Postmaster General Louis DeJoy (2nd R) arrives for a meeting with Senator Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, Senate Senator Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on August 5, 2020.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Most members of the board of directors of the U.S. Postal Service, who were responsible for selecting Louis DeJoy as postmaster general, have various ties to the Republican Party, as do staff and President Donald Trump.
According to a CNBC review of public documents and revelations, five of the six members of the council, including Chairman Robert Duncan, are connected to GOP and Trump circles through various campaigns, legal and financial connections.
The White House and the USPS did not return a request for comment after CNBC reported the details in this story.
The leadership of the Postal Service is under increasing control with just under three months until the general election between Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Email voting can be crucial for some voters to participate in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump himself suggested last week that he was hesitant to agree to another bill for coronavirus because of an increase in funding for the USPS. He said it could help Democrats in the November election with post-in-ballots.
DeJoy and Duncan are appointed to go to Capitol Hill to testify lawmakers. DeJoy will meet Friday with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. On Monday, he and Duncan will testify before the Democratic-led House oversight committee on the cost-cutting measures that could affect the election.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., And other leading Democrats on the Democratic side have called on the board to push back on DeJoy’s proposals and remove him if necessary.
DeJoy himself was a prolific fundraiser for Trump and the Republican Party before reaching the top USPS job in June. The board members were all appointed by Trump.
Robert Duncan
Duncan, who is often called Mike, is named as director of American Crossroads, a super PAC that Trump will support in the 2020 election. His position is placed on the PAC’s most recent annual report, which was submitted in March. The commission has spent $ 1.9 million on Trump this cycle, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The PAC’s top donor in 2020 is Steve Wynn, the former chief financial officer of the Republican National Committee and former CEO of Wynn Resorts. He resigned from both leadership positions in the wake of accusations of sexual harassment, something he has since vehemently denied.
Duncan, who was confirmed to the USPS board for his second term in December, will also be named director of the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that helps Republicans defend their majority in the U.S. Senate. The commission’s director’s applications have yet to be updated since August 2019. Both are being run by Steven Law, the former chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who Duncan called a “friend,” after his final confirmation.
Duncan and representatives of both committees did not return a request for comment.
John Barger
Then there’s John Barger, a managing director at NorthernCross Partners, a Los Angeles-based private tax firm. Barger also lists himself as a director on his LinkedIn page of NanoLumens, a company that develops LED displays and is headquartered in Georgia. The company received a $ 1 million to $ 2 million loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, which was implemented by Trump’s Small Business Administration.
The billions of dollars in loans under PPP were distributed as a stopgap for companies that need help due to financial stress from the coronavirus pandemic.
Barger started in 2018 as director of NanoLumens, says his page. He was confirmed to the USPS board last year. He also mentions himself as a director at WineDirect, which helps wine growers send their products to customers.
Barger did not respond to a request for comment, including a request for a list of companies NorthernCross has invested in. A marketing representative at NanoLumens also did not return a request for comment.
William Zollars
William Zollars was confirmed by the House of Representatives in June. He has extensive experience in the business community, including his two-decade tenure as executive for freight company YRC Worldwide. In May, Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at a virtual hearing to assist YRC, which the legislature said it wrestled with at the time, according to The New York Times.
In July, the Treasury announced that it intended to make a $ 700 million loan to YRC and that it had reached an agreement with the company. In exchange for the financial assistance, the treasury would “receive a 29.6% stake in the company.”
Zollars has also been on the board of Main Street Data, a company that assists those in the agricultural business. That company received a PPP loan of $ 150,000 to $ 350,000, according to the public loan list. Zollars is named as director of the company on a December submission to a Securities and Exchange Commission.
Zollars could not be reached for comment.
Donald Moak
Donald Moak was confirmed to join the USPS board in June. He is a co-founder of the Moak Group, a company for public affairs and consulting firm.
A few years before Moak joined the USPS board, his firm turned him into a legal adviser who would join the Trump White House: Stefan Passantino. Passantino, a White House deputy attorney who focused on violations of ethics by policing by Trump officials, began in the White House in January 201 and left the administration in 2018.
The Moak group paid Passantino for what was described in its White House disclosure report as “legal services.” Moak Group is among a list of nearly 70 clients who have paid Passantino more than $ 5,000 in legal fees.
Moak declined to comment, including how Passantino helped the company. Passantino declined to comment.
Roman Martinez
Roman Martinez was confirmed to the USPS board last year.
In addition to his previous work on boards of various nonprofits, Martinez had a more underreported role two years ago, as a representative for a Florida estate owned by Damon Mezzacappa, a wealthy investment banker. Before his death, Mezzacappa, a former vice president of Lazard, contributed to both political parties, but his largest controls, for $ 15,000, went to the Republican National Committee in the late 1990s, according to CRP. The estate is located about a five minute drive from the exclusive club of the President, Mar-a-Lago.
After Mezzacappa died, the house was sold for $ 41 million after the collapse to Thompson Dean, a managing partner at investment firm Avista Capital Partners. Since 2008, Dean has donated more than $ 330,000 to Republican causes in 2015, including more than $ 66,000 to the RNC in 2015 before Trump won the Republican nomination.
Martinez did not return a request for comment.
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