Washington (AFP) - House Democrats conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump for abuse of power issued a subpoena for documents on Thursday to his Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
The subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee asks Perry to turn over documents related to his dealings with Ukraine by October 18.
Democrats in the House are investigating whether Trump withheld military aid for Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into his potential 2020 Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden.
The White House released the transcript of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump asked Zelensky to "look into" Biden with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General Bill Barr.
Trump has denied he did anything wrong and the White House has said it will not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.
"Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the President's stark message to the Ukrainian President," the committee letter to Perry said.
"These reports have also raised significant questions about your efforts to press Ukrainian officials to change the management structure at a Ukrainian state-owned energy company to benefit individuals involved with Rudy Giuliani's push to get Ukrainian officials to interfere in our 2020 election," it added.
The committee noted a press report that claimed it was Perry who urged Trump to call Zelensky and that the energy secretary attended Zelensky's May 2019 inauguration instead of Vice President Mike Pence.
