Impeachment inquiry puts spotlight on Perry, who shunned it
WASHINGTON >> Long after more flamboyant colleagues flamed out of President Donald Trump’s favor amid ethics scandals, low-profile and folksy Rick Perry survived in the Cabinet in part by steering clear of controversy. Until now.
The former Texas governor said Thursday he was quitting as energy secretary by year’s end. The announcement came as the House impeachment investigation highlighted his work in Ukraine, where he promoted U.S. natural gas and where Trump hoped to find dirt on Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Trump said that Perry, one of his longest serving Cabinet members, had planned for months to leave. But the timing of the announcement of Perry’s departure fits a Trump pattern, said governance expert Kathryn Dunn Tenpas of the Brookings Institution. Her work shows there has been more turnover in Trump’s Cabinet than under any president since at least Ronald Reagan.
“The more important the issue is to the president, the more likely you’re on the chopping block,” Tenpas said.
No evidence has emerged that Perry explicitly pressured Ukrainian officials to comply with Trump’s push to investigate a Ukraine natural gas company where Biden’s son Hunter was a board member. It’s a central part of the impeachment investigation.
Perry, an evangelical who takes part in weekly Cabinet Bible studies, told a Christian broadcast news outlet his month that, “God as my witness,” he never heard any administration figure specifically mention either Biden in discussions about corruption investigations in Ukraine.
Perry did publicly pressure Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for unspecified reforms “in the energy sector,” however, including in comments at Zelenskiy’s May inauguration.
That was one of several Perry trips and meetings putting him in contact with Ukraine and U.S. figures playing pivotal roles in the actions now being studied by the House committees investigating impeachment.
Perry also was present for at least part of a White House meeting in July with then-natural security adviser John Bolton and other U.S. and Ukrainian officials. Perry, at the time, tweeted out a photo of the group lined up in front of the White House and called it a “productive discussion.”
Trump is trying to block members of his administration from testifying before lawmakers who are investigating whether Trump used the powers of his office for personal political aims in Ukraine. The Energy Department on Friday refused to comply with a House subpoena for Perry.