Patterico's Pontifications

9/6/2020

Former Employees: DeJoy Illegally Reimbursed Employees for Campaign Contributions

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:42 am



The Washington Post has this blockbuster story:

Louis DeJoy’s prolific campaign fundraising, which helped position him as a top Republican power broker in North Carolina and ultimately as head of the U.S. Postal Service, was bolstered for more than a decade by a practice that left many employees feeling pressured to make political contributions to GOP candidates — money DeJoy later reimbursed through bonuses, former employees say.

Five people who worked for DeJoy’s former business, New Breed Logistics, say they were urged by DeJoy’s aides or by the chief executive himself to write checks and attend fundraisers at his 15,000-square-foot gated mansion beside a Greensboro, N.C., country club. There, events for Republicans running for the White House and Congress routinely fetched $100,000 or more apiece.

Two other employees familiar with New Breed’s financial and payroll systems said DeJoy would instruct that bonus payments to staffers be boosted to help defray the cost of their contributions, an arrangement that would be unlawful.

Many people in Trump’s orbit turn out to be criminals, and it looks like DeJoy is no exception, because this isn’t just “unlawful” in some technical civil sense — it’s a federal (and state law) felony:

Although it can be permissible to encourage employees to make donations, reimbursing them for those contributions is a violation of North Carolina and federal election laws. Known as a straw-donor scheme, the practice allows donors to evade individual contribution limits and obscures the true source of money used to influence elections.

Such federal violations carry a five-year statute of limitations. There is no statute of limitations in North Carolina for felonies, including campaign finance violations.

Also a federal felony: lying to Congress.

Oh well, it’s just a story based on anonymous sources with nothing substantive to back it up. Fake News! Oh, um, except …

A Washington Post analysis of federal and state campaign finance records found a pattern of extensive donations by New Breed employees to Republican candidates, with the same amount often given by multiple people on the same day. Between 2000 and 2014, 124 individuals who worked for the company together gave more than $1 million to federal and state GOP candidates. Many had not previously made political donations, and have not made any since leaving the company, public records show. During the same period, nine employees gave a combined $700 to Democrats.

Those would be good people for investigators to talk to, wouldn’t they?

I’m sure Bill Barr’s DoJ will get right on this … as soon as he can find time in his busy schedule of lying about voter fraud.

In a normal administration, someone would immediately step down after a story like this, and hire a good criminal lawyer. But in the Trump administration, committing felonies just shows that you’re on the team.

Ah, well. The North Carolina Attorney General is a Democrat and not in Trump’s pocket. And Trump can’t pardon state law crimes.

To paraphrase Lenny Briscoe from “Law & Order”: Sweet dreams, pal. There’s no statute of limitations on murder North Carolina campaign violation laws.

Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 177

Filed under: Bach Cantatas,General,Music — Patterico @ 9:52 am



It is the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Bach cantata is “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” (I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ):

Today’s Gospel reading is Matthew 18:15-20:

Dealing With Sin in the Church

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ,
I beg You, hear my cries,
grant me mercy at this time,
do not let me despair;
the true faith, Lord, I mean
that You would give me,
to live for You,
to be of use to my neighbor,
to keep Your word faithfully.

. . . .

Grant, that from the bottom of my heart
I might forgive my enemies,
pardon me also at this time,
give me a new life;
may Your word always be my food,
to nourish my soul,
to protect me,
when misfortune approaches,
that might quickly turn me aside.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.


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