In a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) demanded the resignation of Joe Biden’s Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm. The confrontation focused on the revelation of Granholm’s breaches of the STOCK Act, ongoing stock ownership issues and dishonesty with the Senate. Biden’s top energy official is now at the center of a heated debate over ethics and transparency within the administration.
“You are presiding over institutionalized corruption in your Energy Department,” Hawley charged, highlighting Granholm’s nine separate STOCK Act violations and her referral by the Inspector General for Hatch Act violations.
The STOCK Act requires elected officials and certain federal employees to disclose their property interests in some forms of stocks and securities. The law was enacted to promote transparency in government and help head off unethical conflicts of interest to promote greater public trust in the government.
The Missouri Senator continued his relentless attempt to force Granholm to admit the truth, stating: “You misled this committee.”
Granholm acts like she has a divine right not to be questioned – on how she’s profiting off her own regulations. These people are unreal 👇https://t.co/DPcLcw53Rb via @dcexaminer
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 16, 2024
Granholm tried to brush off her ethical problems by claiming that any delay in revealing the truth was because she simply didn’t pay attention to her “miniscule” stock portfolio. “Oh, my goodness,” Granholm responded, “I believed that I had sold all individual stocks, and I was incorrect.”
Hawley concluded his time by telling Granholm directly to her face: “All I have to say is this record is deplorable, it is despicable, it is outrageous that hundreds of officers in the Energy Department are trading shares. It is outrageous that you’ve misled us. It is outrageous that you are continuing to mislead us, and it is outrageous you’re going to conferences and events funded by foreign billionaires using dark money to try to influence our politics. This has got to change, and frankly, you should go.”
The debate further escalated as Hawley pointed out that hundreds of Energy officials had improperly traded shares of companies directly related to their work. According to a Wall Street Journal report, this widespread practice could represent a serious conflict of interest. Granholm ignored the substance of the question and simply said the Energy Department has an ethics office that conducts “reviews.”
As Joe Biden continues to aggressively follow through on his campaign promises to wreck American energy independence, the implications of Granholm’s ethical and legal issues are meaningful and far-reaching.
