Trump Says Rick Perry Convinced Him to Call Zelenskyy in July - Reports

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th October, 2019) US President Donald Trump claims he had the controversial phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the request of US Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who headed a US delegation to Ukraine in May, US media report.

Trump had a conference call with US House of Representatives members on Friday, saying that his July conversation with Zelenskyy was "perfect," Axios media reported on Saturday citing three sources.

According to one of the sources, Trump said "something to the effect of: 'Not a lot of people know this but, I didn't even want to make the call. The only reason I made the call was because Rick [Perry] asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquefied natural gas] plant.'"

Perry is reportedly planning to resign by the end of this year.

On September 24, congressional Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump's July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The inquiry was initiated after a whistleblower sent a complaint to Congress, saying Trump pressed Zelenskyy to investigate possible corruption by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and threatened withholding US military aid to Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Perry's spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes, told Axios on Saturday that the US Energy Secretary had supported and encouraged Trump to speak to Zelenskyy and to discuss energy security and economic development.

The full transcript of Trump's phone conversation with Zelenskyy has been published, after both Trump and Ukrainian authorities authorized the release.