House Democrats Move to Suspend DeJoy
Five former employees of USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy now claim they were pressured by DeJoy and his aides to donate to Republican candidates by making large personal donations that would later be reimbursed as bonuses through his company, New Breed Logistics.
(US Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on August 24, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Photo by Tom Brenner-Pool/Getty Images.)
Two former employees confirmed that DeJoy would create bonuses for those who had done as he asked and donated, and those bonuses would not only cover the out of pocket donation costs, but any taxes or additional costs they would assume through the bonuses. Reimbursing campaign contributions to avoid a contribution cap or to deter anyone from knowing where the donation originated is illegal at both the state and federal levels.
David Young, DeJoy’s longtime former director of human resources, who had access to payroll records at his former company from the late 1990s to 2013, and is now retired, told The Washington Post: “Louis was a national fundraiser for the Republican Party. He asked employees for money. We gave him the money, and then he reciprocated by giving us big bonuses. When we got our bonuses, let’s just say they were bigger, they exceeded expectations — and that covered the tax and everything else.”
Last month, when DeJoy was asked by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), under oath, if he had engaged in any of the activity he is now accused of, DeJoy denied it (see clip below). The Attorney General of North Carolina has now called for an investigation into DeJoy and his campaign contribution practices saying, "It is against the law to directly or indirectly reimburse someone for a political contribution." North Carolina is where DeJoy’s business operated and the state has no statute of limitation for felonies.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) made a statement late Monday in which she said that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which she chairs, will now launch an investigation. Maloney also urged the board of governors of the US Postal Service to suspend DeJoy, saying “they never should have hired [him] in the first place,” and said he faces “criminal exposure” not only if the allegations are correct, “but also for lying to our committee under oath.”
Rep. Cooper also called for DeJoy’s resignation or removal by saying, “The Postmaster General has now been accused, on the record, of the precise crime I questioned him about two weeks ago. There is federal legal exposure, and the state of North Carolina should not hesitate to open its own investigation. Congress should also subpoena DeJoy’s former executives.”
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, has also called for the removal of DeJoy saying, "It now appears that we have a US Postmaster who engaged in campaign money laundering when he was running his logistics company that had and has a contract with USPS. POTUS here's someone you should actually FIRE."
As Congress and the state of North Carolina begin their respective investigations of DeJoy and his alleged illegal campaign contributions, it’s important to note all of the ways in which he may have broken the law and why a remedy at the federal level may not be so easily available. Attempting to bypass campaign contribution limits by having others officially recorded as the donors and thereby obscuring who the donations are actually coming from, is illegal and known as a “straw donor scheme.”
Companies can’t donate to political candidates as individuals do and before 2010, they couldn’t give money to politicians in any form, not even as political action committees. These allegations involve bonuses that were paid to avoid campaign limits from the year 2000 on, which would violate campaign finance law as it existed retroactively.
There could also be an issue with DeJoy soliciting or forcing employees to give these donations, but cases like this are often difficult to prove given the nature of the law, and several employees made a point to say they weren’t forced to comply.
Prosecuting DeJoy at the federal level poses several obstacles right now, the first being a lapsed statute of limitations. Federal campaign finance violations have a statute of limitations of five years and the donations in question seem to have stopped at least six years ago, according to Post reporting.
(Postmaster General Louis Dejoy arrives at a meeting at the office of Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at the U.S. Capitol August 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.)
The Federal Elections Commission, the agency that would be responsible for opening and prosecuting an investigation of this nature does not currently have have a quorum and therefore can’t move forward. (Trump has made a point to purposely not appoint new commissioners in order to keep the agency from being able to act on possible campaign violations.) The Department of Justice could open an investigation, but that is unlikely to happen given the timing and considering the partiality shown these last few years by William Barr.
The Postal Service hasn’t commented on Maloney’s statement, but a spokesperson for DeJoy, told CNN in a statement Monday that DeJoy "believes that all campaign fundraising laws and regulations should be complied with in all respects." It was added that DeJoy had "sought and received legal advice" from a former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission to ensure the company was complying with the law.
President Trump was also asked about the recent allegations surrounding DeJoy and he told reporters that he doesn't know much about the story. When asked if he'd support an investigation into the claims, he said, "sure…let the investigations go" adding that he thinks DeJoy is an honest man. If it's proven that he did something illegal, the president said he would support his removal.
This type of response from Trump is unusual in that he is typically defensive about his appointees and investigations into those who work for him. The recent backlash over his derogatory comments concerning veterans have obviously forced him to proceed cautiously in the face of yet another scandal. Considering DeJoy is a part of Trump’s strategy to disenfranchise voters through discouraging the vote-by-mail process, this latest nonchalance from Trump about the allegations against his Postmaster General signals a level of fatigue we have not seen before.
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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
Just another day in the tRump administration. Everybody is corrupt! If DeJoy is replaced I will be shocked and I mean real shocked! I just laugh everytime I think of how people bought his "drain the swamp" rhetoric! He filled it with the scumiest scum there is!
This is really the oldest trick in the book, and again shows this administration believe they are the law. Clearly, trump though fatigued, will throw “Dejoy Is Gone” under the bus as usual and then pardon him. I think it is like a millennial 7 Plagues, Climate Change, Covid 19, and trump has the other five covered big time. Thank you Amee, as always putting things in order. Maybe it is a sign that people really understanding the beauty of essential workers with more clarity and what 55cents gets you for a first class rate. Everyone with an address or Box number has hard copy access to the world. It is tragic that you can become numb to scandal after scandal. Apparently the plagues ended ok because we are still here, so hope springs eternal . Vote ! Thank you for wearing a mask!