Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., issued a formal request for an inspector general investigation into Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm after she admitted to making false statements about her stock ownership.
Barrasso — the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee — penned a letter Wednesday to Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General Teri Donaldson, arguing that Granholm’s repeated financial mishaps required a probe. On Friday, Granholm quietly acknowledged that she owned individual stocks despite her past testimony and disclosures indicating the opposite.
“Secretary Granholm’s repeated noncompliance with established financial rules and regulations, in addition to her disregard for ethical standards, has contributed to the erosion of the public’s trust not only in her, but the Department of Energy as a whole,” Barrasso wrote to Donaldson.
“It is imperative that impropriety on the part of cabinet officials is taken seriously, the dignity of the offices in which they serve is upheld, and that officials are held accountable when they fail to follow the letter of the law,” he continued. “I respectfully request that your office determine the facts surrounding any impropriety in connection with the matter.”
TOP REPUBLICAN PRESSES BIDEN ADMIN OVER APPARENT MANIPULATION OF ENERGY COMPANY’S STOCK
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm testifies during a congressional hearing. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In a letter to Energy and Natural Resource Committee leadership Friday, Granholm said she owned shares of six unnamed individual companies and that her husband owned $2,457.89 worth of shares in Ford Motor Company at the time of her under-oath testimony before the panel in April. During the April 20 hearing, Granholm told Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., she was “not owning individual stocks.”
On May 15, Granholm sold her husband’s Ford shares and, on May 18, she sold her remaining individual stock holdings, according to her letter…
