The Senate’s top Democrat called for an independent legal investigation of President Trump’s postmaster general on campaign finance charges.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, was reacting to a report Sunday in The Washington Post that Louis DeJoy, who had been a prominent GOP fundraiser, used company funds to reimburse employees who donated to Republican candidates.
“These are very serious allegations that must be investigated immediately, independent of the Trump Justice Department,” Mr. Schumer wrote Sunday evening on Twitter.
“North Carolina’s Attorney General — an elected official who is independent of Donald Trump — is the right person to start this investigation,” he concluded.
Josh Stein, a former state senator, was elected to the post of North Carolina attorney general as a Democrat in 2016 and is running for re-election now. His jurisdiction would be based on the fact Mr. DeJoy’s Greensboro home hosted the fundraisers where the “straw donor” scheme was reportedly executed.
The Post report was based on claims made by five former employees of New Breed Logistics who said they were urged to make the contributions. Two other workers “familiar with New Breed’s financial and payroll systems” corroborated the compensation part of what would be a violation of federal campaign-finance law, the Post wrote.
Only one of the two payroll workers were named in the article; the other six people were unnamed.
Monty Hagler, a spokesman for Mr. DeJoy, said his boss was not aware of employees feeling pressured into GOP donations.
According to the Post, Mr. Hagler “did not directly address the assertions that DeJoy reimbursed workers for making contributions.” He referred the newspaper to a statement in which he said Mr. DeJoy “believes that he has always followed campaign fundraising laws and regulations.”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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