ABC News(WASHINGTON) — Energy Secretary Rick Perry is pushing back against allegations that the Trump administration used its dealing in Ukraine to investigate political rivals or possibly steer business toward campaign donors, saying he’s “extremely comfortable” that there was no “quid pro quo.”
The ongoing impeachment inquiry has entangled Perry and other administration officials after a whistleblower accused the administration of pushing Ukraine’s president to launch an investigation that some conservatives thought would help President Donald Trump politically, including looking into the Biden family.
Perry has not been accused of breaking the law. But his influential role in the region has led him to be described by U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland during an interview on Ukrainian television as one of the “three amigos” tasked with overseeing the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, and has made him a key person of interest for lawmakers seeking first-hand knowledge of events.
Perry said he has only been focused on addressing corruption in Ukraine and encouraging American companies to do business there. He confirmed that he encouraged the president to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “multiple times” during a press conference in Lithuania on Monday, but said he never encouraged Trump to talk about the Biden family.
“Not once, as God as my witness, not once was a Biden name — not the former vice president, not his son — ever mentioned,” Perry said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Friday.
“I’m quite comfortable, as a matter of fact I’m extremely comfortable,” he added, that no one in the administration including the president intended some kind of “quid pro quo.”
Perry has been working to encourage countries like Ukraine to import more American natural gas for both the economic benefits and to move away from Russian oil or gas.
Agnia Grigas, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of the book The New Geopolitics of Natural Gas, said she doesn’t think Perry’s interest in Ukraine alone is unusual because past administrations have also pushed for more western influence on energy in the region.
Grigas said Russia has used its huge share of the European energy market to manipulate other countries for decades so the U.S. and the European Union have been focused on helping them become more independent by building up a domestic supply of coal or natural gas or importing it from other sources.
“I think the benefit is generally increasing ties between the U.S. and Ukraine as Ukraine has shifted its geopolitical orientation. The energy sector is a strategic sector where more cooperation has geopolitical implications,” she said.
Grigas said it isn’t unusual for diplomats to be involved in energy negotiations in many countries because oil and gas companies are run by the government, but U.S. energy production has grown dramatically in the last five years. Trump has made pushing American leadership in the energy space a hallmark of his administration.
“I think President Trump’s administration has never shied away from promoting American natural gas interests and American companies,” she said.
But under the scrutiny of the impeachment inquiry, Perry will still be forced to answer questions about his specific involvement in Ukraine, including whether he recommended Republican donors for influential positions in Ukrainian companies.
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