A former top official at the agency also alleged that the Trump administration was trying to politicize the agency.
Louis DeJoy, the Postal Service boss whose overhaul of the agency has raised alarms about the impact on mail-in balloting in November, was not among the candidates initially vetted for the position by a national search firm hired by USPS leaders, House investigators revealed Thursday.
The revelation comes as a former top official at the postal service alleged that President Donald Trump’s administration was trying to politicize the agency.
House Oversight Committee Democrats say DeJoy’s name was put forward by John Barger, a member of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors who also happens to be a Republican donor and managing director at a California-based private investment firm.
In a three-page letter to Barger, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Katie Porter (D-Calif.) cited “correspondence former USPS officials” that described Barger’s role in offering up DeJoy to become postmaster general, succeeding USPS veteran Megan Brennan in the role. Barger was the Board of Governors’ leader of the search process. The lawmakers said putting forward a candidate outside of the search process was a break from typical practice.
“The appointment of Mr. Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General was highly irregular and we are concerned that his candidacy may have been influenced by political motivations,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement.
Shortly after the public disclosure of the letter, David Williams, the former vice chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, alleged the Trump administration was trying to politicize the agency at a hearing convened by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“By statute, the Treasury was made responsible for providing the Postal Service with a line of credit,” Williams said. “The Treasury was using that responsibility to make demands that I believe would turn the Postal Service into a political tool, ending its long history as an apolitical public infrastructure.”
Williams said that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was leading the attempts to politicize the agency, and that he insisted that all Republican appointees “come to his office and kiss the ring and receive his blessing.” Williams alleged that Mnuchin wanted to confirm a wide swath of agreements within the USPS, as terms for receiving the line of credit.
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Louis DeJoy was not among the candidates initially vetted for the position of postmaster general by a national search firm hired by USPS leaders, House investigators revealed today https://t.co/z2EckjfguB pic.twitter.com/NMiPZ0gg0a
— POLITICO (@politico) August 20, 2020
No! Really? I never would have thought… LOL
Everything in this administration has been irregular. Maybe even illegal.
Of course https://t.co/9Z5Iwtdhpf
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 20, 2020
I guess my letter carrier didn’t get the memo. We were talking this morning about the problems with USPS and he had some choice words for DeJoy. The word “idiot” was the mildest.
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