Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s alleged ethics violations and failures have prompted 15 nonprofits to write to President Joe Biden on Tuesday demanding her resignation.
The coalition of nonprofits, which say they are dedicated to promoting ethics and integrity in government, said Granholm has “disregarded and de-prioritized her ethics obligations at every turn.”
“We request the immediate resignation of Secretary Jennifer Granholm based not only on her actions – her repeated apparent violations of federal ethics laws and regulations – but also on the ethics failures and legal missteps of her subordinates resulting from her poor example,” the group wrote in their letter to President Biden.
One of the first ethics concerns around Granholm, who was governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011, cropped up in 2021, shortly after she took office as energy secretary.
During her first months as a Biden cabinet member, the Biden administration promoted the electric bus company Proterra while Granholm still held Proterra stock options because she had been a member of the company’s board. She finally sold her stock in Proterra for $1.6 million before an ethics deadline requiring her to do so.
She was also able to defer paying capital gains taxes on the $1.6 million since cabinet members are not required to pay the tax on stocks they must sell in order to take office.
Last year, Granholm admitted to paying $400 in late fees for failing to disclose up to $240,000 in stock sales in 2021.
Her aides initially claimed she had not broken the law but later called the issue an “inadvertent clerical oversight.”
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“The planet is warming faster than ever, the cost and impact of extreme weather events are intensifying, and yet what some people are spending their time on is a $400 late fee that was already paid on a clerical oversight,” Energy Department spokeswoman Charisma Troiano responded at one point when Insider asked about the situation.
Then last month, Granholm admitted that her husband owned shares in Ford Motor Company, which she did not previously disclose, claiming she only became aware of them in May. Her husband sold the shares worth $2,457.89 on May 15.
She claimed she “mistakenly” testified in April to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that she “did not own any individual stocks” when she meant she “did not own any conflicting stocks.”
Before her husband sold the stock, Granholm filmed a video promoting electric vehicles in which she rode an electric Ford Mustang, sparking concerns that she was promoting Ford.
“It’s one of two things at this point. She’s either incompetent or lying,” said Representative Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in June.
Armstrong added that Ford is “a company that squarely falls under her authority” as energy secretary.
On top of the alleged stock violations, Granholm also violated a law that limits political speech by federal employees, according to a government watchdog.
“The good news is that that marching and that voting gave Democrats a bare majority, but a majority, in the House, in the Senate,” Granholm said during a 2021 interview with the magazine Marie Claire.
“And again, I am using Democrats as a substitute for the policies that you believe in, the policies that you would like to see happen,” she said.
Granholm’s comments violated the Hatch Act, according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, but the agency decided not to discipline her, although further violations could result in discipline.
“Since Ms. Granholm’s responses to these allegations have often relied on some variation of ‘it wasn’t my fault,’ this has left the American public wondering where exactly the buck stops in your administration,” the group of 15 nonprofits wrote in their Tuesday letter to Biden.
The group of nonprofits demanding Granholm’s resignation include the 60 Plus Association, AMAC Action, the American Accountability Foundation, CFACT, the Conservative Caucus, the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, the Eagle Forum, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, David Bozell of ForAmerica, Heartland Impact, the Heartland Institute, L. Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the Media Research Center, the Project 21 Black Leadership Network, and Protect the Public’s Trust.