Tag: Louis DeJoy

Postal Service blocked lawmakers from key evidence on DeJoy’s selection, Schumer says

Washington Post logo

The Senate’s top Democrat says he has new evidence that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin intervened in the postmaster general appointment process.

The U.S. Postal Service blocked congressional lawmakers from interrogating the firm that helped select Louis DeJoy as the nation’s postmaster general, prompting a sharp rebuke from Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer, who called on the organization Wednesday to be more transparent as a federal investigation unfolds.

The spat over access has hindered lawmakers as they investigate DeJoy’s recent, controversial changes to mail delivery and, in the process, potentially concealed key details about the involvement of President Trump and his top aides in those decisions, Schumer (N.Y.) warned in a letter to the agency. The missive threatens to add to the already sky-high tensions between the administration and the Senate as DeJoy prepares to testify at a Senate hearing Friday, then a House hearing on Monday.

Schumer fired off his initial inquiry to the USPS in June, asking to learn more about the process that selected DeJoy, a former top Republican fundraiser, to lead the Postal Service. The postmaster general is a position filled by the USPS Board of Governors, which in this case relied on an executive search firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, to guide its thinking. Continue reading.

DeJoy donated big to GOP senators up for re-election. They’re still mum on the USPS

AlterNet logo

Recently appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a top donor to Donald Trump and until earlier this year the head fundraiser for the Republican National Convention, has given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican Senators up for re-election this November, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Salon.

FEC records also show that DeJoy regularly maxed out with tens of thousands of annual contributions to the official GOP committees dedicated to electing Republican lawmakers: the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

DeJoy’s political fundraising and donor records have come under scrutiny since his appointment to the head of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors. He caught fierce backlash last week from Democrats and Postal Service employees after reports broke that USPS warned 46 states that their mail ballots might not be delivered on time for the November election, potentially disenfranchising millions of voters. Continue reading.

DeJoy Earned Millions From Company With Financial Ties to Postal Service

New York Times logo

The postmaster general, under fire for his business ties and his cost-cutting measures, will testify before the House next week.

WASHINGTON — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has come under fire for his continuing financial ties to a company that does business with the Postal Service, received $1.2 million to $7 million in income last year from that firm, according to financial disclosure forms reviewed by The New York Times.

Mr. DeJoy continues to hold $25 million to $50 million in that company, XPO Logistics, where he served as the chief executive of the company’s supply chain business until 2015 and was a board member until 2018. Documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics show that Mr. DeJoy also received millions of dollars in rental payments from XPO through leasing agreements at buildings that he owns.

The revelations are likely to further fuel scrutiny of Mr. DeJoy, a major donor to President Trump who has made a series of cost-cutting moves and other changes at the Postal Service that Democrats warn are aimed at undermining the 2020 election. Mr. DeJoy agreed on Monday to testify before the House Oversight Committee next week, and Democrats are expected to press him on the justification behind his new policies and question his potential conflicts of interest. Continue reading.

Trump is sabotaging the mail — and it threatens to undermine the election

AlterNet logoDonald Trump has had a vendetta against the U.S. Postal Service throughout his time in office, but it only took center stage after he realized that the Postal Service would be an essential part of the elections because voting by mail is more important during the coronavirus pandemic. But while Trump’s efforts to destroy the Postal Service have only ramped up in the past couple months, destroying things is one of his areas of greatest competence, so there’s very real worry about voting by mail in November, and, as a result, about the elections as a whole.

“It seems like they’re just trying to turn customers away from the post office,” the president of the Cincinnati American Postal Workers Union local told The New York Times. A West Virginia American Postal Workers Union (APWU) local president had a related view, saying: “It’s like they’re setting us up for failure.”

Trump installed Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor with no postal experience, as postmaster general, to do the damage, and DeJoy has moved quickly. Friday night, news broke that DeJoy had ”overhauled” top Postal Service leadership and consolidated power around himself. That followed DeJoy cutting overtime and changing policies to make it more likely that mail would be delivered late. Some routes have missed delivery altogether under DeJoy’s program of sabotage. Continue reading.