The new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s previous employer the $16 billion XPO Logistics has been dancing cheek-by-jowl with the United States Postal Service (USPS) for seven years. As one of the company’s top executives, DeJoy still holds a $30 million slice of the business — minimum. Does that sound like much of a conflict of interest?
Since 2013, XPO has received $286 million by contracting with the Post Office. DeJoy refused to divest the $30 million piece of the business he owned when Trump appointed him Postmaster, according to The New York Times.
The Postal Service has had around 100 contracts with the logistics company and its subsidiaries. That brought in $33.7 million to $45.2 million in other services such as streamlining transportation every year since 2014.
Then, the Post Office sharply ramped up its contracts with XPO and its subsidiaries to $14 million in just the past 10 weeks. In 2019, that figure was $3.4 million and $4.7 million in 2018.
DeJoy took office June 15, 2020 about 10 weeks ago, The Forbes magazine reported. Coincidence or not?
A spokesperson for XPO indicated that the growing USPS contract was put into action last December, well before Trump picked DeJoy as his new postmaster.
Chair of the House Oversight Committee Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) sent DeJoy a subpoena requesting USPS documents that touched upon the mail delays. It also requested all DeJoy communications with the Trump campaign, including his calendar and any company where he has a financial stake.
The subpoena gave DeJoy until September 16 to comply. He indicated that he would “fully comply” with it. The committee had given DeJoy a deadline to voluntarily comply with its request. When that passed, Maloney sent out the subpoena.
Spokesperson for the Postal Service David Partenheimer said that DeJoy was not involved in contracting:
‘The postmaster general correctly stated that he has ‘nothing to do with’ XPO’s contracts with the Postal Service. The contracting officers making contracting decisions about work with XPO are many levels below the C.E.O. on the organization chart. [DeJoy] prohibited by the government ethics rules from any involvement with XPO’s U.S.P.S. contracts.’
Not only did DeJoy retain his $30 to $75 million investment into XPO, he was the CEO of the businesses’ supply chain business until 2015. Then, he was on the board until 2018. Last year alone, DeJoy earned $1.86 million in rent money through a leasing agreement.
Trump found DeJoy when the man started ramping up his own donations to the Trump campaign. Once he was in office, he immediately began to slow down the mail service by removing rapid computerized mechanical sorters. He said that he was making USPS more efficient and saving money. Does that make any sense?
He has implemented a number of questionable rules that have left the largest trucks hauling mail cross-country taking off empty. Mail carriers have seen their overtime hours and that pay evaporate. Mail is ramping up and stressing out the mail carriers.
In the meantime, POTUS has been on a wild campaign to discredit voting by mail. He has said that that type of voting was “fraudulent” and “rigged,” but he quietly sent out information to his base encouraging them to vote by mail. Why? Republicans have traditionally done the best with mail-in votes.
The Congressional investigation has not been the only game in town. The USPS’s inspector general has been investigating DeJoy’s changes and his personal finances, especially regarding XPO.
DeJoy testified before Congress last week regarding his ethical obligations. He claimed to have complete met all federal ethics rules:
‘I have a significant investment in XPO Logistics, which I vetted before with the ethics department of the Postal Service, and I was given specific types of guidelines that I needed to adhere to. It’s a very, very small part of the Postal Service business I have nothing to do with.’
Parenheimer explained that the USPS’ payroll ran over four billion dollars each month. It also has spent over $12 billion contracting out services:
“XPO was not one of our top 50 contractors last year or this year.’
XPO released a statement on its website trying to downplay its relationship with the USPS, “industry analysts say that comprises only a sliver of the company’s overall business:”
‘If the U.S.P.S. scales down and performs less of its own service, it will benefit companies that deliver packages to people’s doors, not XPO.’
Twitter world went after the postmaster. Take a look at what some of them said:
NEW: Post office inspector general found 1.7% slowdown of election-related mail, including ballots, in April-June.
New report says “lack of management oversight and unclear guidance” could pose huge problems in November.https://t.co/8hFUSoAxsK
— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) September 3, 2020
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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