The president announced Thursday that Perry, who has been in the role since the beginning of the Trump administration, would be leaving the job by the end of the year.

Brouillette has served as deputy energy secretary since August 2017. He had worked for the agency 14 years prior as assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs in the George W. Bush administration.

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In between, Brouillette was a top lobbyist for Ford Motor Co. and then the head of public policy for USAA, a financial institution for military families.

Perry is embroiled in Trump’s Ukraine controversy because he urged the president to call the new Ukrainian president over the summer. Perry said his departure has nothing to do with that.

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Perry said it was “absolutely” true that he pushed Trump to make the call to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“I pushed on him a lot to make that phone call because I became convinced that Zelensky, the people around him, were legitimately trying to get rid of the corruption and get off the Russian gas,” Perry said during an interview Friday morning on Fox News.

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House investigators have subpoenaed Perry for documents related to Trump’s call with Zelensky, which has triggered an impeachment inquiry into whether the president abused his power when he asked Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, a political opponent, and his son Hunter.

Perry said he did not know whether he will comply or appear if called to testify.

Perry has been a globe-trotting energy secretary, hawking energy policy and American products in trips to Europe, the Middle East and, several times, Kyiv.

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Although he is from energy-rich Texas, the Energy Department seemed an unlikely place for Perry to land. As a presidential candidate in 2012, he could not recall the name of the department, one of three departments he said he would abolish if elected. “Oops,” he said when he couldn’t remember the name.