Published on
Thursday, August 20, 2020
byCommon Dreams
"It's a Cover-Up": White House Accused of Hiding Mnuchin Role in Recruiting
Postmaster General DeJoy
Documents obtained by a watchdog group reveal that Treasury Secretary Steve
Mnuchin met with the Postal Service Board of Governors in February "to
discuss the search for a new postmaster general."
byJake Johnson, staff writer
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin answers questions at a White House press
briefing. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday accused the Trump White
House of covering up the role Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin played in
recruiting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor with no
prior experience working for the U.S. Postal Service.
"If it looks like a cover-up, sounds like a cover-up, and smells like a
cover-up, it's a cover-up."
-Rep. Jackie Speier
In a letter to Robert Duncan, chairman of the USPS Board of Governors,
Schumer wrote that as part of his investigation into DeJoy's selection and
unanimous appointment in May, his office "learned of the role Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin had with the Postal Board of Governors, including
through meetings with individual governors as well as phone calls with
groups of governors, which has not been previously disclosed by the board."
"This administration has repeatedly pointed to the role of [executive search
firm] Russell Reynolds to defend the selection of a Republican mega-donor
with no prior postal experience as postmaster general while at the same time
blocking the ability of Congress to obtain briefings from the firm and
concealing the role of Secretary Mnuchin and the White House in its search
process," the New York Democrat wrote.
Schumer demanded that the Board of Governors-which is completely controlled
by Trump appointees-immediately release Russell Reynolds from any
nondisclosure agreement barring the firm from providing details about its
postmaster general search and provide a full "explanation of the role of
President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin in the search process for a new
postmaster and the selection of Mr. DeJoy."
Schumer's investigation into the process that resulted in DeJoy's
appointment began in June, when he demanded that the Board of Governors turn
over any communications with the White House related to the postmaster
general's selection. Shortly after taking charge of USPS on June 15, DeJoy
moved to impose operational changes that caused severe mail backlogs across
the nation. DeJoy this week vowed to suspend, but not reverse, the changes.
"In your July 2 response to me, the board asserted that much of the
information I requested was confidential and declined to provide it,"
Schumer wrote Wednesday. "As a result, my staff sought the cooperation of
Russell Reynolds with Congress... My office was informed by counsel for
Russell Reynolds that the board was not willing to waive its nondisclosure
agreement so that Congress could satisfy its oversight obligations."
In response to stonewalling by the Board of Governors and the Trump White
House, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) tweeted, "If it looks like a cover-up,
sounds like a cover-up, and smells like a cover-up, it's a cover-up."
On Wednesday, watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington (CREW) obtained documents confirming that Mnuchin was involved in
the Board of Governors' effort to find a replacement for former Postmaster
General Megan Brennan, a 34-year Postal Service veteran who retired in June.
As CREW's Donald Sherman and Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel wrote Wednesday, the
documents reveal that "Mnuchin met with the United States Postal Service
Board of Governors in February to discuss the search for a new postmaster
general as part of his larger campaign to exert influence over the USPS."
"It's clear that Mnuchin had a candidate for postmaster general in mind, who
was personally invested in USPS competitors," Sherman and Honl-Stuenkel
continued. "The Washington Post reports that Louis DeJoy, the eventual pick,
was recruited by Mnuchin."