Global Courant
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm quietly acknowledged in a letter Friday that she made a false statement when she recently told lawmakers that she did not own individual stocks.
As Granholm divested from several stocks in 2021, she acknowledged in the letter — which was sent to the leadership of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee — that she retained stock in six companies. However, on April 20, Granholm testified under oath that she had sold all of her shares of individual companies.
“As you are aware, as part of the confirmation process for this commission in 2021, I disposed of assets that could conflict with my official duties,” Granholm wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “However, I kept assets determined by the government’s ethics officers so as not to conflict with my official duties.”
“I falsely told the committee that I did not own individual stocks when I should have said that I did not own conflicting stocks. from shares in six companies, even though these assets were considered non-conflicting,” she continued.
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Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm speaks at the 2023 CERAWeek conference earlier this year in Houston, Texas. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Granholm did not say in the letter which companies she owned shares of — and from which she divested on May 18 — but promised to share that information in her annual public financial disclosure report in mid-June.
In addition, Granholm said that on May 13, she discovered that her husband Daniel Mulhern owned $2,457.89 worth of stock in Ford Motor Company. Those shares were then sold on May 15, a Monday when the stock market opened.
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Granholm acknowledged that she failed to disclose those stocks in her two previous Public Financial Disclosure Reports and had mistakenly believed her family’s divestment of Ford was complete in early 2021. The Ford stock she and her husband had in their retirement accounts had been sold in March. 22, 2021, she said.
“As a public servant, I take very seriously the commitment to holding myself to the highest ethical standards, and I regret inadvertently omitting my husband’s interest in Ford,” Granholm added in the letter. “This is a commitment I made to you, the president, and especially to the American people.”
“My spouse and I have double-checked our financial assets and there are no other reportable assets that have been omitted from my financial disclosure report,” she concluded.
Energy sec. Jennifer Granholm told Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., under oath in April that she owned no individual stock. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images | NICOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
Granholm also noted that all of her transactions mentioned in the letter would be disclosed in a Public Financial Disclosure Periodic Transaction Report in July.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesman for the energy department said Granholm continues to adhere to “the highest ethical standards.”
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“The Secretary takes very seriously the commitment to uphold the highest ethical standards, and so upon becoming aware of a comment that had been made in error, the Secretary quickly proceeded to divest non-conflicting assets along with a her husband’s assets that she was previously unaware of,” the spokesman 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.”
E&E News was the first to report the letter.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
