Calls for energy secretary to resign over ethics violations grow louder

The Department of Energy was besieged with ethics complaints this week as energy secretary Jennifer Granholm stares down accusations of corruption and demands from Congress that she fire Christopher Smith, a top aide and former Ford lobbyist.

Hours before Barrasso’s missive to Granholm, the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust wrote to the Energy Department’s inspector general demanding an investigation into Granholm’s “blatant violation of her ethics obligations.” The group wrote that Granholm’s violations are “egregious and clear-cut” and that because her “husband’s investments are imputed to her, this means Secretary Granholm had a direct financial interest in one of the companies to which her agency granted millions of dollars from a program she participated in personally and substantially.” Granholm’s husband, Daniel Mulhern, owned around $2,000 of Ford stock during her time in office.

Perhaps most concerning, PPT noted that Granholm “appeared in a cringeworthy video with transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg produced by DoE that appears to endorse and promote a Ford product.”

Calls for energy secretary to resign over ethics violations grow louder