Postal chief and Trump donor Louis DeJoy has long leveraged connections, dollars

[Nevilledog]

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-08-30/postal-chief-dejoy-has-long-leveraged-connections-dollars

WASHINGTON — During its search for a new postmaster general, the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors was presented with 53 candidates screened by an outside company. Not on the list: Louis DeJoy, who ultimately got the job.

Instead, in what Democrats call a breach of protocol and blatant cronyism, DeJoy’s name was added as a contender by the board member leading the search, John Barger. He was acting on behalf of the board’s chairman, Robert “Mike” Duncan, a former Republican National Committee chairman who knew DeJoy and his wife through work on a White House advisory group. DeJoy, Barger and Duncan were prominent donors to President Trump and other Republicans.

How exactly DeJoy was hired is among the questions Congress is trying to unravel as lawmakers scrutinize a series of operational changes at the Postal Service that have resulted in widespread mail delays and fears that the agency will not be able to handle an expected surge in mail-in ballots this fall as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Democrats say they also want to learn more about the role of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who met with Duncan and other Republicans on the agency’s board while the selection of the new postmaster general was underway.

*snip*

[2naSalit]

1. He wants to be an American oligarch. ...nt

[crickets]

2. During the House hearings, a Dem asked Duncan about DeJoy's hiring.

Sorry I can't recall who asked the question, but the gist was that the USPS spent a chunk of change getting an outside agency to help them find the right candidate. The potentials were whittled down from over 200 to a group of 14 and then DeJoy's name was put in the pot. Questioner got Duncan to admit that he was the one responsible.

From reading the article, it seems the DeJoys have a history of throwing money around to get what they want, and stepping on the heads of as many people as possible once they've gotten it.

Also, Steve Mnuchin's role in this hasn't gotten nearly the amount of attention it deserves.

David C. Williams, a former Postal Service inspector general who said he resigned as vice chairman of the Board of Governors in April after it became clear DeJoy would be hired, said Mnuchin was using a multibillion-dollar line of credit with the Postal Service as leverage to take effective control over labor agreements, prices and contracts with Amazon and other large shippers.

“The Treasury was using that responsibility to make demands that I believed would turn the Postal Service into a political tool, ending its long history as an apolitical public infrastructure,″ Williams told the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a forum last week.