Connecticut’s Attorney General, William Tong, got it exactly right when he remarked, “Donald Trump finally admitted what we all knew to be true—he is gutting the U.S. Postal Service in order to block Americans from voting during a raging pandemic.”
 
Attorneys general from more than 20 states are now suing DeJoy and the Trump administration to prohibit them from degrading mail delivery in the run-up to the election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling members back early from their summer recess to vote on legislation to block changes to Postal Service operations.
 
The Postal Board of Governors needs to make it clear that the USPS will not be complicit in Trump’s attempt to suppress voting, let alone undermine the legitimacy of the election. It needs to immediately fire Trump’s newly installed Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy.

Don't let DeJoy's recent statement about halting moves made in the name of efficiency until after the election fool you. According to multiple sources, including Speaker Pelosi, DeJoy has no intention of replacing sorting machines that have already been removed or disconnected.
 
It’s no secret the President Trump has it in for the U.S. Postal Service. Despite having the highest public rating of any federal government agency, Trump has called the USPS “a loser” since the beginning of his presidency. At the time his sycophants fed him baseless conspiracy theories claiming the reason he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton was because of widespread vote-by-mail fraud. Trump’s animus towards the postal service is further fueled by his contempt for Jeff Bezos. Trump believes Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is “getting rich” because Amazon is “ripping off” the Postal Service with “sweetheart deals” for package delivery.
 
So, it’s no surprise that Trump is using the postal service as a pawn in his relentless effort to sabotage the 2020 election. He said as much in his widely reported remarks that he’s holding up a stimulus package over Democrats’ demand for funding for the Postal Service, saying “If we don’t make the deal, that means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. It just can’t happen.” After signing the first coronavirus relief bill In April, Trump threatened to hold up future aid unless the Postal Service increased the rates it charges to Amazon, announcing, “If they don’t raise the price, I’m not signing anything.”
 
Now Trump has an agent for his mission to cripple the Postal Service: his hand-picked Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. In just two months DeJoy, a mega-donor to the Trump campaign and the GOP—with no experience within the agency—has intentionally and systematically degraded mail delivery times and quality of service.
 
DeJoy has reduced overtime, restricted extra mail delivery trips, reduced post offices hours and begun testing unproven policies at hundreds of post offices. He implemented a massive shake-up of postal executives, displacing two top executives who oversee daily operations and displacing or reassigning some 20 others. Analysts say the move consolidated power in the hands of DeJoy, diminishing decades of institutional knowledge. Perhaps the greatest concern is the removal of nearly 700 sorting machines from facilities around the country, accounting for about one-eighth of USPS capacity.
 
Thousands of complaints from constituents about significant delivery time delays are being received by elected officials everywhere, especially in battleground states. Incidents of undelivered mail accumulating in postal facilities are being reported by union officials and postal employees. Former deputy postmaster general, Ronald Stroman, who stepped down earlier this year, remarked, “making these changes this close to an election is a high-risk proposition.”
      
Postmaster General DeJoy is very possibly engaging in illegal activity. Title 18 USC §1701 of the federal criminal code states, "Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both." Under Title 18 USC §1703, pertaining to postal officials, the penalty for detaining or delaying any mail entrusted to them is imprisonment for up to five years. Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe notes the absence of any requirement that willfulness be charged or proved. The act itself is proof of guilt.
 
DeJoy’s intentional disruption of mail delivery is grounds enough for his removal. But consider also his egregious conflicts of interest and questionable financial dealings that have shocked ethics experts. DeJoy retains at least $30 million in XPO Logistics, a USPS contractor. Immediately after selling shares of Amazon in June (as it traded at all-time highs) he purchased stock options allowing him to profit from a decline in Amazon’s stock price. Trump declared in April that USPS should charge Amazon four to five times more for package delivery.
 
In order to protect the sanctity of our elections, and our constitutional right to exercise our vote, the Postal Board of Governors must step in immediately and fire Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. They also must deliver a clear and explicit message to President Trump: the Postal Service will not be party to your efforts to undermine the election and suppress the vote.