Defense Secretary nominee James Mattis has agreed to resign from his board position at General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and divest all of his business holdings with the company if the Senate confirms him as the next leader of the Defense Department, Politico reported Saturday.
Jeremy Herb and Connor OBrien write Mattis, who received formal nomination last month from President-elect Donald Trump, will liquidate all his current shares and vested options as well as forfeit nonvested stock and option in General Dynamics within 90 days of his confirmation as part of an ethics agreement he signed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
Mattis joined the Falls Church, Virginia-based defense contractor’s board of directors in 2013 after he retired from the U.S. Marine Corps with the rank of general.
Herb and O’Brien reported Congress will have to approve an exemption to an existing law that mandates that a retired U.S. military official must wait seven years before assuming a top civilian post at DoD.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday to discuss Mattis’ nomination.