John,

When major Trump donor Louis DeJoy was appointed Postmaster General in June, we raised the alarm about his history of donations to pro-Trump super PACs and the RNC, as well as his willingness to echo President Trump’s baseless attacks on voting by mail.

But we couldn’t have predicted just how dangerous DeJoy would be for the Postal Service—and for our democracy.

DeJoy’s attacks on mail service have led to delayed deliveries of essential medications and have raised serious concerns about millions of Americans’ ability to reliably vote by mail this fall. DeJoy is facing a backlash, including at Congressional oversight hearings led by both political parties, and has announced a pause on new initiatives, but he refuses to commit to reversing the damage he’s already done.

At CREW, we’re working to uncover more about DeJoy’s selection, his conflicts of interest, and his potential criminal violations. Here’s a roundup of what we’ve been up to lately:

DeJoy must quit or be removed. We don’t call for officials to resign or be removed lightly, but DeJoy’s actions threaten our democracy. He must be removed from his position, and his actions must be reversed.
We filed a criminal complaint last week about DeJoy’s efforts to undermine voting by mail, apparently for President Trump’s benefit. A provision of federal law (18 U.S.C § 595) bars anyone “employed in any administrative position by the United States” from using, in connection with any federally-funded activity, their “official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President.” DeJoy’s actions appear to have violated that provision, and the FBI should investigate.
We’re also using the Freedom of Information Act to investigate Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s role in the recruitment and selection of DeJoy, how the USPS has handled DeJoy’s potential conflicts of interest, and details of DeJoy’s attacks on voting by mail.
DeJoy also has significant financial interests in USPS competitors and contractors, worth at least $30 million. His failure to divest from two of those companies, and his reported participation in matters involving them, means he may have violated a criminal conflict of interest statute. We sent a letter to DeJoy, telling him he should divest immediately.
We’ve also launched an action calling on Congress to pass the Delivering for America Act, which would restore mail service and prevent DeJoy from implementing further changes. The House passed it over the weekend, but now your senators need to hear from you in support of this critical bill. Will you email your senators now and ask them to act to restore mail service?

This is a scandal with serious consequences—the president’s allies installed a donor and loyalist with significant financial conflicts to head a critical American institution, and he quickly set about dismantling it, potentially devastating our ability to have a safe and fair election. That is nothing less than an attack on our democracy, and we refuse to let it go unchallenged. Here at CREW, we’ll be working every day to ensure that DeJoy and Trump do not succeed in their attacks on our democracy.

Thank you,

Donald Sherman
Deputy Director, CREW

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