House Democrats Subpoena Rick Perry over Ukraine Dealings
Democratic House committee chairmen Elijah Cummings, Eliot Engel, and Adam Schiff sent a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Rick Perry alerting him to a subpoena demanding documents related to their impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s dealings in Ukraine — the ninth subpoena issued so far.
“The enclosed subpoena demands documents that are necessary for the Committees to examine this sequence of these events and the reasons behind the White House’s decision to withhold critical military assistance to Ukraine that was appropriated by Congress to counter Russian aggression,” the letter reads.
On October 4, President Trump allegedly “told House Reporters that he made his now infamous phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the urging of Energy Secretary Rick Perry,” according to an Axios report.
House Democrats state that Perry’s dealings in Ukraine, which including pressing Ukrainian officials to have the entire board of state-owned national gas company Naftogaz replaced with a list of potential members that included Texans and Perry supporters, “raised questions about whether you were ‘seeking to provide certain Americans help in gaining a foothold in the Ukrainian energy business.’”
The subpoena comes after the White House blocked Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland, who was slated to appear before the House on Tuesday, from testifying.
The administration then addressed a letter to speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and the three Democratic committee leaders saying that it would not cooperate with the ongoing impeachment probe, citing violations of “fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process.”
