Lying under oath to Congress is a big deal. But if a Democrat like Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm does it, it’s (D)ifferent.

This was a completely boneheaded and unnecessary lie. Granholm was testifying before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on April 20th. A pdf of her testimony can be read here. The testimony was covered at the time because Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) was particularly unhappy with Granholm and the Biden administration’s use of the “Inflation Reduction Act” to push electric vehicles and new regulations that went with them.

But during the course of the hearing, Granholm had this exchange with Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) about stocks. Hawley specifically referenced a Wall Street Journal report about Energy Department officials owning stocks related to their work.

U.S. ethics officials in recent years have warned one-third of the Energy Department’s senior officials that they or their families owned stocks related to the agency’s work, reminding them not to violate federal conflict-of-interest rules.”

Most held on to the stocks, a Wall Street Journal analysis of officials’ financial disclosures from 2017 through 2021 shows.”

The more than 300 agency officials who received such warnings include nearly six dozen who held stocks of major energy companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp.”

More than 130 officials in the Energy Department collectively reported about 2,700 trades of shares, bonds and options in companies that ethics officers labeled as related to their agency’s work, according to the Journal’s analysis, which examined only disclosures by officials who filed annual reports in that period.”

This led Hawley to specifically ask Granholm if she owned individual stocks, to which she said no, that she was now invested in mutual funds.

Hawley also pointed out that Granholm had violated stock disclosure laws in 2022, to which she explained that she had “filed late” and the Energy Department at the time had called an “inadvertent clerical oversight.” Hawley went on to grill Granholm about the conflict of interest in letting Energy officials own stock in energy-related companies, while Granholm continued to insist that the disclosure laws worked.

Well, now there’s a problem.

Secretary Granholm lied to the committee about her family’s stock holdings. This comes after her failure to follow basic ethics and disclosure rules. This is a troubling pattern. It is unacceptable. https://t.co/F12JW8d7TQ

— Sen. John Barrasso (@SenJohnBarrasso) June 9, 2023

Yes, on Friday evening in a typical news dump, Jennifer Granholm quietly sent a letter to Congress saying “oops I did it again, LOL totally sorry about that” while admitting that she had lied to Congress.

In a letter shared with E&E News and sent to the committee, she also revealed her spouse held a previously undisclosed investment in Ford Motor Co., an automotive brand that falls squarely in her jurisdiction.”

Granholm told the Energy and Natural Resources Committee at an April 20 budget hearing that she did not own any individual stocks, saying she was only invested in mutual funds. She also said she would “not object” to congressional legislation that would ban executive department officials from holding stocks.”

“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,” Granholm wrote in her letter.”

Granholm wrote that she had stocks in six companies that were deemed “non-conflicting” by agency ethics officials. She did not disclose what these companies were or how much these stocks were worth, but said they would be publicly disclosed on her annual public financial disclosure report available in mid-June.”

Granholm also said in the letter that her spouse previously owned stock in Ford, which has worked closely with the Biden administration and DOE to build out electric vehicles and deploy new battery technologies. Granholm became aware of her spouse’s stock May 13, which was worth $2,457.89 when sold.”

“As I was not previously aware of the asset, I did not report my spouse’s financial interest on my two prior Public Financial Disclosure Reports, nor was it included in the other paperwork associated with my nomination. If it had been reported, the value would have been reported as “$1,001 – $15,000” and the income amount would have been reported as “None (or less than $201),” wrote Granholm.”

The Ford stock was sold May 15, and Granholm divested her holdings in the six companies May 18, she said.”

Granholm testified on April 20th. She claims that she only learned about her husband’s Ford stock on May 13th, and got that stock sold two days later, and got her own so-called “non-conflicting” individual stocks sold on May 18th, and then didn’t bother to notify Congress about it until June 9th on a Friday night. Perjury is a crime, but apparently if you’re a Democrat, you can say “whoops, my bad” and avoid any consequences, because ignorance of the facts makes lying under oath okay?

As one can guess, Hawley was not pleased.

It is time to BAN all senior executive branch officials and all members of Congress from owning & trading stock

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 9, 2023

And yes, I think most everyone would be on board with passing a law (like Hawley’s PELOSI Act) to ban members of Congress or administration members from owning individual stocks. But that isn’t the problem at the moment. Granholm simply sent her letter and expects to walk away scot-free from LYING UNDER OATH during her testimony. Last I checked, that’s not how it works for the average citizen. And Hawley isn’t even referencing perjury charges in his comments either!

Look, we all realize that there is a two-tier system of justice in this country, and those with power are able to walk away from their “oopsies” while the average citizens cannot. Granholm knows this, which is why she felt perfectly fine confessing, in writing, to perjury weeks after the fact. Because love power means never having to say you’re sorry, and knowing that nothing bad is going to happen because you broke the law, because it was a “mistake.”

The (D)eep State protects its own, and can literally get away with lying under oath. There need to be some real consequences beyond angry tweets or a verbal scolding the next time Granholm shows up to Congress. And the public needs to actually care about it and start yelling in the ears of their elected officials – or we really are in a banana republic.

Featured image: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, official portrait, public domain