Postal service inspector general reviewing DeJoy’s policy changes and potential ethics conflicts
Agapi Doulaveris, a spokeswoman for the USPS watchdog, told CNN in an email, “We have initiated a body of work to address the concerns raised, but cannot comment on the details.”
“We have learned that the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General is investigating all aspects of our request,” Warren spokeswoman Saloni Sharma told CNN.
It’s unclear if the inspector general has launched a full-scale investigation into possible politicization at USPS by DeJoy, a Trump ally and Republican donor, or if it’s just reviewing the matter for Congress.
The inspector general has already requested documents as part of the ongoing review, Sharma told CNN. It is still unclear what specific documents they asked for, and who got the requests.
USPS’ main office did not respond to CNN’s outreach for comment.
Trump-DeJoy relationship scrutinized
The relationship between DeJoy and President Donald Trump has come under intense scrutiny, given Trump’s repeated attacks against mail-in voting and USPS’ key role in delivering ballots.
Democrats pounced on Trump’s comments. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats were pushing to include $25 billion for USPS in the next stimulus bill because that was what was requested by the bipartisan board of governors who run USPS and were appointed by Trump.
A White House spokesman told CNN that their meeting on August 3 was “congratulatory” to celebrate DeJoy’s confirmation by the USPS board of governors, which occurred in early May. DeJoy has been running the USPS since June 15.
“Unfortunately, this transformative initiative has had unintended consequences that impacted our overall service levels,” DeJoy wrote in a memo sent this week and obtained by CNN.
“However, recent changes are not the only contributing factors. Over the years we have grown undisciplined in our mail and package processing schedules, causing an increase in delayed mail between processing facilities and delivery units.”
Potential conflicts of interest
Earlier this week, CNN reported on newly obtained financial documents showing that DeJoy holds a large equity stake in his former company, XPO Logistics, totaling between $30 million and $75 million. XPO is a contractor for USPS and other US government agencies.
USPS officials signed off on DeJoy’s financial filings and told CNN that he is in compliance with federal ethics rules. But several outside experts who spoke to CNN said they were shocked that ethics officials approved this arrangement, which apparently allows DeJoy to keep his XPO holdings. One expert even said, “this is a classic case for investigation by an inspector general.”
DeJoy and USPS have said he fully complied with the regulations.
Raising further alarms, on the same day in June that DeJoy divested large amounts of Amazon shares, he purchased stock options giving him the right to buy new shares of Amazon at a price much lower than their current market price, according to the financial disclosures. The filings indicated that DeJoy’s stock options in Amazon were valued between $50,000 and $100,000.
“I take my ethical obligations seriously, and I have done what is necessary to ensure that I am and will remain in compliance with those obligations,” DeJoy said in a statement given to CNN.
CNN’s Jessica Dean contributed to this story.
