The head of the U.S. Postal Service is under federal investigation over political fundraising made by employees who worked for him, his spokesman confirmed Thursday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The investigation aims to find out wrongdoings in political fundraising involving Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's former business, New Breed Logistics, a logistics and supply-chain services provider at which DeJoy served as the chief executive for about 30 years until the company was sold in 2014.
Dejoy's spokesman Mark Corallo confirmed in a statement the existence of an investigation carried out by the Department of Justice, but stressed that Postmaster General did nothing wrong.
"Mr. DeJoy has learned that the Department of Justice is investigating campaign contributions made by employees who worked for him when he was in the private sector. He has always been scrupulous in his adherence to the campaign contribution laws and has never knowingly violated them," Corallo said.
The Washington Post first reported Thursday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in recent weeks interviewed current and former employees of DeJoy and the business, asking questions about political contributions and company activities, adding prosecutors also issued a subpoena to DeJoy himself for information.
According to CNN, the FBI said they were "neither confirming nor denying the existence of investigations."
A former donor to former President Donald Trump and a GOP fundraiser, DeJoy was appointed last year to lead the Postal Service. His tenure at the Postal Service was problematic, marred by allegations including those that claimed he intentionally slowed down mail delivery during the 2020 presidential election.
DeJoy denied those accusations, saying he was merely pushing for reforms within the agency that were intended to improve mail efficiency.
The House Oversight Committee opened an investigation in September after allegations emerged that that DeJoy reimbursed company employees after they made campaign contributions to Republican politicians, a practice prohibited by federal election law.
"Mr. DeJoy fully cooperated with and answered the questions posed by Congress regarding these matters. The same is true of the Postal Service Inspector General's inquiry which after a thorough investigation gave Mr. DeJoy a clean bill of health on his disclosure and divestment issues. He expects nothing less in this latest matter and he intends to work with DOJ toward swiftly resolving it," Corallo said in the statement.
President Joe Biden in February nominated two Democrats and a left-leaning voting-right advocate to fill the three vacant seats on the Postal Service Board of Governors, giving Democrats the majority on the board that will enable them to oust DeJoy.