One of Joe Biden’s top appointees, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, has admitted that she lied under oath to Congress.
Granholm sent a letter on Friday claiming that she made a mistake when she claimed during an April 20th congressional hearing that she did not own any individual stocks. In reality, she still owned shares in six separate companies at the time. Her false statement was meant to comport with the testimony she gave during her confirmation hearing in 2021 in which she claimed to have divested from stocks that could conflict with her future work (Fox News).
“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.
For context, lying to Congress is a federal crime, and Granholm is admitting to said crime in her letter. Think of it this way. If you lied to the FBI and then came back months later and admitted you lied, would that original lie no longer be prosecutable? There aren’t typically any takebacks in that situation.
And while Granholm is claiming this was all a big mistake, there’s reason to be highly skeptical. For example, why did she divest from the stocks in mid-May but not notify Congress that she had lied until mid-June? That doesn’t look like a situation where someone realized they had erred and acted quickly to rectify the situation with real transparency. Instead, it looks like Granholm first tried to cover up her lie by quietly divesting and only admitted to it out of some more recent fear of being caught.
Regardless, putting aside whether she should be charged for her false statement to Congress (something the Biden DOJ will never pursue), she should certainly resign from her office. Granholm has been plagued by ethical issues since the moment she was confirmed. Early on in her tenure, she sold stock in a company called Proterra, an electric vehicle manufacturer. Granholm has, of course, been a big public proponent for electric vehicles from her government perch, and when she sold that stock, she raked in a cool $1.6 million. How much more money has she made between then and her complete divestment on May 18th of 2023?
The lack of accountability within the Biden administration continues to be a glaring blight on the country. Granholm is a self-serving figure who has no business serving as Energy Secretary, and she’s just the latest example of the rampant lawlessness that is allowed to continue by one political party.