Elizabeth Warren requests Hegseth's wife divest from defense company stocks

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday sent a letter to Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, requesting that his wife divest the stocks she's invested in defense companies, claiming that it was a conflict of interest for the nominee.

Hegseth is poised for Senate confirmation as President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary sometime next week, after his hearing in front of the Senate Armed Forces Committee appeared to sway the necessary GOP holdouts. The vote to confirm Hegseth could come as soon as Wednesday.

Warren claimed in the letter shared with The Hill that Hegseth's wife Jennifer Rauchet holds shares in major defense corporations like Lockheed Martin, IBM, and Northrop Grumman Corp. She also has stocks in other major companies like Oracle, Google, Pepsi, and Mastercard, among others. 

The senator emphasized that the Department of Defense (DoD) bans some government employees from having certain stocks, and that that the threshold to divest the stocks is $15,000, which Rauchet has invested in major defense companies, and other companies like Google and Oracle. 

Although it's Rauchet that has the stocks, Warren said the whole household should divest from the companies over conflict of interest concerns.

“These holdings reasonably raise doubts about whether you may be making decisions at least in part to protect your household’s stock holdings, rather than purely in the interest of the American people,” Warren wrote. “The risk of a conflict is not theoretical; some of these contractors have settled allegations that they overbilled DoD to the tune of millions of dollars.” 

Warren also asked Hegseth to commit to not working for a defense contractor for 10 years after leaving the Pentagon if confirmed, stating that it is in line with current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and asked him to recuse himself from any "particular matters" with Fox News and other former employers.

"[The] rampant revolving door of former government leaders lobbying the agencies they once led, while their government relationships remain fresh, erodes Americans’ faith in the federal government," Warren concluded. “I urge you to voluntarily commit to steps to mitigate your conflicts of interest to assure the American people that you will serve at DoD in their interest."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.