Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wants an oversight hearing on “misleading” statements Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm made to the panel in April about her stock ownership.
“During the hearing, Secretary Granholm claimed she did not own any personal financial stocks, when in fact, she held individual stocks as recently as May of this year,” Hawley said in a June 22 press release. The release includes text of a letter Hawley sent to the chair, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), requesting a hearing.
On April 20, Granholm told the committee that she did not own any individual stocks, only mutual funds. “But now she tells us that was not true,” Hawley wrote. On June 9, Granholm wrote the committee to say she actually owned such stock at the time of her committee appearance, Hawley said. Granholm subsequently divested the holdings in May.
“But she elected not to apprise this committee of her misstatement or her stock transactions until this month—seven weeks after the hearing and three weeks after she sold her stocks,” Hawley goes on to say.
This is how Granholm explained things in her June 9 letter to the committee.
“On or about May 13, 2023, I became aware for the first time that my spouse [Dan Mulhern] owned a small amount of Ford stock in a separate account,” Granholm wrote. “This asset was sold in its entirety when the market opened on May 15, 2023. The sale transaction was for $2,457.89 … As I was not previously aware of the asset, I did not report my spouse’s financial interest on my two prior Public Financial Disclosure Reports, nor was it included in the other paperwork associated with my nomination.”
After receiving Granholm’s letter, the committee’s ranking GOP member, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on June 14 requested DOE Inspector General Teri Donaldson conduct an investigation.
Congressional Republicans have been interested in Granholm’s financial holdings since she was nominated for the DOE post by President Joe Biden in January 2021. A former Michigan governor and Cable News Network analyst, Granholm served on various boards before joining the Biden administration. While in the private sector, Granholm and her husband reportedly held stock in Proterra, an electric vehicle technology company. Granholm divested the Proterra holdings in May 2021, Politico has reported.
The DOE did not respond to a request for comment.
