Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) has joined a coalition of non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting ethics and integrity in government. They are calling for the immediate resignation of Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

The demand for Granholm’s resignation is based not just on repeated apparent violations of federal ethic laws and regulations, but also on the ethical failures and legal missteps of her subordinates because of Granholm’s poor example. The coalition sent a letter to Biden, which also includes Granholm, Jocelyn Richards, Assistant General Counsel for Ethics at DOE, Teri L. Donaldson, Inspector General at DOE, and Emory A. Rounds, III,  Director U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

Jennifer Granholm has a history of claims that she has ethical violations that have come forward during her time as Secretary of the Department of Energy. It began with her delayed divestiture from an electric bus company, Proterra, that recently declared bankruptcy. Proterra was promoted by the Biden administration, including Granholm, even though she held stock options because of her time on the board of the firm.

Granholm sold hundreds of thousands of shares in Proterra after she became Secretary of Energy.

Granholm confirmed she earned a $1.6 million profit on her shares of Proterra amid a firestorm over her financial ties to an electric vehicle company repeatedly promoted by the Biden administration. In selling off her shares, Granholm was able to defer paying capital gains taxes on the $1.6 million sale because cabinet officials are not penalized with the tax on assets they are required to sell as a condition of joining the administration. The Biden administration is seeking to raise the capital gains tax on America’s wealthiest families.

On May 11, Granholm filed an Office of Government Ethics divestiture certificate. She confirmed the sale Wednesday. The former Michigan governor reported selling more than 240,000 shares in the electric bus manufacturer to an unnamed buyer. She valued the stake at up to $5 million in a January financial disclosure.

Color me skeptical that Granholm would have sold the stock if the ethics of her stock share ownership was not questioned.

There are recent revelations about Granholm’s continued ownership of Ford stock while she appeared to publicly endorse the company. In June, she was accused of ethical violations due to ownership of Ford stock. In August she told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that she mistakenly testified in April that she “did not own any individual stocks,” though she meant to say she “did not own any conflicting stocks.” She told the panel that her husband owned shares in Ford Motor Company, for which there was a lack of prior disclosure.

Granholm acknowledged multiple STOCK Act violations. The Office of the Special Counsel found that Granholm violated the Hatch Act in an October 2021 interview.

Granholm’s remarks made in an interview to the magazine Marie Claire were political and promoted electoral success for the Democratic Party, according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an independent government agency.

“The good news is that that marching and that voting gave Democrats a bare majority, but a majority, in the House, in the Senate,” Granholm had said during the live interview on Instagram.

“And again, I am using Democrats as a substitute for the policies that you believe in, the policies that you would like to see happen,” she had added.

The Office of Special Counsel issued a warning to Granholm and determined that disciplinary action was not necessary. However, further violations could result in action.

A DOE spokesperson brushed off the accusations of transgressions by Granholm, according to PPT. Granholm has other priorities than ethical behavior, you know.

When confronted with these transgressions, a DOE spokesperson revealed the Department’s priorities lie elsewhere under Secretary Granholm’s leadership stating that “DOE and the Secretary remain focused on tackling the existing climate crisis and delivering an equitable clean energy future that will bring cheaper power, cleaner air and good-paying jobs for more Americans.” There is other evidence that Secretary Granholm’s apparently lax ethical standards seem to extend to her aides and top deputies at the Department. For  example, former Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Kelly Speakes-Backman resigned “following months of lawsuits and inquiries from Congress about her conflicts of interest,” as well as multiple complaints from nonpartisan watchdog groups about her relationship with her former employer and its member organizations.

Michael Chamberlain, Director of Protect the Public’s Trust issued a statement.

“The Biden Administration consistently promotes itself as the most ethical in history, but that hardly seems to be the case in Jennifer Granholm’s Department of Energy,” said Michael Chamberlain, Director of Protect the Public’s Trust. “Her tenure has been characterized by a continuing string of apparent ethics violations by herself and subordinates. Even worse, public statements seem to indicate that policy priorities take precedence over ethics requirements. Unfortunately, we see no other path for the Biden Administration to right this ship than for Jennifer Granholm to step down or be removed.”

Jennifer Granholm seems to not care at all about ethics violations or the appearance of violations. The American public deserves better leadership. I’m skeptical she will do the right thing and resign. With the corruption being exposed from the Biden crime family, there probably isn’t much hope that a member of Biden’s cabinet will acknowledge poor behavior and resign from her position.