In a new exclusive, The Washington Post reports that Trump's new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, rose in Republican fundraising circles by asking employees at New Breed, his private company, to make political donations, then reimbursing them later. This use of "straw donors" to evade campaign contribution limits is a felony—the same felony that Donald Trump supporter Dinesh D'Souza pled guilty to in 2014.
The Post reports that between 2000-2014, 124 New Breed employees contributed a sum of over $1 million to Republican candidates, though only $700 to Democratic ones. And the Post cites numerous of DeJoy’s employees to report that DeJoy would request those donations, then reimburse executives and employees who donated via bonuses.
Managers "received strongly worded admonitions" to give to DeJoy's fundraisers, and DeJoy's executive assistant "personally called senior staffers" to verify which were attending those fundraisers, says the Post.
The use of straw donors to evade campaign contribution limits is, to repeat, a felony. The federal statute of limitations may have expired: North Carolina, which has similar state laws on its books, has no statute of limitations for felonies.
DeJoy also appears to have come perilously close to lying to Congress about his actions. In a House hearing in August, DeJoy belligerently denied reimbursing executives for making political donations "to Trump's campaign," calling it "an outrageous claim." DeJoy sold New Breed to a larger company, XPO Logistics, in 2014, and retired in 2015: The Post appears to have no evidence employees were pushed to give to the 2015 Donald Trump campaign specifically.
The Post's reporting seems ironclad; there seems little question that DeJoy violated state and federal laws, extensively, to boost himself as high-profile Republican fundraiser in the years preceding his selection as a Republican National Committee deputy finance chair. While the odds that Trump Attorney General William Barr will allow the Department of Justice to investigate DeJoy's actions remain near-zero, DeJoy can be investigated and, if necessary, charged with felonies in North Carolina.
