Vindman is mainly known for testifying against President-elect Donald Trump during the Trump-Ukraine scandal in 2019. His twin brother, Eugene Vindman, recently won election to Virginia’s 7th Congressional District as a Democrat.

“Vindman is on the payroll of Ukrainian oligarchs and has committed treason against the United States, for which he will pay the appropriate penalty,” Musk posted in a reply to Vindman’s comments on X.

Alexander Vindman was born in Ukraine but immigrated to the United States decades ago. He served under Trump as his director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council from 2018 to 2020.

“Clearly, Putin has a type,” Alexander Vindman said in an interview on MSNBC. “He likes narcissists and egomaniacs that he knows as a case officer who could easily pander to manipulate, to do his dirty work.”

“We are under attack,” Alexander Vindman added. “Russia has been using different levers, whether that’s corruption networks, in this case, it’s influencers like Donald Trump, like Elon Musk to sow discord, and it’s particularly troubling with Elon Musk in this case because Elon Musk has access to state secrets. He has top secret security clearance. It’s possible that some of that is seeping through.”

Trump just nominated Musk as his Department of Government Efficiency co-chairman after the owner of Tesla shadowed the president-elect through much of the back half of his campaign.

“Putin has been very effective in playing both Trump and Elon, and he’s been using the richest man in the world to do his bidding,” the former Trump administration official said. “In some cases, that’s encouraging him probably to support Donald Trump. That’s not speculation. We see how far in Elon has gone and then using Twitter as a disinformation platform. This is not some sort of far-off, distant threat. This is going to impact our elections, it’s a national security threat.”

Alexander Vindman has accused Elon Musk of divulging state secrets to Vladimir Putin, and that the real reason he supports Trump is because Putin ordered him to do so. pic.twitter.com/WAFjL3RKue

— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) November 27, 2024

Alexander Vindman issued a response on X shortly after Musk’s comments.

“Elon, here you go again making false and completely unfounded accusations without providing any specifics,” he said on Musk’s platform. “That’s the kind of response one would expect from a conspiracy theorist. What oligarch? What treason?”

Alexander Vindman added that he doesn’t take money from oligarchs, “Ukrainians or otherwise,” and that he runs a nonprofit group that assists Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“You, Elon, appear to believe you can act with impunity and are attempting to silence your critics. I’m not intimidated,” he concluded.