Ambassador: Perry knew of “quid pro quo.”
WASHINGTON — As the House impeachment inquiry grinds on, outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s name continues to surface, placing the former Texas governor at the center of key discussions.
On Wednesday, a Trump administration ambassador testified that there was a “quid pro quo” at the heart of the Ukraine scandal — and that Perry knew about it and took part in it at the behest of President Donald Trump.
Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told the House Intelligence Committee that Trump directed him, Perry and others to work with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, to secure a public commitment from Ukraine to conduct investigations that could be politically beneficial to Trump.
Sondland’s testimony provided some of the clearest descriptions yet of Perry’s alleged involvement in the affair.
The House inquiry centers on Trump’s attempts to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden served. Biden is the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, now a leading Democratic presidential candidate who has polled well in swing states likely to play a big role in the 2020 election.
Perry has said he was aware only of an effort to press Ukraine to conduct general investigations into corruption. Sondland, however, testified Wednesday that Perry was involved in the Trump administration’s efforts to seek specific investigations into Burisma, the Bidens and alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
It was understood that in return, Trump would agree to a White House meeting sought by the Ukrainian leader, according to witnesses who have testified in the
House inquiry.
Sondland said Perry volunteered to make the first of several calls to Giuliani about the Ukraine matter because of their “prior relationship.”
“Mr. Giuliani emphasized that the president wanted a public statement from President Zelenskiy committing Ukraine to look into the corruption issues,” Sondland said.
Sondland said the group kept top administration officials, including members of the State Department, apprised of what they were doing.
Sondland said he, Perry and others met with senior Ukrainian and national security officials to discuss arranging a working phone call and a White House meeting between the two presidents.
“Sole purpose is for Zelenskiy to give POTUS assurances of new sheriff in town, corruption ending, unbundling moving forward, and I emphasize, any hampered investigations will be allowed to move forward transparently,” Sondland said he wrote in a message to White House officials. “Volker, Perry, (former national security adviser John) Bolton and I strongly recommend.”
Sondland said Perry and other senior officials were aware the president wanted assurances of a corruption investigation as a prerequisite for the phone call.
“Everyone was in the loop,” he said. “It was no secret.”
According to Sondland’s testimony, Perry was included on — and replied to — a July 19 email in which Sondland said that Zelenskiy would tell Trump he “intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will ‘turn over every stone.’”
In a statement Wednesday, Department of Energy Press Secretary Shaylyn Hynes said Sondland’s testimony “misrepresented” Perry’s interaction with Giuliani and the direction Perry received from Trump.
“Secretary Perry spoke to Rudy Giuliani only once at the president’s request,” Hynes said. “No one else was on that call. At no point before, during or after that phone call did the words ‘Biden’ or ‘Burisma’ ever come up in the presence of Secretary Perry.”
Perry said in late October that he never heard the word “Burisma” mentioned over the course of his work in Ukraine.
Sondland’s testimony comes a day after Trump showered Perry with praise at the outgoing energy secretary’s last Cabinet meeting Tuesday, calling him an “incredible representative of this country and this administration.”