With Ukrainian storm clouds circling around President Donald Trump, and his role in the Ukrainian scandal increasingly under Congressional investigation, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced to the President that he would be resigning from his post at the end of November.
On Thursday, October 17, United States House of Representatives investigators, under the auspices of three different Congressional committees, issued new subpoenas, including one to Secretary Perry Examining their work related to Ukraine and interactions with the President’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. They are looking for evidence that Trump withheld appropriated military aid to pressure a Ukrainian corruption investigation of Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President and current 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. The younger Biden’s role in a Ukrainian oil company is an issue that Trump seeks to exploit for political purposes, although no accusation of wrongdoing has been proven or clearly articulated.
Investigators also want to know Perry’s role in pressuring the Ukrainian government as well as any actions to encourage changes in the management of Ukraine’s national oil and gas company.
Perry’s tenure at Energy has been marked by a lack of major scandals as he has worked primarily to promote American oil and gas exports. Perry famously forgot the name of the Department he now leads during a 2011 Presidential candidate debate. After announcing that his intention to close three cabinet level federal agencies, he couldn’t remember which three. Energy was one of them. In charge of the agency, he’s presided over a 25% increase in the agency’s funding.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/politics/rick-perry-subpoena.html