Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday sent a letter to President-elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, asking him to sell thousands of dollars worth of defense company stocks held by his wife. He argued that this was a contradiction. Interesting.
Warren said that Hegseth's wife, Jennifer Rausche, has worked with major defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell International, IBM, and Microsoft, as well as small and medium-sized contractors, Oracle, Google, and others. He said he discovered he held shares in large companies such as Thermo Fisher. Scientific, T-Mobile, Mastercard, Danaher Corp., and Pepsi.
In a letter obtained exclusively by The Hill, Warren said: Department of Defense policy Prohibits certain equity investments for appointed roles.
According to the Office of Government Ethics, the criteria for sale is if the amount exceeds $15,000.
Warren said Lasche owns $15,000 in one of the largest defense contractors and more than $15,000 in other companies, including Google, Oracle and T-Mobile, and owns Hegseth's home. said they should exit both investments.
“These holdings naturally raise suspicions that decisions are being made at least in part to protect household stock holdings rather than purely in the interest of the American people.” she wrote. “The risk of conflict is not theoretical; some of these contractors have settled claims that they overbilled the Department of Defense by millions of dollars.”
The Hill has reached out to Trump's transition team for comment.
Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News personality, is one of Trump's most controversial figures and is strongly opposed by Democrats, including Warren. But after Tuesday's Senate confirmation hearing, Hegseth appears to have the necessary Republican votes for confirmation, and a vote could take place next Wednesday or Thursday.
Hegseth has battled accusations of financial mismanagement at two veterans organizations he once led, sexual assault allegations in 2017 and accusations of heavy drinking while on duty. Hegseth denies all charges against him.
At Tuesday's hearing, Warren and other Democrats also accused her of inexperience, infidelity, and what they considered to be extreme views she has espoused in the past, including a ban on women serving in combat roles. did. Hegseth said Tuesday that the focus is not on banning women from combat, but on raising standards.
Mr. Hegseth this week pitched himself as a disinterested “change agent,” and Mr. Warren appears to be pushing him to meet that standard.
In Friday's letter, Warren said that if Hegseth is accepted to the Pentagon, he must promise not to work for a defense contractor for 10 years after leaving the Pentagon, and that he has good ethical standards. He pointed out that this is the ethical standard of outgoing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He said he supported it.
The senator added that this would be in line with “the same standards that Hegseth held to the generals he oversees” in his 2024 book, War with Warriors.
Warren also asked Hegseth to recuse himself from “certain issues” involving Fox News and other former employers, and to refrain from lobbying after leaving the Pentagon for four years.
The senator said, “Even as government relations remain fresh, the revolving door of former government leaders lobbying the agencies they once led is undermining the American people's trust in the federal government.'' It's a loss,” he wrote.
“I urge Americans to voluntarily engage in steps to mitigate conflicts of interest to ensure that they serve at the Department of Defense in the interest of the American people,” she added.
