President Trump is said to be blaming Energy Secretary Rick Perry for his now infamous phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, which ultimately led to the whistleblower complaint.
Axios reported that Trump made the claim during a conference call with House Republicans on Friday. Sources told the news site that Perry urged him to make the call.
According to the sources, Trump continued to beat the drum about how ‘perfect’ his call with Zelensky was and that he hadn’t done anything wrong during the call.
Three sources told Axios that President Trump (pictured October 4) told House Republicans on a conference call that Energy Secretary Rick Perry urged him to call the Ukrainian President
Trump said that he didn’t want to make the call that would lead to the whistleblower’s complaint, but the Perry (pictured July 8) asked him to make the call and that a liquified natural gas plant was involved
One of the sources recounted that Trump had said something along the lines of ‘I didn’t even want to make the call’ and that the only reason Trump did so was because Perry had asked him to and that a liquified natural gas plant was involved.
Two other sources confirmed to Axios this account of the conference call.
Another source said that Trump, referring to Perry, had told House Republicans that ‘more of this will be coming out in the next few days.’
On Thursday, the day before Trump’s call with House Republicans, Politico reported that Perry is expected to resign in November, citing three sources that were familiar with the former Texas governor’s plans. Perry was said to have been planning his resignation for several months.
Although Perry has been able to steer clear of the various controversies that have embroiled and led to the exit of others in Trump’s administration, he is now facing impeachment inquiry scrutiny over his recent trips to the Ukraine.
The July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky became the topic of the whistleblower’s complaint, which led to the House’s impeachment inquiry going ahead
Despite Trump’s apparent claims that Perry urged Trump to make the call, text messages between White House aides that Zelensky’s aide indicate it was actually Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pushed for the call
Perry, taking the place of Vice President Pence, led the US delegation to the Ukraine for Zelensky’s May inauguration, leading Democrats to question Perry for more information about both the trip and his talks with Ukrainian leaders.
The House has also subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani for documents related to Perry’s ‘involvement with Ukrainian leaders last spring,’ according to Axios.
This, despite Perry claiming that neither Joe nor Hunter Biden’s names were brought up while he was in the Ukraine and that there does not appear to be any evidence that Perry was involved in the act of pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens.
In fact, recently released text messages exchanged by Trump administration officials and Zelensky’s top aide, Andrey Yermak, appear to suggest that Giuliani – in his role as Trump’s personal lawyer – was the one pushing for the call between the two leaders. There also does not seem to be any message of Perry having been involved in the call planning.
Neither Perry nor the liquified natural gas plant that Trump supposedly mentioned during Friday’s conference call with House Republicans was mentioned in the five-page memo of the Trump-Zelensky call that was released by the White House after the whistleblower complaint went public.
Perry’s spokesperson told Axios that the Energy Secretary ‘absolutely supported and encouraged the president to speak to the new president of Ukraine to discuss matters related to their energy security and economic development.’
The spokesperson also added that Perry ‘continues to believe that there is significant need for improved regional energy security’ and that this belief is why he is traveling to Lithuania Sunday to discuss these issues during a Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation (P-TEC) meeting.
Among the nearly two dozen Central and Eastern European energy leaders attending will be one from the Ukraine.
The White House did not respond to Axios’ request for a comment on Trump’s call with House Republicans.
However, the White House spokesperson said that a conference call with House Republicans took place Friday.
According to the spokesperson, Trump discussed recent unemployment figures, in addition to what the spokesperson called ‘Democrats’ refusal to focus on solutions that would help the American people as they attempt to overturn the result of the 2016 election.’
The White House spokesperson confirmed that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise, Conference Chair Liz Cheney and other Republican leaders on key House committees were on the call, according to The Hill.
Perry was not mentioned in the conference call readout.
The whistleblower’s complaint brought to light a July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky, during with the current US President asked the Ukrainian President to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who recently sat on the board of a Ukraine-based energy company. The complaint led to the House’s impeachment inquiry.