Senator Josh Hawley has been fighting for transparency among US Department leadership and Congressional lawmakers. He extensively questioned Energy Secretary Granholm regarding insider trading, asking the Secretary if she holds stocks in companies related to her areas of oversight.

According to Breitbart, Granholm denied owning individual stocks in companies related to the Energy Department.

She answered, “No, I’m invested in mutual funds,” when Hawley asked, “Do you own individual stocks, Madam Secretary?”

However, more than a month later, Granholm came clean and admitted that she did own stocks in companies she could directly benefit from financially through decisions made under her authority.

During her questioning, Hawley said he thought it should be made illegal for Congress to trade stocks, and when he proposed a ban, Granholm enthusiastically endorsed Hawley’s plan saying she would “not object to that.”

 

Following Granholm’s admission of guilt, Hawley composed a letter to West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin asking that he conduct a hearing on Granholm. Manchin is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources. Halwey’s letter noted that Granholm violated ethics laws previously. In 2021 she violated the Stock Act when she failed to properly disclose nine stock trades. The stock trades involved companies that have profitable government contracts, including Gilead Sciences and Redfin.

Granholm waited nearly two months to correct the record after she denied holding energy-related stocks. Hawley’s letter said:

“The facts of Secretary Granholm’s case are disturbing. How do you not know that you own stocks in individual companies? How do you not verify this after you were caught violating ethics laws the first time? And why did she wait seven weeks to correct the record?

These latest revelations come in the context of an Energy Department that has been reported to have serious, systemic problems with ethics compliance when it comes to stock ownership and conflicts of interest. I, therefore, urge you to convene a hearing with Secretary Granholm to discuss both Secretary’s false testimony and the steps the Department is taking to ensure senior officials properly comply with federal ethics laws.”

During her previous questioning, Hawley confronted Granholm with facts on energy officials owning stock in companies like Exxon and Chevron. When Granholm said it doesn’t influence our actions, she was asked why she had chosen to sell hers and answered that as a Department head, it was different for her and that she signed an ethics agreement with the President. Hawley said Biden was right in having Granholm sign an agreement to divest, saying agencies owning stocks they have the authority to impact through their decisions financially “looks bad.”

Added attention to how Congress and federal agencies profit off of related stocks came following a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that exposed potential misconduct. Unfortunately, the WSJ found that insider trading is common among lawmakers and federal agencies.
“More than 130 officials in the Energy Department collectively reported about 2,700 trades of shares, bonds, and options in companies that ethics officers labeled as related to their agency’s work.”

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