U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has denied media reports suggesting that he was preparing to resign next month, saying that he doesn’t plan to go anywhere.
Secretary Perry is planning to hand in his resignation in November, Politico reported last week, citing three unnamed sources in the know.
According to Politico’s sources, Secretary Perry has been considering resigning for several months now, and his indirect involvement in the impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump may have helped him make his mind.
The sources themselves told Politico that the Ukraine scandal that led to the impeachment probe had no role in Perry’s decision to leave.
Perry’s name got mixed up in the scandal because of a U.S. delegation the Energy Secretary led to Ukraine for the inauguration of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The delegation was initially supposed to be led by Vice President Mike Pence, but Perry was named instead of him in the last minute.
“They’ve been writing the story for at least nine months now. One of these days they will probably get it right, but it’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, it’s not next month,” Perry said at a press conference in Lithuania