USPS

New Documents Detail Conflicts of Interest DeJoy Faced as Postmaster General

Though the Post Office says DeJoy followed the guidelines set by the agency’s ethics office, a government watchdog group says the documents raise questions about how the agency handles ethics challenges

FILE - Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the Postal Service on Capitol Hill, Aug. 24, 2020, in Washington.
Tom Williams/Pool via AP (File)

Louis DeJoy faced more than a dozen conflicts of interest when he began serving as Postmaster General because of his family's investments in a number of companies closely tied to the U.S. Postal Service, according to new documents that show he was initially allowed to merely recuse himself from matters involving those companies rather than divesting from them.

The documents were obtained by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) through a Freedom of Information Act request that was ultimately fulfilled by court order.

DeJoy, a Trump donor who took over the Postal Service in May 2020, began the formal recusal process for 12 of the companies and his business XPO Logistics in July and JPMorgan Chase in August. Amid ethical concerns and criticism, DeJoy fully divesting himself of them under public pressure only in August 2020 — months after he took the top job

“There was a period of time where the head of the Postal Service was making decisions when there could have been a conflict, and he could have been thinking about his own financial interest, rather than the interest of the Postal Service and the country,” said Noah Bookbinder, the president of CREW. “That’s significant.”

The U.S. Postal Service maintains he acted in compliance with ethics regulations.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

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