Stefani Reynolds/CNP via ZUMA Wire
The US Postal Service Board of Governors told Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday that she would have to wait to find out whether the body would release its members’ financial disclosure forms.
Warren demanded the documents at the outset of the week, just before embattled US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before the House Oversight Committee about operational changes he’s made to the postal service that have slowed mail and raised concerns among critics that he was deliberately handicapping the postal service as part of President Donald Trump’s attacks on vote by mail.
In a letter sent to the board Monday morning, Warren noted her staff had requested the financial disclosures so the public could evaluate whether board members have financial conflicts of interest that would help inform why they were standing behind DeJoy’s actions that have hampered mail delivery.
Warren’s staff was previously told that the board members’ financial disclosure forms were non-public. While that determination followed the letter of the law, it wasn’t “consistent with the public interest,” Warren wrote in her letter.
After a week of no response, on Friday a board official replied, writing her request had been received and was under review so as to “provide a substantive response in the near future.” The letter made no commitment to release anything.
“The American people should not have to worry that the Postal Service Board of Governors are swimming in conflicts of interest and as a result part of Trump megadonor DeJoy’s sabotage scheme,” Warren told Mother Jones on Friday after receiving the letter. “I look forward to seeing their response—and the entire Board’s full financial disclosures.”
