Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena on Wednesday requesting documents from U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy—including unredacted copies of his official government calendar—as a way to compel the head of the USPS, also a major GOP and Trump donor, to come clean about possible conflicts of interest or communications with the White House related to controversial changes made under his leadership at the Postal Service in recent months.
BREAKING: Chair @RepMaloney subpoenas PMG Louis #DeJoy for docs he is withholding from Congress on widespread #postalservice delays. pic.twitter.com/vtP6ar9T4q
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) September 2, 2020
Accusing DeJoy of "withholding from Congress" the key documents it has requested as part of its oversight authority, the committee had made clear repeatedly that it would issue a subpoena if non-compliance continued.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the Oversight chair, has said failing to produce the documents was unacceptable. As CNN reported Monday:
During DeJoy's testimony last week, the Committee on Oversight and Reform requested documents on the changes made to the postal service that caused widespread delays across the country by August 26. According to a statement from the committee, no documents were produced and two days after the deadline, DeJoy sent a letter to the committee that said, "I trust my August 24 testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Reform clarified any outstanding questions you had."
The committee's request include a lengthy schedule (pdf) of documents and information for DeJoy to hand over, including his "complete, unredacted calendar from June 15, 2020, to the present."
During a hearing before the Oversight Committee on Aug. 24, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) grilled Dejoy over possible DeJoy's meeting calendar—including whether it might contain records of any conflicts of interest—and the congresswoman remarked aloud about the possibility of a subpoena if the Postmaster General would not provide such information voluntarily:
Here's @AOC suggesting lawmakers subpoena Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over possible conflicts of interest. A subpoena was just issued by the House Oversight Committee. pic.twitter.com/Fjf0MOHvXv
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) September 2, 2020
On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez said on social media that DeJoy, given adequate and repeated warnings, had no reason to be surprised the subpoena was issued:
If the USPS is surprised we are issuing a subpoena, it’s because they weren’t listening.
I said directly in the hearing that if DeJoy didn’t quickly hand over documents, we should issue a subpoena.
They knew the consequences of stalling. Now, where's his unaltered calendar? https://t.co/raNrSytmz6
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 2, 2020
"They knew the consequences of stalling," she stated. "Now, where's his unaltered calendar?"
