The House Oversight Committee plans to issue a subpoena to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for documents Democrats claim have been withheld from the panel as it investigates mail delays ahead of the November election.
Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, issued a memo to members of the committee on Monday declaring her intent to issue a subpoena. The congresswoman also said she was sending a documents request to the Postal Service Board of Governors.
“This subpoena includes in one place many requests previously made by Members of the House and Senate in writing and directly to Mr. DeJoy during his in-person testimony,” Maloney wrote. “The subpoena clarifies a number of previous requests based on information obtained to date in order to ensure that it captures all documents within the requested categories, and it also makes clear as a legal matter that the production of these documents is mandatory.”
Less than two hours after Maloney announced that she had notified members, the committee’s top Republican, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, said the chairwoman issued an “overly broad” subpoena that gives Democrats a way to “promote a baseless conspiracy theory about the Postal Service.”
“Instead of allowing the Postal Service to do what it does best — deliver mail to hundreds of millions of Americans — it will now spend hundreds of hours responding to this partisan subpoena,” he added. “Instead of playing politics in an election year, Democrats should work in a bipartisan fashion to enact meaningful reforms to ensure the Postal Service works best for Americans.”
DeJoy defended the cost-cutting changes he has implemented at the cash-strapped Postal Service as he testified in front of the House and Senate earlier this month as Democrats pressed the former Republican National Committee finance official and Trump donor if he was motivated by politics.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of removing mail sorting equipment and mailboxes in an effort to squelch mail-in balloting ahead of the November election. Republicans have raised concerns that mass mail-in voting will lead to fraud.
Maloney noted that DeJoy sent her a letter on Friday, two days after the chairwoman’s deadline for documents had passed, that said he “trust[s]” his testimony “clarified any outstanding questions you had.” Maloney said DeJoy has not produced a single additional document since the House and Senate hearings were held.
