Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has demanded Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) hold a Senate hearing into Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's recent confession she misled the upper chamber about her stock ownership.
Hawley, who questioned Granholm on whether she divested any stocks she previously owned during a hearing in April, claimed the hearing was warranted because of the department's systemic problem with conflicts of interest.
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"Secretary Granholm needs to return to the committee to correct the record and clarify her compliance — and the entire Department’s compliance — with federal ethics laws. I urge you to schedule an oversight hearing as soon as practicable to investigate this matter," Hawley wrote in a letter to Manchin on Wednesday.
"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," Hawley continued. "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."
Granholm claimed that she did not own any individual stocks during the Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on April 20, and that she did not object to any laws that would ban federal officials and lawmakers from trading stocks.
Granholm corrected the record in a letter to the committee earlier this month, stating that she did maintain shares of six companies at the time of her testimony. However, she divested from the companies on May 18 after learning that she did still own the shares. Her husband also owned $2,457.89 worth of shares in Ford Motor Company, which he has also now sold.
The energy secretary added that she believed her family had sold their shares in Ford in 2021. She did not include the six companies she personally had assets in but said they would be revealed in a disclosure.
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Hawley said Granholm's case was "disturbing" in his letter to Manchin, and questioned why it took seven weeks for the committee to be notified of the error in her testimony. He also questioned how she could not have known about her own investments.
A spokesperson for Manchin told Fox News that the hearing could not be added to the committee's schedule, but that Manchin would help coordinate a meeting between Granholm and Hawley in order to answer his questions. Hawley has also sent a separate letter to Granholm, demanding answers about her testimony.