSC) senior director of counter-terrorism, on ukraine has been questioned by another NSC official, Lt Col Alexander Vindman, during the impeachment inquiry hearings. The sniping brings to the open the conflicts inside the trump administration between those like patel, who are considered his loyalists, and those opposed to him.
As per report Vindman told the secret inquiry that patel had “misrepresented” his expertise on ukraine to Trump. He said that had been prevented from participating in a briefing for trump on ukraine because the President believed patel was the expert on that country instead of himself, Politico reported.
Vindman said that the NSC Senior director for european and Russian affairs, Fiona Hill, told him that she and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton felt that his presence at the briefing would create “an uncomfortable situation,” according to Politico.