Democrats seek DeJoy probe

Washington — Several congressional Democrats criticized Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Sunday after a Washington Post report containing allegations that DeJoy and his aides urged employees at his former business to write checks and attend fundraisers on behalf of Republican candidates.

DeJoy then defrayed the cost of those political contributions by boosting employee bonuses, two other employees said, an arrangement that would be unlawful.

“It now appears that we have a US Postmaster who engaged in campaign money laundering when he was running his logistics company...” Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, tweeted. “POTUS here’s someone you should actually FIRE.”

“These are very serious allegations that must be investigated immediately, independent of Donald Trump’s Justice Department,” according to a statement from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. His statement suggested that the North Carolina attorney general handle the inquiry.

“The swamp in action: DeJoy pressures his employees to make political contributions, and allegedly illegally reimburses them,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted. “This report demands a full, independent investigation.”

DeJoy’s prolific political fundraising helped make him a power broker in Republican circles, and in May those connections helped loft him to the Postal Service leadership.

Since then, Democrats have said DeJoy is seeking to hobble the Postal Service to help further the president’s campaign against mail-in voting. With the USPS facing lawsuits over some of the cost-cutting initiatives DeJoy had instituted and their potential effect on mailing ballots, DeJoy said he was pausing some of them through the November election. As states have sought to expand the practice to accommodate coronavirus fears, Trump has attacked it and claimed without evidence that it will enable widespread fraud.