Top Republican turns up heat in Jennifer Granholm Ford stock investigation
- July 12, 2023
A top Republican lawmaker is pressing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm for answers as ethical scrutiny grows over her husband’s prior ownership of Ford stock that some watchdogs allege could have posed a “conflict of interest.”
On Wednesday, Granholm faced an ethics complaint from the right-leaning watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust concerning the Ford stock. The organization said the secretary engaged in a “blatant violation of her ethics obligations,” the Washington Examiner first reported.
The complaint stemmed from Granholm alleging to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in mid-June that she only became aware of her husband’s Ford shares on May 13. The shares were sold on May 15 and valued at over $2,400, according to Granholm. In the letter to the committee, Granholm also noted that she “mistakenly” testified in April about her now owning “any individual stocks,” instead meaning to say she “did not own any conflicting stocks.”
Republicans and watchdog groups have slammed the Ford stock acknowledgment due to the company’s close ties to the federal government. For instance, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a $740 billion spending bill, approved electric vehicle subsidies that Ford has stood to benefit from.