Energy Secretary Perry, White House official asked to testify in impeachment inquiry
US Energy Secretary Rick Perry and White House budget office acting Director Russell Vought have been told to testify in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump set to be held next week, according to an official.
The official working on the inquiry said that Perry and Vought had been asked to testify in a closed sessions before House of Representatives committees on Wednesday.
Other officials including State Department counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale have also been told to attend the session to testify, said the official on Friday, according to Reuters.
Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry in September after a whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured Ukraine to investigate his main Democratic rival, former US vice president Joe Biden.
That request by Trump, and accusations he conditioned nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine on the political favor, form the basis of the impeachment inquiry that now threatens his presidency.
House Democrats say Trump has abused his office for personal gain and jeopardized national security by asking Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Now, Trump says that he would read out loud a transcript of the July 25 call on live television.
“This is over a phone call that is a good call,” Trump told the Examiner in an interview. “At some point, I’m going to sit down, perhaps as a fireside chat on live television, and I will read the transcript of the call, because people have to hear it. When you read it, it’s a straight call.”
On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to formally proceed with the impeachment inquiry against Trump.
The Ukraine call is probably the main reason why Democrats want to impeach Trump, but many had formerly pushed for impeachment over his effort to undercut former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the alleged Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
During an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said controversies beyond Ukraine could also be part of the impeachment case.
"What we're talking about now is taking us into a whole other class of objection to what the president has done. And there may be other — there were 11 obstruction of justice provisions in the Mueller report. Perhaps some of them will be part of this."
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