The letters and the law
It was already troubling to anyone who understands the vital role the U.S. Postal Service plays in our democracy and economy that Postmaster General Louis Dejoy appeared to be engaged in a concerted effort not to preserve and strengthen the institution but to undermine it for President Donald Trump’s political advantage.
Now we learn that the man running an agency that Americans trust to faithfully deliver their mail — from holiday cards to pharmaceuticals to election ballots — may have violated election law in fashioning himself as a Republican megadonor and power broker. And that if he did violate the law, he lied to Congress about it.
As reported by The Washington Post, the law Mr. Dejoy is said to have broken prohibits “straw donors” from being reimbursed for political contributions. While it’s fine for, say, a boss to encourage employees to donate to a political candidate, it is illegal to pay them back if they do. The intent of the law is to prevent the hiding of the true source of political contributions or to use the process to skirt limits on individual campaign contributions.
At least five people who worked for Mr. Dejoy’s former business, New Breed Logistics, say they were asked either directly by him or his aides to donate to campaigns and attend fundraisers for presidential and congressional candidates at his home. Two other employees said Mr. Dejoy directed bonus payments to those donors to cover the contributions.
“We gave him the money, and then he reciprocated by giving us big bonuses,” said Mr. Dejoy’s now-retired human resources director, according to the Post.
The Post found that at least 124 people who worked for Mr. Dejoy’s company gave more than $1 million to federal and state Republican candidates between 2003 and 2014. Mr. Dejoy himself has given more than $1.1 million to the joint committee for Mr. Trump and the Republican Party.
In testimony to Congress, Mr. Dejoy denied not only engaging in such activity, but giving any bonuses to executives who made political contributions, calling it “an outrageous claim.”
Something’s outrageous here, that’s clear, and Congress needs to get to the bottom of it by calling in executives of Mr. Dejoy’s company and taking a look at its payroll records. And it should do that right now. There is, after all, an election coming up. With a pandemic gripping the nation, millions of people will be trusting their mail-in ballots to the agency Mr. Dejoy runs. He has already been accused of taking steps to sabotage the mail in order to slow down delivery. On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington state agreed with a request from 14 states to block Mr. Dejoy’s actions, saying he and President Trump are “involved in a politically motivated attack” on the Postal Service that “created a substantial possibility that many voters will be disenfranchised.”
Mr. Dejoy has promised to “do everything in our power and structure to deliver the ballots on time.” The American people need to know just how good his word is.