PMG Louis DeJoy under investigation by FBI

By Bill McAllister, Washington Correspondent

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is being investigated by the FBI over his Republican Party fundraising at his former North Carolina business, the Washington Post reported June 3, citing individuals “familiar with the matter” and a spokesman for DeJoy.

The Post said FBI agents recently interviewed current and former employees of DeJoy, questioning “political contributions and company activities.”

The newspaper previously has quoted some of his former workers as saying that DeJoy urged them to back some of the Republican candidates he was supporting and that they were later reimbursed by his company for their donations. 

Any such reimbursement by an employer would be a violation of both federal and North Carolina elections laws.

DeJoy ran New Breed Logistics, a Greensboro, N.C., logistics company, before joining the United States Postal Service in June 2020.

He was well known there as a major supporter of the Republican Party and Donald Trump before he was selected for the top postal job by the Postal Service’s board of governors. Six of the board’s nine members were appointed by Trump when he was president.

One of the individuals quoted in the Post story said prosecutors had issued a subpoena to DeJoy for information.

Mark Corallo, a DeJoy spokesman, was reported in the Post article to have confirmed the investigation in a statement but said DeJoy had not knowingly violated any laws.

“Mr. DeJoy has learned that the Department of Justice is investigating campaign contributions made by employees who worked for him when he was in the private sector,” Corallo said in the Post article. “He has always been scrupulous in his adherence to the campaign contribution laws and has never knowingly violated them.”

In his statement to the Post, Corallo noted that Congress previously had asked questions about the postmaster general’s fundraising.

 “Mr. DeJoy fully cooperated with and answered the questions posed by Congress regarding these matters,” he said.

“The same is true of the Postal Service Inspector General’s inquiry which after a thorough investigation gave Mr. DeJoy a clean bill of health on his disclosure and divestment issues,” Corallo said.

“He expects nothing less in this latest matter and he intends to work with DOJ toward swiftly resolving it.”

Following the Post’s stories last year, Common Cause of North Carolina filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections and North Carolina State Attorney General Josh Stein calling for a criminal investigation of DeJoy, citing his role as chief executive of New Breed Logistics from 2003 to 2014.

Common Cause said if DeJoy pressured his employees to make political contributions and later reimbursed those donors through bonuses, that would violate North Carolina state election laws. 

North Carolina state law also prohibits corporations from donating to campaigns, a provision that DeJoy could have violated by using his company’s funds to reimburse employees for making contributions.

While there is a five-year statute of limitations on federal campaign finance charges, there is no such statute of limitations in North Carolina, the group said.

A Postal Service spokesman had no comment on the matter.

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