House Democrats said Monday that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy agreed with their question that he was witnessing new week of controversial changes he made to the U.S. Postal Service amid a political fireworks display over post-in-vote and claims that President Donald Trump tried to “sabotage” the November elections.
It did not take long for Trump to criticize the hearing.
Members of the House of Commons for Supervision and Reform Rep. Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., said in a statement Monday that she was “pleased” that DeJoy had agreed to testify about “the sweeping operational and organizational changes he has made to the Postal Service.”
“I also look forward to receiving his production of documents and other information by this Friday in response to the detailed request I made last week with Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Speaker Lofgren, and First Chamber Members Peters and Klobuchar,” the statement said. due to. “The American people want their mail, medicine, and post-in ballot papers delivered on time, and they certainly do not want drastic changes and delays in the midst of a global pandemic just months before the election.”
DeJoy had previously been scheduled to testify on Sept. 17, which he indicated was his first availability according to the commission, but several Democrats asked that Maloney be allowed to turn the hearing upside down in mounting messages about voting for mail-in votes.
In letters sent Sunday, Maloney DeJoy and Robert Duncan, the chairman of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors, called for documents to be requested on Friday 21 August and to testify on Monday 24 August. Both officials were asked on Monday to answer questions about whether they intended to voluntarily comply with the amended timeline.
Maloney confirmed in a House of Commons causal call on Monday that the Inspector General of the Postal Service is investigating DeJoy’s conflicts of interest and any personnel and policy changes he has implemented.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Said the House would vote on a bill aimed at reversing organizational and structural changes to the Postal Service made under DeJoy will likely take place on Saturday as early as 11 p.m.
Trump on Monday afternoon criticized the new heart date, noting in a tweet that it conflicts with the first day of the Republican National Convention. He called on Republicans to ‘GET TOUGH’.
The president described DeJoy, who was appointed by him in June, as someone who ‘wants to make the post office great again’. Asked earlier Monday if he had ever asked DeJoy to carry the post, Trump said “no” and he “would not do that.”
“I have encouraged everyone to speed up the post, not to delay the post. And I also want to have a post office that runs without losing billions and billions of dollars a year, as it has done for 50 years,” he said.
But a growing number of Democrats want the Trump postmaster investigating, they say, for potentially breaking the law.
Report Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y. and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., On Monday asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal case against DeJoy, accusing him of deliberately delaying the post to give Trump an advantage in the November election.
“There is overwhelming evidence that Postmaster General DeJoy and the board of directors have obstructed the passage of mail,” the two Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Wray.
Members of the Maryland congressional delegation in a press conference Monday afternoon outside a Baltimore post-processing facility accused Trump and DeJoy of “sabotaging” the postal service.
First Chamber Member Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Called on the First Chamber to re-examine and investigate the matter, saying he and other lawmakers represented there heard from constituencies that relied on the post office. due to the pandemic over delayed deliveries in recent weeks of medicines to controls for social security.
“President Trump has apparently already cast his vote by mail. … But apparently he wants to make it harder for other people’s votes to be delivered on time,” Van Hollen said. “Make no mistake, this is part of a deliberate attempt by the President of the United States to expose lies and misinformation.”
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md, called DeJoy’s action to increase the cost of voting by mail “a demand tax … trying to make it harder.”
“That is unconscious in a democracy,” he added.
And last Friday made rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., DN.J., a criminal reference to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, and asked him to implicate a grand jury to ‘investigate election laws by Donald Trump, Louis DeJoy, and other Trump- officials in their accelerating arson of the Post Office. “
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated his call for Senate Homeland Security chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., To hold a hearing with DeJoy in a press release Monday afternoon, after saying at a press conference in New York Sunday that DeJoy would have to be removed from his post if he refuses to appear.
“If Mr DeJoy refuses to appear, he should be stamped back to sender,” Schumer said Sunday. “He should not be allowed the postmaster general if after all this destruction he cannot answer to the American people what he is doing.”
Johnson has not yet publicly stated whether he intends to call DeJoy before the Senate First Security Committee.
Schumer was among several top Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who signed a 10-page letter to DeJoy who sent out last week asking that documents be produced by Friday.
“We urge you not to increase election office costs and direct all Post Office staff to continue prioritizing the delivery of ballot papers so that voters and election workers have enough time to request and send ballot papers,” he said. the letter.
Over the weekend, more than 100 protesters converted outside DeJoy’s home in North Carolina, protesting the cuts, delays and other changes to the Postal Service, according to the Associated Press.
Allison Pecorin, Dee Cardin and Ben Gittleson of ABC News contributed to this report.
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