How in the world did an unredacted SF86 get leaked to the Congressional Leadership Fund by the Postal Service? My nasty suspicious mind wants to know if there are any reasons besides “human error” that the USPS cooperated with America Rising’s FOIA request.
In a statement, America Rising CEO Joe Pounder said that the organization "never published [Spanberger's] personal information and has no interest in it." He said America Rising is "glad to return the documents" for their redaction.
But he doesn’t deny having already given the extremely personal info to the super-PAC that Paul Ryan inherited from John Boehner (Laura Clawson wrote about Ryan’s Congressional Leadership Fund here). Nor does he say whether anyone asked the GOP oppo research firm to request it. And there’s no point in getting it redacted now that Ryan’s folks made it public – duh!
But the supposed “dealmaker” wants to strike at Jeff Bezos by investigating Amazon’s deal with the Postal Service. What if some high mucky-muck told the USPS, “Give us this info and we’ll postpone any investigations”?
And lo, just yesterday, it came to pass:
A Senate hearing about reforming the U.S. Postal Service that could have scrutinized what Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and others pay for package delivery has been delayed, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, moving back President Donald Trump’s effort to hike the world’s largest online retailer’s rates.
[…]The president ordered a task force in April to study the Postal Service, an independent establishment of the executive branch of the U.S. government, looking at its financial health and what it charges customers such as Amazon for package deliveries, in a report due Aug. 10.
However, the White House has decided it will not yet release the report, forcing the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to postpone a hearing on postal reform that was planned for Sept. 5, the sources said. One said the hearing was postponed “indefinitely.”
And what if that high mucky-muck turns out to be Cult 45?
The task force briefed the president on its preliminary findings and recommendations earlier this month, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department, which is in charge of the task force, told Reuters.
After all, isn’t this how *deals* get made?
“I scratch your back and you scratch mine. Except I get something tangible and you get a temporary reprieve from my pettiness.”
Updated to add link to Laura Clawson’s “Republican super PAC unleashes a flood of lies and racism against Democratic House candidates.”