Yesterday we learned that as CEO of a North Carolina logistics firm, Postmaster General Louis Dejoy pressured his workers into donating to Republicans and then reimbursed them with bonuses to cover the cost, a campaign finance felony violation that also apparently included lying to Congress about the exact scheme last month. It was DeJoy's skill at fundraising that got the attention of Trump, and of course he was appointed as the ultimate American logistics firm head as Postmaster General.
Not only is the New York Times confirming the Washington Post's story from over the weekend, but we now find out that one of the major Republicans DeJoy was fundraising for was current NC GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, locked in his own reelection battle with Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Trump and fund-raiser for the Republican Party, cultivated an environment at his former company that left employees feeling pressured to make donations to Republican candidates, and rewarded them with bonuses for doing so, according to former employees.
The arrangement was described by three former employees at New Breed Logistics, Mr. DeJoy’s former company, who said that workers would receive bonuses if they donated to candidates he supported, and that it was expected that managers would participate. A fourth employee confirmed that managers at the company were routinely solicited to make donations. The four former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional retaliation.
The former employees did not say how explicit Mr. DeJoy was about linking the campaign contributions he was encouraging to the extra compensation, but three of them said it was widely believed that the bonuses were meant to reimburse the political donations, an allegation first reported by The Washington Post. Federal campaign finance law bars straw-donor schemes, in which an individual reimburses someone else to donate to a political campaign in order to skirt contribution limits. But it is legal to encourage employees to make donations, as Mr. DeJoy routinely did.
A review of campaign finance records shows that over a dozen management-level employees at New Breed would routinely donate to the same candidate on the same day, often writing checks for an identical amount of money. One day in October 2014, for example, 20 midlevel and senior officials at the company donated a total of $37,600 to the campaign of Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, who was running to unseat a Democratic incumbent. Each official wrote a check for either $2,600, the maximum allowable donation, or $1,000.
Similar patterns of donations — including to the Republican National Committee and every Republican presidential nominee from President George W. Bush to Mitt Romney — stretch back to 2003, campaign finance records show. Mr. DeJoy’s wife, Dr. Aldona Wos, was the vice chairwoman of Mr. Bush’s North Carolina fund-raising team, and Mr. Bush later appointed her to serve as the ambassador to Estonia. Mr. DeJoy, a Republican megadonor, served as the chief executive of New Breed from 1983 to 2014, until the company was sold to XPO Logistics.
Monty Hagler, a spokesman for Mr. DeJoy, said in a lengthy statement provided to The New York Times that the former New Breed executive “consistently provided family members and employees with various volunteer opportunities to get involved in activities that a family member or employee might feel was important or enjoyable to that individual.”
So now not only does DeJoy have a huge problem on his hands, so does Sen. Tillis.
The other issue is now that there's clearly grounds for legal investigation, and the corrupt Barr Justice Department isn't going to lift a finger, it's up to North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein to take a look.
Any credible allegations of such actions merit investigation by the appropriate state and federal authorities. Beyond this, it would be inappropriate for me as Attorney General to comment on any specific matter at this time. 2/2— Josh Stein (@JoshStein_) September 6, 2020
So many Trump regime cronies need to be serving prison time for massive corruption, and that starts with getting rid of the people protecting them: Donald Trump, and Bill Barr.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment