The parallels between the Dreyfus affair and the treatment of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman are striking. As a senior director on the National Security Council staff early in the Trump administration, I recruited Alex based on his brilliance, language skills and remarkable military record. Alex is a Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union, and Russian was his first language. His is a quintessential American story. I know him to be a patriot and a professional military officer in the best sense: apolitical, nonpartisan, selfless and deeply committed to this country and its values. He proved his loyalty above all by serving this nation in combat in Iraq, where he was wounded. To this day, he wears the reminders of that service on his uniform and in his body.

He is among the finest officers I have ever known…

If the president’s partisans are to be believed, Alex Vindman is a traitor, a treasonous officer whose origins are suspect and whose past service and sterling record mean nothing — just like Alfred Dreyfus. What exactly is he accused of having done? In the course of his duties, Alex became aware of actions he concluded might be illegal but were almost certainly unethical. He was not alone in those judgments. His response was to alert his superiors and report his observations to the National Security Council legal office. Later, he complied with a legal subpoena, was questioned by members of Congress and truthfully answered every question. He did not leak to the media, shop for an inspector general or reach out to Democratic Party officials. In short, he did exactly what he had been taught and trained to do throughout his professional life. His reward has been vilification in the right-wing media, professional humiliation, scorn and abuse by senior government officials, and death threats.