EXCLUSIVE: Louis DeJoy’s rise as GOP fundraiser was powered by contributions from company workers who were later reimbursed, former employees say

By @byaaroncdavis @AmyEGardner @jonswaine https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/louis-dejoy-campaign-contributions/2020/09/06/1187bc2c-e3fe-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html

Two 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.

“Louis was a national fundraiser for the Republican Party. He asked employees for money. We gave him the money, and then he reciprocated by giving us big bonuses,” said David Young, DeJoy’s longtime director of human resources.

After repeatedly being asked, a spokesman for DeJoy did not directly address the assertions that he reimbursed workers for making contributions, pointing to a statement in which he said DeJoy “believes that he has always followed campaign fundraising laws and regulations.”

Five former employees said DeJoy’s executive assistant, Heather Clarke, personally called senior staffers, checking on whether executives were coming to fundraisers and collecting checks for candidates. Clarke now works alongside DeJoy at the Postal Service as his chief of staff.

Clarke was among several nonexecutive employees who gave substantial political donations, public records show: She alone contributed $47,000 from 2002 to 2014.

Between 2000 and 2014, 124 New Breed employees together gave more than $1 million to federal and state GOP candidates, with the same amount often given by multiple people on the same day. During the same period, nine employees gave a combined $700 to Democrats.