Mnuchin Politicized Post Office for Trump, Ex-Official Says
Mnuchin Politicized Postal Service for Trump, Ex-Official Says
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump sought to turn the U.S. Postal Service into a “political tool” that could be used to punish Amazon.com Inc., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin led the effort, a former member of the agency’s board of governors told lawmakers on Thursday.
David C. Williams, vice chairman of the board of governors until he stepped down in April, said it was clear that Trump “was determined that the Postal Service should inflict harm on Amazon delivery by sharply raising parcel shipping prices on everyone by 400% or more.”
Monica Crowley, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, released a letter on Twitter from Mnuchin to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in which the Treasury chief said that he wants the Postal Service to have a “strong and sustainable future.” The letter didn’t specifically address Williams’s accusations.
Trump has frequently complained that the post office is losing money on Amazon “last-mile”deliveries -- even though the post office has repeatedly said that it doesn’t make a loss on the agreement. Williams didn’t detail why he thought the administration viewed Amazon as a “political foe,” but the company’s chairman, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, which Trump has criticized for what he says is biased coverage of him.
Williams served as the Postal Service’s inspector general from 2003 to 2016. He made his comments in remarks prepared for an informal hearing organized by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of liberal House Democrats, and in testimony.
Hearings Loom
Thursday’s session preceded a Friday hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Postal Service operations at which Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor, will be questioned. DeJoy also is appearing before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
Williams was harshly critical of DeJoy, who has been on the job since June, for initiating cutbacks of post office operations, which since have been suspended amid pressure from Democrats and some Republicans.
“What makes him think he can make sweeping, destructive changes to a 250-year-old public infrastructure after five weeks?,” he said. “What could he possibly have learned? What could he know?”
The Trump administration has portrayed the reforms as part of an efficiency drive that began years before Trump took office.
Brian Morgenstern, a White House spokesman, accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats of “manufacturing a crisis.”
“The USPS has been losing billions of dollars for more than a decade and is projected to lose tens of billions more in the next decade,” Morgenstern said in a statement on Thursday night. “President Trump has established a Postal Reform task force to make recommendations for improving the financial future of the USPS. He has also encouraged the Post Office to raise its package delivery prices to ensure that the USPS will be more solvent in the future.”
‘Disturbing’ Slowdown
Williams was asked about Republican dismissals of the Postal Service’s problems as exaggerated. He said that service data showed a decline in deliveries that he characterized as “significantly off.”
“Even though there’s less mail, it’s moving more slowly -- much more slowly,” Williams said at the hearing. “It’s strange and disturbing.”
Democrats say Trump, running behind Democrat Joe Biden in polls, is trying to hobble the Postal Service before an election expected to feature widespread voting by mail. Trump denies that, while repeatedly claiming, without offering evidence, that voting by mail is prone to fraud.
Williams in testimony said he resigned “when it became clear to me that the administration was politicizing the Postal Service, with the Treasury Secretary as the lead figure for the White House in that effort.”
Mnuchin Role
He said that Mnuchin “insisted that all Republican appointees for the Board of Governors and Postal Regulatory Commission come to his office to kiss the ring and receive his blessing before confirmation.” Williams was appointed by Trump to fill a Democratic seat on the board.
Mnuchin “was keenly interested in labor agreements, postage pricing generally and especially the volume discounts being given to the Postal Services largest customers -- Amazon, UPS and FedEx,” Williams said. “The Postal Service replied to early demands from the secretary explaining that his demands were illegal, but the concerns were ignored.”
Mnuchin in the correspondence released Thursday cited a $14.4 billion federal debt owed by the Postal Service, and said that in his role of stewardship of taxpayer money he had asked it to assess whether its rates subsidized major private companies.
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