Impeachment inquiry puts a spotlight on low-profile Perry
WASHINGTON — Long after more flamboyant colleagues flamed out of President Donald Trump’s favor amid ethics scandals, lowprofile 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 Mr. Trump hoped to find dirt on Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Mr. Trump said Mr. Perry, one of his longest serving Cabinet members, had planned for months to leave. But the timing of the announcement of Mr. 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 Mr. 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,” she said.
No evidence has emerged that Mr. Perry explicitly pressured Ukrainian officials to comply with Mr. Trump’s push to investigate a Ukraine natural gas company where Mr. Biden’s son Hunter was a board member. It’s a central part of the impeachment investigation.
Mr. 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.
Mr. Perry did publicly pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for unspecified reforms “in the energy sector,” however, including in comments at Mr. Zelenskiy’s May inauguration.
That was one of several trips and meetings putting Mr. Perry in contact with Ukraine and U.S. figures playing pivotal roles in the actions now being studied by House committees.
Mr. Perry also was present for at least part of a White House meeting in July with then-national security adviser John Bolton and other U.S. and Ukrainian officials. Mr. Perry, at the time, tweeted a photo of the group lined up in front of the White House and called it a “productive discussion.”
Mr. Trump is trying to block members of his administration from testifying before lawmakers who are investigating whether Mr. 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 Mr. Perry.
A top State Department official, George Kent, has testified that the White House deputized Mr. Perry, Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker and European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland to run U.S. policy in Ukraine. “It’s outrageous,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said.
Mr. Perry’s public mission in Ukraine was in line with U.S. and European policy in place before the Trump administration: “flood” Europe with imported natural gas, as Mr. Perry said in a video in 2015, before Mr. Trump won office. The policy is designed to help Ukraine and other Eastern European countries escape the political dominance that Russia’s control of the region’s energy supply has helped give Moscow.
Mr. Perry’s Texas roots gave him ties with the oil and gas companies exporting to Europe. But there are no allegations that Mr. Perry improperly arranged natural gas deals to benefit oil friends.
Before now, Mr. Perry’s defining national moment came as a presidential candidate, when he forgot the name of the Energy Department in a 2011 debate as he was listing Cabinet agencies he wanted to eliminate.