DeJoy Gave $600,000 to GOP After Postmaster Job Opened Up

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Louis DeJoy boosted his giving to Republican political campaigns as the job of U.S. Postmaster General became available, a researcher told Congress.

DeJoy, who now holds the position, gave President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee more than $600,000 over eight weeks after the opening was announced, Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research, which investigates the influence of money on public policy, said in written testimony submitted to a panel of the House Oversight Committee in advance of a hearing Monday.

In the 2019-2020 cycle, DeJoy has given more than $1.5 million to GOP candidates and campaigns, the bulk of which has gone to aid Trump’s 2020 election strategy, Graves said. The sum includes nearly $80,000 to aid GOP Senate races since last December, when the former Postmaster General announced she would resign.

“This level of partisanship,” Graves said in written testimony, “undermines public trust in the Postal Service as an institution.”

Representative Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the panel, said the hearing would help fill out a portrait of DeJoy. “We have a crony at the helm of our nation’s Postal Service, a man rife with conflicts of interest and potential violations of law,” Connolly said.

DeJoy has been under criticism from Democrats for mail delays ahead of the November election. Because of the coronavirus pandemic the contest is expected to rely heavily on mail-in ballots, which Trump has characterized without evidence as vulnerable to fraud.

Representative Jody Hice, of Georgia, the committee’s top Republican, called the hearing “a kangaroo-court type of investigation.” DeJoy was vetted by postal officials and his holdings are undergoing further review by the Office of Government ethics, Hice said as Monday’s hearing got underway.

DeJoy in appearances before Congress has said the Postal Service will make it a top priority to handle election mail, and he has repeated that message.

“The Postal Service is fully ready, willing and committed to deliver the nation’s Election Mail timely and securely, deliver on this election,” DeJoy said in a Sept. 3 statement.