Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan and current Energy Secretary for Biden, was found to be in violation of the Hatch Act stemming from an interview back in October 2021 when she made use of her office to try and promote various Democratic candidates, as reported by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC).
This violation from Granholm was unveiled after one watchdog group, Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust (FACT), put in a request for the OSC to investigate a series of comments made by Granholm to media outlet Marie Clare on the 6th of October, 2021.
As part of an interview with the outlet, Granholm stated it was “good news … voting gave Democrats a bare majority (in Congress),” before quickly trying to clarify herself by stammering out that she was “using Democrats as a substitute for the policies that you believe in, the policies that you would like to see happen,” read a report from the Detroit Free Press.
The OSC came to agree that these statements from Granholm did in fact cross the line as they were “directed at the success of the Democratic Party.” Despite all of this, the special counsel investigating this chose not to move forward with any disciplinary action. Instead, the OSC issued a stern warning towards Granholm, writing that she had not been given “significant” training concerning the Hatch Act before issuing her statements. Granholm was officially sworn into her role as energy secretary near the end of February 2021, a period of over seven months before she ended up making these comments concerning Democratic candidates.
“Secretary Granholm has been advised that if in the future she engages in prohibited political activity while employed in a position covered by the Hatch Act, we will consider such activity to be a willful and knowing violation of the law,” the OSC letter officially sent to FACT on the 9th of June stated.
Passed in 1939, the Hatch Act stops employees of the federal government from any activities that engage in “activity directed at the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group – while the employee is on duty, in any federal room or building, while wearing a uniform or official insignia, or using any federally owned or leased vehicle.”
One spokesperson for the Department of Energy officially confirmed to Fox News Digital that Granholm was, in fact, issued a warning from the OSC.
“Secretary Granholm takes her ethics obligations seriously” stated the spokesperson, as reported by Fox News. “And, she remains laser focused on delivering President Biden’s equitable clean energy agenda which will help lower energy costs for American families and enhance our nation’s security.”