Cabinet secretary admits to lying under oath - why does she still have her job?

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Jennifer Granholm is the Secretary of Energy, a high-level position in the Biden administration. She sent a letter to Congress on Friday admitting to lying during her testimony under oath addressing her ownership of individual stocks. Top government officials in charge of policy-making are not supposed to own stocks in companies that may present a conflict of interest.

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Not only did she not completely divest all the stocks she owned, but she also kept six that were in her portfolio. During her confirmation process, she told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that she did not own any individual stocks. She did so under oath. She didn’t mention the six she held on to. She sent a letter to the committee leadership on Friday in which she admits that she made a “mistake” in her testimony.

“As you know, as part of the confirmation process before this Committee, in 2021 I divested from assets that could be in conflict with my official duties,” Granholm wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “I did, however, retain assets that were determined by Government ethics officials to not conflict with my official duties.”

“I mistakenly told the Committee that I did not own any individual stocks, whereas I should have said that I did not own any conflicting stocks. In order to make my financial holdings consistent with my testimony, on May 18, 2023, I divested my remaining stock holdings which consisted of stock in six companies, even though these assets were deemed non-conflicting,” she continued.

Granholm didn’t bother to specify which stocks she still owned at the time of her testimony. She said that information would be in her Annual Public Financial Disclosure Report in mid-June.

To make matters worse for her, she admits that she and her husband, Daniel Mulhern, owned $2,457.89 worth of shares in Ford Motor Company. They sold those shares on May 15. Granholm, however, did not come forward with this additional information – the Ford stocks and the 6 stocks she retained when she was confirmed – until now, going into the middle of June.

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Ford is certainly a conflict of interest. How did she not divulge her ownership of that stock? She has submitted two Annual Public Financial Disclosure Reports so far and nothing has shown up about it.

“As a public servant, I take very seriously the commitment to hold myself to the highest ethical standards, and I regret the accidental omission of my spouse’s interest in Ford,” Granholm added in the letter. “This is a commitment I made to you, the President, and most importantly the American people.”

“My spouse and I have double-checked our financial assets, and there are no other reportable assets that were omitted from my financial disclosure report,” she concluded.

Really? If she “holds herself to the highest ethical standards” she would have at least offered to resign. Biden doesn’t care about ethics in government and wouldn’t be inclined to accept her resignation. Her job is safe. The gesture would have been noted, though, and she could start fresh trying to win the public’s trust. As it is now, all she is doing is saying she “made a mistake” and everyone can find out the whole story when it’s time for her next annual disclosure report. This is nuts.

This is Biden’s America. Public officials are not held accountable. No one ever loses their job – except that one guy in the nuclear energy department who kept stealing women’s luggage at airports and was caught on tape doing so. They had to fire that guy.

Jennifer Granholm has no business being the Secretary of Energy. She is the former Governor of Michigan and her blind loyalty to Joe Biden is what got her the position in his cabinet.

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Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member, says her pattern of behavior is unacceptable.

“Secretary Granholm lied to the committee about her family’s stock holdings,” Barrasso said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This comes after her failure to follow basic ethics and disclosure rules. This is a troubling pattern. It is unacceptable.”

This has the appearance of more than just an “oops, my bad” kind of mistake. This looks deliberate, an attempt to cover up her dishonest testimony, under oath, to the committee when she was confirmed for the job. Lying to Congress under oath is a crime. People go to jail for that.

A spokesperson at the Department of Energy released a statement. It sounds like her husband is being thrown under the bus.

“The Secretary takes the commitment to uphold the highest ethical standards very seriously, which is why, upon realizing a comment made in error, the Secretary moved quickly to divest non-conflicting assets along with an asset held by her spouse of which she was previously unaware,” the spokesperson said.

“The letter submitted to Congress clarifying the record underscores the Secretary’s commitment to transparency and to leading a DOE that puts the interests of the American people above all else.”

How much money did she make when she divested it all? We don’t know. Just wait for the annual disclosure.

The Ford stock is a glaring conflict of interest, considering Granholm’s obsessive push for electric vehicles and even turning military vehicles into electric vehicles. She was appointed to the Board of Directors for ChargePoint, the world’s largest electric vehicle charging network, before she was in the cabinet position.

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She sold stock in the company that is a maker of electric buses that Biden touts. When she sold that stock in 2021, California-based Proterra Inc., she cleared a net gain of $1.6 million.

Who is going to trust her now, besides the clueless Joe Biden? Doesn’t matter. No one is held accountable in this administration. She should be either enjoying her retirement years now or sending out her resume to potential employers. She has no business being Secretary of Energy. She is as corrupt as the rest of them.

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