New scrutiny on postmaster's campaign donations leads to calls for subpoenas, inquiry

Posted 2:40 p.m. Jun 21, 2021 — Updated 7:49 p.m. Jun 21, 2021

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — A long-time campaign watchdog called Monday for renewed investigations into U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy based on a pattern in political giving records that may suggest DeJoy repeatedly violated North Carolina law.

DeJoy, a wealthy Greensboro businessman and prolific Republican fundraiser who became postmaster general during President Donald Trump’s term, is already under investigation by the FBI over his campaign fundraising at the federal level.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that he has been subpoenaed in the inquiry, and a DeJoy spokesman confirmed the investigation, saying DeJoy had not knowingly violated any laws.

“He has always been scrupulous in his adherence to the campaign contribution laws and has never knowingly violated them,” spokesman Mark Coralla told The Post.

Coralla sent WRAL News the same statement Monday when asked about the state-level implications against DeJoy in North Carolina.

Bob Hall, whose sifting of campaign finance records helped bring down North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley more than a decade ago, said in a letter Monday that DeJoy’s state-level fundraising deserves renewed scrutiny as well. He said investigators should subpoena bank account and payroll records to determine whether DeJoy pressed employees at New Breed Logistics, where he was chief executive, to make campaign donations, then reimbursed them.

That would violate North Carolina laws and potentially be a felony. It's also in line with accusations former employees leveled at DeJoy last year in a September Washington Post story.

Hall is semi-retired, and Common Cause North Carolina, a left-leaning good government group, sent his 20-page memo highlighting suspicious donations to the State Board of Elections Monday. The memo says dozens of employees at New Breed and the company that later bought New Breed, XPO Logistics, gave little or nothing to North Carolina campaigns until DeJoy and his family started writing large checks to Gov. Pat McCrory’s election campaigns in 2012.

“Fifty-four executives and three of their wives donated a total of $143,130,” Common Cause said in a summary distributed to reporters. “For 46 of the 54 employees, it was their first reportable contribution to a North Carolina candidate.”

“This pattern raises concerns about whether donations were made in the names of DeJoy family members and whether corporate funds were used to make them,” Hall wrote in his report.

For most of these employees, the interest in contributing money to North Carolina politicians dried up after McCrory’s final run for governor in 2016, Hall said.

“The 60 New Breed/XPO employees who put $209,155 into Pat McCrory’s gubernatorial campaigns donated only $1,850 in state politics during the four years after 2016,” he wrote. “Remarkably, 55 of the 60 employees … gave no reportable NC donation after 2016.”

In addition to forwarding Hall's report to the State Board of Elections, Common Cause said Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman should reopen an inquiry into DeJoy’s giving. Freeman said in April that her review of campaign finance records “did not disclose sufficient information to warrant a criminal investigation.”

Freeman's office started that review last year, after the September Washington Post report quoting five of DeJoy’s former employees who said they were urged to make donations. Two sources said DeJoy would then have bonus payments made to defray the cost of contributions.

Common Cause called for an investigation at the time, and Monday's report supplements that initial complaint, the group said.

Donating in someone else’s name is a crime, both at the state and the federal level, and Hall included a 12-page spreadsheet in his report highlighting 350 donations from DeJoy, his family members or former employees.

At a certain threshold, it’s a felony under North Carolina law and not subject to the same statute of limitations as federal violations, Common Cause said Monday.

Hall said in his report that Freeman’s decision not to move forward appears “superficial and misguided.” Freeman said she had not seen Hall's report early Monday, but that her office's position has been that "the real pattern that has given rise to concern appears to be in federal campaign races."

"And as such, it has been our position that it is a matter most effectively investigated by federal authorities," she said.

“In a nutshell, the pattern of campaign contributions from Louis DeJoy and New Breed employees to the gubernatorial campaigns of Pat McCrory follows the same pattern of other company owners who have been found guilty in North Carolina of funneling money,” Hall said in his report.

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